“Separate your lights from your darks.” Does this advice sound familiar? It’s become the cardinal rule of laundry, yet so few actually adhere to it. Worse, most of us don’t even realize that colour separation is only one method of sorting. When it comes to fabric preservation, splitting your loads by texture and weight is far more important.
Why Fabric Weight Matters in the Washer and Dryer
Heavy materials in the washer endanger your delicates. Denim and linens have a coarseness that can rip or wear your thin clothes down in the washing machine. While some agitation helps clean your fabrics, too much is problematic.
In particular, jeans pose a threat because of their buckles and zippers. While you can flip them inside out, the interior is threaded similarly and rubs harshly against your delicates too.
When drying your clothes, weight separation is still necessary. Light and heavy fabrics dry at different rates. By lumping everything together, some clothes will endure higher temperatures for longer than is necessary. If the agitation from coarse fabrics doesn’t get your delicates, the heat will!
Towels and Sheets
Besides weight, your linens need washing separately for two reasons:
- Length—sheets wrap around your other clothes, reducing the thoroughness of their cleaning;
- Heat—linens require hotter cycles to kill bacteria.
While tossing a towel or pillowcase into your wash here-and-there isn’t a big deal, it’s best to make a schedule just for your linens.