It's the whole lint thing... In which order are loads washed in a wringer? Do you get dark lint on your whites? Does dark lint turn white in bleaching the whites in the last load? Do you get white lint on your darks if you do whites first?
Wringer washing: lights to darks? darks to lights?
- Thread starter peterh770
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Wringer, Twin-Tub, Wash Tub
It really doesn't matter what method, but if the same wash water is used for subsequent loads then whites/colourfast items go first (in hottest water), followed by darker items which usually required cooler water.
Normally whites and colours were the most dirty/stained or rather showed the soil more so required stronger cleaning. Darks OTHO shouldn't be washed in too warm water and or for too long to prevent fading.
Finally and yes, washing darks to lights will leave your whites covered in dark lint from the aforementioned loads. Bleaching (and one assumes you mean with chlorine bleach) would have limited effect I should think. Afterall it's the soils/muck/lint in the water polluting your wash. Far better to do what was most often done back in the day and make a fresh wash bath for any darks if the water had become so full of dirt it wouldn't support another load properly.
It really doesn't matter what method, but if the same wash water is used for subsequent loads then whites/colourfast items go first (in hottest water), followed by darker items which usually required cooler water.
Normally whites and colours were the most dirty/stained or rather showed the soil more so required stronger cleaning. Darks OTHO shouldn't be washed in too warm water and or for too long to prevent fading.
Finally and yes, washing darks to lights will leave your whites covered in dark lint from the aforementioned loads. Bleaching (and one assumes you mean with chlorine bleach) would have limited effect I should think. Afterall it's the soils/muck/lint in the water polluting your wash. Far better to do what was most often done back in the day and make a fresh wash bath for any darks if the water had become so full of dirt it wouldn't support another load properly.
laundromat
Well-known member
We always washed the colors first. That was because my Nana would bleach her whites and didn't want to fade the colors. She'd drain half the water out after the colors and delicates were done, then,she would boil about a ten gallon stew pot on her stove next to the sink and pour it in, mix more detergent (Fell's) then add the whites. She'd set her minute timer for fifteen minutes and go back and add the bleach. She's set the minute timer for 25 more minutes and wring them out. She then poured the residue water back in the pot and put it back on the stove to boil.Then, we'd rinse and starch the clothes. The pot would boil and she'd use that wash water to mop the floors.That whole house smelled like the pools at the Y.M.C.A.!Anytime I swim in a chlorinated pool, it brings those days back.She even had a wire clothes line out back and poles to push them up from the weight that would bring them down so far the clothes would scrape the ground.
Whites to darks is how I was taught.
On the farm with my grandmother this was the sequence:
Wash water 1 - full hot (water heater was set at 145) no chance you could put your hands in this at the beginning.
1. Sheets: 10 min.
add bleach
2. men's underwear: 10 min.
3. light towels: 10-15 min.
4. lighter dirty workclothes: 15-20 min.
Wash water 2 - medium hot
1. Dress shirts & women's underwear: 8-10 min.
2. Light dresses, blouses and slacks: 10 min.
3. Dark dresses, blouses and slacks: 5-8 min.
4. Dark towels and lightly soiled dark workclothes: 10 min.
5. Heavily soiled dark workclothes: 20 min.
And yes, a washday for a family of 8 did require 9 or 10 loads
An additional 1/4 to 1/3 cup of Tide was added to each load to keep the suds up.
Fresh water got a whole cup for a Maytag E2L. Water was hard there, probably 15-20 grains.
On the farm with my grandmother this was the sequence:
Wash water 1 - full hot (water heater was set at 145) no chance you could put your hands in this at the beginning.
1. Sheets: 10 min.
add bleach
2. men's underwear: 10 min.
3. light towels: 10-15 min.
4. lighter dirty workclothes: 15-20 min.
Wash water 2 - medium hot
1. Dress shirts & women's underwear: 8-10 min.
2. Light dresses, blouses and slacks: 10 min.
3. Dark dresses, blouses and slacks: 5-8 min.
4. Dark towels and lightly soiled dark workclothes: 10 min.
5. Heavily soiled dark workclothes: 20 min.
And yes, a washday for a family of 8 did require 9 or 10 loads
An additional 1/4 to 1/3 cup of Tide was added to each load to keep the suds up.
Fresh water got a whole cup for a Maytag E2L. Water was hard there, probably 15-20 grains.
suds14
Well-known member
I was taught always whites to dark. This is how I still wash today using the suds saver. My Grandma and mom would always soak the whites first then make fresh water and start with whites and work their way to the darks and the last load was rags.
David
David
iheartmaytag
Well-known member
Whites to darks
Your darks can have color fade that might transfer.
Grandma did her bleaching in the first rinse tub which was emptied after the whites. And yes, Grandma washed Whites, Colored, Jeans, rags. She too added soap (Home made lye) with each addition of clothes she also topped off the water.
Your darks can have color fade that might transfer.
Grandma did her bleaching in the first rinse tub which was emptied after the whites. And yes, Grandma washed Whites, Colored, Jeans, rags. She too added soap (Home made lye) with each addition of clothes she also topped off the water.
