Soaking and Washing clothes

I think the "other rules" are more of tradition, etc. But I am not really in charge of all these. I only help to dump those that can be dumped together in the washing machines. My Mum sorts the rest herself.

haha, this is a good one. well, i've heard that some households have rules on which hangers to use on which shirts!! well, I don't have many rules for mine apart from the common-sensical, whites in one load and coloured and blacks in another. however, recently, we seem to have come up with another category - reds and pinks. cos reds seem to be able to stain other coloureds! i can't believe there are designated bamboo sticks, that one makes me LOL.

I've learned washing clothes since the age of 12, from rinsing clothes to hand-washing. We are not that rich to hire someone to wash our clothes, so I was obliged to learn the method of hand-washing. Though we now have a washing machine, I still hand-wash those I think are delicate. Like underwears and other white clothes, that'll get ruined if I put them on washing machine. All I do is separte the colored ones to the white ones, put in white first then leave it for about an hour. After that, I rinse the washed clothes twice and spin or sun-dry it. I drain the washing machine and put in new water, for the colored ones. But I do make it a habit to check if some of my colored clothings fades, then maybe set them aside for a while..

My mom was the exact same way. And it drove me crazy. And I know that I can hear her telling me off from Heaven every time I do laundry, because I don't do things her way. I do the whites by themselves, and the darks by themselves, and the rest I wash together. I do, however do hubby's clothes separately only because he works for a chemical fertilizer company and that stuff reeks and makes everyone else's clothes smell like his.

Filipino ways of washing clothes like that specially the elders coz before we don't have any washing machine to used but the traditional way of hand washing. But now since the new technology arrives it is more easy and less time to wash.

I am not to particular.I live alone, so it it only my cloths. I wah the towels alone.Whites,darks.

Well, like you I separate colors as well as more fragile fabrics, but I stop there. Thankfully I don't have anyone behind me to scold me LOL I see the reasoning in some of those choices of your mom's but nowadays some don't apply. For example men used to have rougher and "dirtier" jobs. Their work clothes were much dirtier than anyone's regular clothes so in that case it made sense to separate that way. But nowadays not all men have that kind of jobs so it is not necessary to make the difference in the wash. Also people often changed the tops every day but used the bottoms for longer so they would get a bit dirtier. Also tops were usually from a more delicate fabric. Nowadays that difference does not make as much of a difference as it used to. SOme people wash underwear separately. I don't. In the wash everything gets clean there is no difference if it's underwear or not. But some people prefer to make the difference. I don't think there is right or wrong. I tend to mix light underwear with the white gym socks because I wash the with bleach so they come out nice and white, but this is not a rule. I think people should do what works for them and not follow other people's rules blindly. If the rule makes sense than sure, follow it. If it doesn't or doesn't apply in the specific case, then forget about it.

Your mother seems to be very particulate when it comes to washing clothes. Its very tedious and time consuming for me if I will follow all your mother's advices. I separate the colored from the white ones as well as the undies. But top to bottom depends on the colors. There are 3 females living in my house including this bunny. Since the beginning of this year, I started to bring all my clothes to the shop every week. I'm allergic to detergent and no matter how thick and long my rubber gloves was, I still get the dreaded rashes all over my hands. My rule: bring the dirty laundry to the shop every Saturday, LOL.

My mother also had rules regarding washing and soaking clothes. I also separate towels with other clothes, and sheets too. Depending on what type of fabric the items are I also separate those with cotton and other stuff. I don't know if its superstitious but if I didn't follow the way she did it I ended up with pink tops instead of white, fluff all over socks and so forth LOL I don't separate the tops and bottoms but if they are of different color and fabrick then yes. I also wash my underwear separate to everything else too LOL

I do separate the whites and colors and also wash the towels separate, but I never heard of separating the female and male clothes, what sense does that make .... I always try to use fabric softner so much nicer for the towels.

I've been doing my own laundry since I was 13 years old, and I've never followed any rules. I put it all in the washing machine, pour in a cup of the detergent, put the water on high & the temperature on warm, and I let the machine do its job. My mother taught me to seperate the lights from the darks, but I've always been too lazy to do it. Besides, the thought of touching the dirty clothes and rearranging them isn't appealing to me. So, four years of doing my own laundry, the colors of my clothes have never spread from the darks to the lights. I think the fear of color spreading probably has something to do with the water temperature (my mother always told me to put the temperature to 'warm,' not 'hot').