How to Sort Clothes

Doing laundry correctly starts with sorting the clothing into appropriate groups. This will help you avoid color fading and shrinkage and will add to the overall longevity of your wardrobe.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• laundry
• laundry sorting hamper

Dividing up Your Laundry

1. Begin by gathering all your dirty clothing into one area. You want to do this in a room where you can make sure that once the clothes are sorted they won't end up in the wrong load of laundry and be ruined.

2. Start four piles. The first will be used for your dark color clothing such as jeans and clothing with black, red, blue, purple or any other dark hue as a primary color. The second pile will be for anything that requires bleaching such as your undergarments, white t-shirts, and socks. The third pile will be for your light colored pieces of clothing. Finally the forth pile will be for anything that requires special care such as hand washables.

3. Select items from your large pile and add them to the correct sort pile one at a time. If you aren't sure what pile the items should go in read the label.

4. Remove anything that might need to be pretreated for stains or repaired.

Tips & Warnings

• If the item is new, consider washing it in a load by itself the first time so that it doesn't fade on to other fabrics. This is especially important with reds as they tend to fade easier.
• Consider purchasing a laundry sorting hamper. You can find these in the housewares section of most department stores. They usually have three or four compartments so you can easily sort your clothing as you remove it. This will save you some time later.