This is my experience with one of the smaller FL. First of all I am anal so I sort by color, fabric type, water temperature,and whether or not the clothes can take fabric softener or not, and I do not mix light and dark weight objects so sheets and towels do not go together. This practice can make smaller loads but it was the same practice I followed when using a TL. My washer drains into the sink beside it and there is color transfer into the water in EVERY load except whites and some polyesters no matter what detergent is used, even if you cannot tell it in the clothes so this is the reason for my strict insistence on sorting by color. I never did this strict sorting until I had this set up and could then see the water on the way out of the machine. This also allows me to see how well the clothes are being rinsed. I have sheets but the color of the sets varies so they may be divided into two loads. I have towels all are dark colors but the colors are not the same, but I have enough of these to only wash one color every other week, so there is one load of towels. Polyester material doesn't seem to fade as much as cotton, but I don't have a lot of this so I may wash different colors of polyester together in warm water. Things come out OK. The majority of the clothes are cotton so must be separated. Cotton shirts that are light yellow/tan go together. shirts that are light blue and green go together. Dark browns and greens together. Black/dark blue together. Silk, spandex gets their own load in cool water. Items that cannot have fabric softener on them go together and if they are of different color ranges they must be washed separately. I have some white cotton items that contain spandex(pillow covers) these get done in a load with other white items that can only take warm. The rest of the white items go in a load together and may get a temp of 120F to 140F depending on soil load. I seem to have a ton of casual shirts that are made to fade which means they cannot be washed with lights. Most of these are in the blue/violet/black color range so these go into a load of darks including dark socks. Dish towels - I don't like washing them in FS so they go into a load by themselves, but I hold them over from week to week until there is enough to do(maybe one big load a month). No they don't smell..once they are dry odor is not a problem. I think all of this "sanitizing stuff" is silly, overblown and dangerous. If you need higher temp to clean soil then OK. I can see it if you have a person who is ill, or you work in a hospital, but other than that as soon as you remove it from the washer or dryer items are candidates for the germs that are all around us so the ones they went in with are the ones that jump back onto them on the way out. My machine senses the load size in the beginning of the cycle, and if the load is small it will reduce the wash, rinse and spin duration times, so washing small loads doesn't seem to be too much of a problem. For the most part I use the default regular timed cycle which maxes at 45 minutes so for small loads this time gets reduced. If items are very dirty I use an extended cycle but even this will reduce the time for small loads.

Here's how I solved my Duvet problem....I also put a sheet under my Duvet cover.............. I was finding it difficult when sleeping with the Duvet and the cover being used as a blanket , then, in the morning it was my bed cover....I'd be all wrapped up in it & it would get twisted as a blanket would.. I felt my bed was never completely made..How I solved this problem was...I bough & put on my Duvet, a White cover. Then I purchased 2 fancy Duvet covers , I like a change... I have the Duvet with the white cover tucked in at the foot of my bed...When I make my bed in the morning, I pull the Duvet up as you normally would..Then.., I just lay my fancy cover right over the top of the White one,,I also tuck that in at the foot of the bed. You would never know that the Duvet itself isn't stuffed into the fancy cover.. At night, I take the fancy one off & sleep with the white one that is permanently on the Duvet. That's the one the gets washed every so often.. You still can't get away from that lumpy look but I don't think its quite as bad when covered with the fancy one,,,..I guess there's no way of getting away from that completely.....It's a matter of getting used to.. Works for me......

Oh my everyone. Thank you for your help, olychick, Tibbrix, aktillery, sjhockeyfan, may_flowers, joaniepoanie, and everyone else! So I bought it. It's on. Not the best pic, and no big pillows, but goes good with my clearance target performance $20 king sheets:) I also told Target I had lost my rain check and they gave me 15% off without it, so I was happy. I had a rough day with some cautious good news, so I figured I deserved it too :) So here goes...

I bought a down blanket to use in the summer inside my duvet cover, or just on its own with a top sheet. I'm not crazy about linen, but if you are, perhaps choose either it or 100% cotton, or.... I saw these recently at Garnet Hill and they are part linen and part cotton; maybe a nice cool combo... Not sure what your budget is... Swedish Farmhouse duvet cover