Way back when first married, I did bookkeeping in an appliance store. We had our very own Maytag Man present 5 days a week and he gave laundry lessons to all of us young or who were not given good practices at home. My mother was terrible at sorting.

He impressed on us the importance of washing and drying things of similar weights together (for adding least amount of wear to items and garments). Towels are not the same weight fabric as sheets and I've never loaded them together.

All towels for DHs bathroom are white. He will not use one more than once and puts them in the built in laundry room hamper damp from his shower. I wash and dry a load of his towels (hot water, hot dry) and washcloths every 5 or 6 days.

All towels for my own bath (we don't share one) are pastel. I hang them to dry overnight and will sometimes use the same towel a second time. I must be at my very cleanest stepping out of the shower - how dirty can hair shampooed 5 minutes earlier leave a towel.

Towels/washcloths - single load (hot)

Bed linens - single load (hot)

Underwear/socks - single load (hot)

Jeans - single load (warm)

T-shirts/polos - single load (warm)

Sleepwear - single load (warm)

Kitchen towels/cloth napkins - single load (hot, with bleach)

Slacks/trousers - single load (warm)

Sweaters - single load (cold)

Perfect.

You left out workout clothes - I usually wash them separately too. On cold, synthetic material.

My towels are mostly decades old. My mother, bless her soul, loved buying towels. When she passed away I inherited enough quality towels my supply may outlast me. 😄

They're all in really good condition, and I use each one for years until they're getting threadbare. Zero pilling, zero problems with the hottest wash my old machine can produce. (It is really hot.) I have heard perhaps the newer towels are more temperamental? I don't know and may never find out. 😄

Towels, sheets, socks, and undergarments all get washed in hot water and all together to make a full load. No problems of any kind. Some people worry about elastic and hot water. I don't. Never had anything break or get stretched out either. If it goes next to my body, it will get a hot water wash here. 🤷‍♀️

I usually throw workout clothes in with my sleepwear. :)

Skipping down to report I wash those things separately - mainly because towels and sheets each make up a full load, and I use the hottest settings for them, clothing is washed on warm, and usually a shorter cycle.

Towels that can be (chlorine) bleached go with the "whites" load which includes bath washcloths, kitchen dish towels/cloths, and socks.

Towels that shouldn't be bleached go with cargo shorts and briefs.

Never towels with sheets, the absorbancy/fabric weight is too dissimilar for accurate/proper moisture-sensor drying.

Shirts sometimes go with sheets for similar/equivalent fabric weight.

Jeans (when I wear them during the winter season) are separate due to dye bleeding and heavy weight for proper drying.

Except yardwork raggy stuff (jeans, shirts, socks, sweat rags/towels) all go together.

Absolutely nothing gets a tap-cold wash. Minimum for "sensitive" items is 85°F to 95°F, easy to directly control via my tankless water heater which can be set from 50°F to 140°F in 1°F increments.

I gund towels get tangled in my fitted sheets and come out damp. I wash just towels or I might do a towel/ underwear load.

“Never towels with sheets, the absorbancy/fabric weight is too dissimilar for accurate/proper moisture-sensor drying.”

Agree.

All our sheets are flat, white and pure cotton, as are all the towels. We don't have a drier. There is no issue washing them together.

I agree that we're conditioned to over-think 'sanitation'. Towels must be one of the cleanest things in anyone's wash -- unless people aren't getting clean before they dry. (Kids might just stand under the shower water or adults who only 'wash' with their hands, not wash cloths.)

I do towels together in warm/cold with as little Tide as possible and two rinses.Never 'softeners'. My towels are all white; 100% cotton. Permanent press for drying because my dryer's hot is baking hot.

Should I hang dry, then fluff up in a warm dryer? Should I try 'dryer balls'? I don't want to lose the nice softness!

Dark clothes get Woolite for Darks; same warm/cold. Permanent press dry with a dryer sheet.

@dadoes - you mix bath cloths and socks and kitchen towels in the same load?

Unless you are taking out a fresh towel every time you use one they are not the cleanest thing in the wash. Because of where and how they're used, and the fact that they are often damp, they harbour a lot of bacteria.

Why you probably aren't washing your towels often enough - BBC Future https://share.google/0zEo19JNq4ZutO82J

" Towels must be one of the cleanest things in anyone's wash -- unless people aren't getting clean before they dry. "

I wash them in hot water because of the oils from skin, not because of "dirt" or because they need to be sanitized.

I wash everything on hot temps. Since I have no sense of smell, I have to make sure that I'm getting everything super clean. I can't rely on my sense of smell to see if something is mildewed? Consequently, sometimes the towels go in with the clothes. Bedding is always separate, but just because it's such a large load 🤷🏼

"I wash them in hot water because of the oils from skin, not because of "dirt" or because they need to be sanitized."

Haven't you just used soap to wash the oils away in the shower???

This guy comes up in my fb feed (oh. alright, I confess, I follow him because his other videos are entertaining to me) I don’t take things as far as he does at the end but…

Laundry ick

" Haven't you just used soap to wash the oils away in the shower??? "

Hopefully not - a shower shouldn't strip all your oils away.....The only time that should happen is if you're using really hot water or really caustic soaps. Not to mention that most people use a soap and shampoo with some oils/moisturizers.

Chisue, uou can use bit of vinegar in your rinse cycle (add it to the sispenser where you would add fabric softener) and it will keep your towels soft. Also using too much laundry soap will cause towels to feel ’crispy’ so you might try backing off on the amount of detergent you use. Most repair people will tell you to never use what is recommended on the detergent package. I use about 1/4-1/2 cup of vinegar every 2•3 times I wash towels.

I do almost the exact same thing as Fun2behe…..

towels-separate load, hotwater

sheets-separate load, hot water

Darks (lightweight stuff) - cold and a separate load.

Light colors - warm and a separate load

Anything delicate, linen, new, special care that doesn’t fit the above gets it’s own attention and a special wash if needed.

DH’s heavy outdoor work pants & shirts and any of my gardening clothes - warm, washed together and separately from any of the above

Yes, I’m picky about what gets washed together. I do not wash everything in hot because that’s what soap is for, and modern laundry equipment and soap are both made to get clothing clean. Plus hot water is not great for all your items. I can and am successful getting almost any stain out before I wash an item.

I also use wool dryer balls; no fabric softener except the occasional half of an unscented fabric softener sheet in winter in some loads.

Omg. I’m way past social security age and this is the first time I’ve heard of washing towels by themselves.

I match colors - we have white towels and I wash them with white sheets and white/light colored underwear and white sox. (We have brown towels and fuschia towels in our guest bathrooms and I throw them in willy-nilly with similar colored things.)

Sure, the sheets/clothes get dry before the towels. So what? Just leave the towels in the dryer and throw the next load of wet things in there on top of them.

I’m a heathen, I guess.

No right or wrong. Just a matter of what works for each of us.👍🏻

I run three loads a week. Darks/colors/whites. I do what I can not to waste water. When there are only two of us and w/o sheets or towels the loads would be soooo skimpy seems wasteful.

Laundry is not my life so I do it minimally. Back to the OP's pilling quandary I would say after 45 years of laundry I've seen no proof of that. I say false worry.

I always wash towels separately, and kitchen towels separate from bath towels. I usually do a load of each 1x/week, sometimes two of the bath towels. Bedding separately, too, 1x/week.

" I do what I can not to waste water. "

You don't mention what kind of machine you have or its age but very many washing machines, including what I've owned for the last 25 years, automatically adjust the amount of water used in a load to match the size of the load, on an as needed basis. From less water for small loads to lots more for large loads and every point in-between. No setting is necessary, it just happens.

In a previous life I must have been a washer-woman as I really enjoy putting in and removing laundry from the machine and hanging it on the line. There is nothing like the smell of fresh clothes.

Here in the UK most of our machines are designed for cool washes and to use less water. Both the cost of water and electricity are very high and increasing in the UK.

Towels are washed as a 'load' as are sheets. Socks, sweaters etc go in a quick wash. I still have a nappy/diaper bucket from over 40 years ago for whites! And who can remember seeing a line of diapers/nappies out on the line?

A friend, VERY house-proud and given to much dusting, hoovering etc told me she only ever washes sheets once every SIX weeks. She claims she and husband don't sweat (must be related to Prince Andrew) and has obviously never heard of dust mites. I find that quite yukky.

I wash whites...sheets, towels, kitchen towels, white jeans, undies, sox (all 100% cotton) together in hot water with chlorine bleach. No problem with pilling, but cotton doesn't tend to pill.

I wash darks together in warm water. Most darks are clothing, so I dry for a few minutes in a hot dryer then shake and hang to dry on hangers.

I wash light colored clothing and non-white sheets together if not enough for separate loads. I dry in the dryer for a minute, hang the clothes to finish drying and let the rest of the load finish drying (any non clothing items). I treat my cotton/linen tablecloths the same as clothes and hang to dry; no ironing needed.

I bought a huge washer/dryer so I can wash and dry my king sized bedding, including duvets, without having to go to the laundromat.

Similar to Scorpion

Towels/washcloths - single load (hot)

Bed linens - single load (hot)

Underwear/socks - single load (hot)

Jeans and darks warm

Kitchen towels hot

lights warm

I've been using and washing towels for much of my 84 years. I can't prove it, but I bet that no one has gotten sick from improperly washed towels in that time. (floral's link)

We hang-dry towels in our bathroom to use several times before they are washed. I would be more oncerned with putting damp towels to molder in a bin! As for 'toilet contamination'... oh, please, don't you close the stool when it's not in use? (Our toilet is in a separate room anyway.)

Outside Playing -- Hah! I used to do a vinegar rinse, but I think my old washer started releasing the vinegar in the softener compartment *with* the Tide. You can guess how clean the wash got with the soap neutralized. (I need a new laundry set, but it's hard to find small washers.) I can try opening the door to add vinegar directly on Rinse Two. I know lingering soap will make towels harsh. Hmm...this may be what's wrong here.

It's not really about getting sick, but skin issues could arise from not quite clean towels - I've had breakouts from not quite clean linens before.

And I do all my towels together, including kitchen towels, so I want to feel comfortable with those coming in contact with food.

I can easily use a towel for a few weeks. I'm retired. I don't shower every day ... unless yard work is involved ... and I may wear the same set of hanging-around-in-the-house clothes for a few days being that hanging-around-in-the-house doesn't get them much dirty, and I'm typically shirtless when hanging-around-in-the-house during the summer. It's not unusual that I don't leave the house for several days or even an entire week. My shower routine is that I "dry" off with the wash cloth (and repeatedly wring it) so the towel gets minimal action. The shower stall walls and floor are squeegeed.

I don't wash a given load/type of clothes/laundry until I'm on the verge of out of clean items. Some types of loads take a month to accumulate. I have three sets of sheets, which I wash two sets when accumulated and the third is on the bed (and shirts that are accumulated may go with those sheets).

I made and then deleted a comment at this point in the thread. I decided it wasn't appropriate.

Of course . once Im sure the colors wont run I dont seperate whites and colors either

Nope. I wash towels,wash cloths and SOs socks in one load because they get bleached. I wash all our clothes and bedding in hot water. His colored clothes, then mine, then the "whites" which is the towels and wash cloths, no matter what color they are, then the sheets and pillowcases, then the comforter. In that order.

Today I tried letting the hot water wash get to 'Rinse 1'. I poured white vinegar into the 'softener' compartment. I could see the little line of soap disappear from the washer window. After 'Rinse 2' and high speed spin I could *feel* that the towels were soap-free. Into the dryer on Perm.Press heat (to avoid my dryer's Baking Hot 'Normal' heat).

40 minutes later, my towels look and feel very nice.

I can live with returning to the washer to add the vinegar. (Another reason I want my laundry near the kitchen, not near the bedrooms.)

I'm not crazy about using bleach. How do *you* get the yellow out of your older percale sheets and pillowcases ?

For those of you using or considering the use of vinegar in your washing machine, it might be a good idea to check the user manual. Some manufacturers advise against it - not for washing reasons but apparently because its acidity can damage parts of the washer. I don't know if the concern is hoses, the pump, seals, or whatever. If it's not mentioned, it may be a good idea to follow up with the manufacturer.

I don't use vinegar in my machine, nor do I use liquid fabric softeners.

My sheets are all a high thread county 100% cotton, as are my duvet covers. They're all probably 7-8 years old now (I know I bought them when we lived in our previous home), but yellowing is not an issue. Is that specific to percale?

Chisue, with my toploader I could easily use bluing in a separate process. I looked up using it with my frontloader and was sufficiently put off to pull the kids out of karate. Well, not that extreme, but I let their gis just be white instead of bright white.

For linens, a soak in in a bucket or dishpan of dissolved oxyclean works well.

bpath -- Here I was ready to use the tired old lemon that's sitting in the fridge, but I couldn't remember what *else* was supposed to go into a soak.

Make a gin and tonic!

Cheers!

Elmer, good point. I have also read that about vinegar. I rarely use it and then just for an occasional rinse through a load of towels followed by an ’extra rinse’ cycle. I think one should probably use it sparingly. I don’t even use bleach. Or liquid fabric softeners (just an occasional half dryer sheet for static cling now and then).

Chisue, I don’t think I’ve ever had yellowed sheets. I think hou might have to try a soak of some sort. My mother used to swear by a powdered dishwasher detergent & boiling hot water, and soak overnight to remove almost any stains. I only tried it once on some very old linens and it did work! Now it’s hard to find powdered detergents but it is out there. I believe there is or was some sort of bleaching agent in it, but maybe not now.

Oddly I just ran across this article today from Southern Living about doing laundry:

Link to So Living

FWIW, liquid/gel dishwasher detergent usually contains bleach - I've used it to create bleached designs by painting/stamping it on dark fabric.

I agree that a non-chlorine oxygen bleach is good for whitening fabrics. Sheets may have yellowed because they contain some polyester, which really holds stains and discoloration - and some bleaching agents may actually make it worse. If they're 100% cotton or linen, drying them in full sun can help whiten them.

If I have enough towels I'll do it separately, if not they go in with the clothes. Everything is washed cold unless I have a full load of whites,

I can't adjust the load size with the washer. I live in a rental, and the washer is a dependable top-load Speed Queen. So I regularly add a sheet or towels to my laundry to make a full load.

I took 2 bed pillows and a towel to the laundromat. They came out drenched, dripping wet even the machines have all been replaced less than 2 years ago. I was not impressed. But I hung them out on the line and they eventually dried enough that I could finish drying them indoors, just laying flat.

Carol brought up a great point about synthetics in sheets and maybe even towels, idk. For anyone who might have hard water, here is another reason:

‘Hard water may also be the problem. "Most people don't realize this, but musty odors on clothing, stiff towels, faded colors, dingy whites, and even stubborn yellow underarm spots can be caused by hard water!"

The calcium in hard water can impact the effectiveness of your detergent. Hard water can also give fabrics a dingy appearance and make them feel less soft. If you have hard water, look for a product like 9 Elements Laundry Detergent to combat the negative effects of hard water on your laundry.’

My towels and my sheets are all-cotton. I prefer 400-count percale for 'crisp 'over high-thread-count 'soft'. I use granular Tide that I can measure, to avoid using too much detergent. My front-loader is small (4-point-something cubic feet) and old. We don't have hard water. I'll risk the vinegar rinse.

Speaking of gin...what is "Gin and It", evidently a favorite of Twenties flappers in novels of the time?

Looks like the 'it' is sweet vermouth...

https://www.thespruceeats.com/gin-and-it-recipe-759299

Thanks, carolb. That's a hoot -- a Manhattan, but with gin?

An old joke about a "dry martini" (a martini is gin with a small amount of vermouth, a dry martini is gin with very little vermouth)......

A guy walks up to a bar and asks for an extra dry martini. The bartender asks "how dry?"

The guy says "pour the gin into a martini glass and then whisper the word "vermouth". "

or

"Pour the gin into the glass and then pass an unopened bottle of vermouth over the top of it"