You don't have to separate whites and colors for most everyday loads. Colored clothes that have been through the wash a few times rarely bleed, especially in cold water. Give whites their own load when you want hot water or bleach, and keep new darks, reds and denim away from them for the first few washes.
When I was growing up, my mother always told me to separate my white clothing from my colored clothing. I stopped when I went to college. I didn't want to pay to use the dorm laundry machine twice! My clothes turned out OK, which surprised me, and I started to wonder whether sorting matters at all.
Why people sort whites and colors
The habit comes from hot water. White cottons and linens used to be washed hot to keep them bright, and colors went in cool. Put the two in the same hot wash and loose dye from one red sock could turn a white shirt pink or grey.
The original advice about separating clothes came before modern washing machines. I guess my mother was used to washing clothes in a machine made in the 80s! I've never had an issue mixing my clothes in a modern machine. On a cold cycle it keeps dye in colored fabric and still gets everyday whites clean, and our HeySunday laundry sheets are made to work in cold water too.
When you can mix whites and colors
Mixing is fine when:
- You're washing in cold water.
- The colored clothes have been through the wash several times and have stopped bleeding.
- Nothing in the load needs bleach or a hot wash.
T-shirts, everyday tops, pajamas and kids' clothes that have all been washed many times usually go in together without trouble. Our laundry sorting system guide has a few quick ways to split the basket at home if you want one.
The paper towel test
To check whether something will bleed, wet a white paper towel and rub it on a hidden seam or the inside of a hem for a few seconds. Any color on the towel means that item gets washed on its own, or with similar colors, until the test comes up clean.
When to wash whites separately
Some loads are still worth sorting.
- New jeans, red tops and dark towels lose the most dye in their first few washes. Keep them away from whites and pale colors until they stop bleeding.
- Bleach takes color out of fabric, so a bleach load should be whites only.
- White cotton sheets, towels, socks and underwear can take hot water. Colors in that load are more likely to fade or bleed.
- That expensive white button-down for work, or a white dress, is safer in a whites-only load.
- Whites that have gone grey look brighter again after a few washes with other whites and no dark lint around.
Which colors can go together
| Load | Goes together | Keep out |
|---|---|---|
| Whites | White, cream and off-white | Darks, reds and anything new and colored |
| Lights | Pastels, light grey, beige and light blue that have been washed a few times | Darks, reds and new jeans |
| Darks | Black, navy, brown, charcoal, dark green, burgundy and older jeans | Whites and pale colors |
| Bright reds and pinks | Other reds and pinks, or darks once they stop bleeding | Whites and lights |
Sort by fabric and dirt too
A few other combinations are worth splitting up: delicate silk blouses with rough denim, heavy towels with lightweight t-shirts, or anything with metal hardware that could snag other clothes. Put delicates in a mesh bag or wash them on their own. Heavy towels take much longer to dry than t-shirts and shed lint onto them. We wash towels separately from clothes for that reason.
Keep gym clothes out of your regular laundry too. Trust me on this one! Muddy sports kit and sweaty gym clothes pass smells and dirt to everything else in the drum. Our guide on how to wash gym clothes covers how to deal with them.
Color catcher sheets
A color catcher sheet is a good backup when a mixed load has a newer colored item in it. It goes in the drum with the clothes and picks up loose dye from the wash water before it settles on other fabric.
Mixed loads save water and money
Every load you combine is one less run of the machine. That saves water and energy, and money too if you use a laundromat. Cold water saves more again, since most of the energy a washer uses goes into heating water. Our guide to hot or cold water for laundry lists the fabrics that do need warm water.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have to wash white clothes separately?
You only need to for bleach or hot-water loads. Dingy whites usually come from an overloaded drum, too little detergent or hard water. A few colored shirts in the wash are rarely the cause.
Can I wash whites with colors?
Yes, in cold water, once the colored clothes have stopped bleeding. If a white does pick up a tint, rewash it straight away with an oxygen bleach soak and keep it out of the dryer until the tint is gone. Heat makes the dye much harder to shift.
Can you dry whites and colors together?
Sort a dryer load by fabric weight, not color. Dye moves between clothes mainly in wash water, so once a load is washed and rinsed, sharing the dryer is very unlikely to cause bleeding. Heavy towels and jeans take longer to dry than light shirts.
What colors can you wash with brown clothes?
Dark brown goes with the darks, such as black, navy and charcoal, in cold water. Lighter browns like khaki and tan can join a lights load once they've been washed a few times and pass the paper towel test.
What colors can you wash with white?
Other whites, cream and off-white, plus pale colors that have been washed a few times. A white item with a colored print or trim, like a striped t-shirt, counts as a light rather than a white. Keep it out of a bleach load.
