View Full Version : Do you have separate baskets for clean and dirty clothes?
jgenie
This subject has come up twice this week in conversations so I'm wondering what's the norm here.
waitingforgrace
Nope. I use the same basket to take laundry down to wash and bring the clean load back up. Items that are really dirt (like painting clothes or lawn mowing clothes) immediately go to the laundry room so they aren't in a basket really until they're clean.
elliput
I had to vote other. Usually dirty clothes go directly into the sorter in the laundry room, and then are taken back to the closet in a basket. However, if there are dirty clothes laying around and I have a laundry basket handy I will use that to carry the clothes to the sorter. My general philosophy on this is that a basket is a basket.
crl
This sounds absurd, but I don't have baskets. I found over the years that dh takes over my laundry baskets as a way to "clean-up" aka pile junk in a basket instead of sorting it properly. Then the junk just lives in the laundry basket. So I just stopped having baskets. Each room has a dirty clothes hamper. I sort onto the floor and scoop the load up in my arms and carry it to the laundry room. Clean clothes get scooped out the dryer and dumped on the couch to be folded.
However, I absolutely would use the same hamper for dirty and clean clothes and never, ever even thought not to.
Catherine
BeachBum
We have different ones, but not because we don't want to mix dirty and clean. Our dirty hampers are much larger and deep. I do not move them to the laundry room.
The clean baskets are shallow bins. I mostly use them to sort the clean clothes while I am folding and then I put them on the beds for everyone to put away their own.
sewarsh
i voted yes, but not because i don't want my clean and dirty clothes to be in the same baskets, but because our laundry machines are on same floor as our bedrooms. i just drag everyone's hampers into the hall where i sort the clothes. after clean and folded they all get placed into separate laundry baskets, by person, to put away.
lizzywednesday
We have 2 systems.
1 system is my system - I've started using a large mesh laundry bag to carry my laundry downstairs, as I have a divided hamper so I pre-sort my laundry by wash-temp as it gets dirty.
For DD's cloth diapers, I've been using a laundry bag to line the pail. It's been working out OK, but I think I need a "real" pail liner as the bag is starting to lose its waterproofing.
For DH and DD's laundry, we just take the hamper downstairs. DH will sort from the hamper for his own things (also by wash-temp) while DD's stuff all gets washed together, unless I'm washing new things in dark colors, like I did this weekend.
We also use Color Catchers to keep colors from bleeding.
Baskets are used for transporting clean laundry to/from the laundry room only.
hellokitty
We use hampers for dirty clothes and laundry baskets for clean clothes. Mixing them up seems gross to me, but then we are also a shoe-free household, so maybe we are just extreme.
SnuggleBuggles
We have a laundry chute so must dirty clothes go right down there, not in a basket. But, I used to reuse without a thought!
Beth
ladysoapmaker
I voted reuse.
More often then not the laundry gets taken to the laundry room still in the hamper where is gets sorted but with 6 people there are the occasional overflows so I use a basket for those. The boys have been taking to putting the clean clothes into the baskets and hampers and taking them to the living room to sort and fold while watching tv. I figure if they wash, dry & fold, I'm not going to be too picky over how things are done as long as they remember to hang dry my bras.
Jen
eh613c
Nope. I use the same basket to take laundry down to wash and bring the clean load back up. Items that are really dirt (like painting clothes or lawn mowing clothes) immediately go to the laundry room so they aren't in a basket really until they're clean.
:yeahthat:
BabbyO
We use hampers for dirty clothes and laundry baskets for clean clothes.
We have this system...BUT I almost always carry a load of clean clothes up in the hampers on the way back up stairs...and often carry dirty clothes that don't fit in the hampers down in a stray laundry basket.
Mixing doesn't bother me. Really soiled clothes go directly into the laundry room.
wellyes
Same baskets. I actually thought "Oh lordy that's OCD" when I read the thread title LOL. ( I'm allowed to LOL since I am clinically OCD, just not on this particular topic :)).
The only hesitation for me is that our washing machine is in the basement, which is not the cleanest area of the house, and I don't like when the baskets are on the basement floor and then get put on furniture upstairs.
boolady
Right now, clean clothes never even go into a basket. They go from the dryer onto our bed, where DH or I fold them, then get put away into our drawers/closets or get walked a few feet into DD's room and put away. If they sit anywhere clean and folded for a few hours, it's on DH's or DD's dresser or on top of the dryer.
alien_host
Nope. I use the same basket to take laundry down to wash and bring the clean load back up. Items that are really dirt (like painting clothes or lawn mowing clothes) immediately go to the laundry room so they aren't in a basket really until they're clean.
This is us with the really dirty stuff.
I have hampers upstairs and the dirty clothes go in there. I sort up stairs and then bring down the laundry in my baskets. If I had to have separate baskets for clean/dirty, I'd need 6 or more! I'm horrible at putting clean clothes away.
I don't "store" dirty clothes in the basket and they are only in there for maybe 3 minutes so it really doesn't bother me.
Those who have separate baskets do you label them? I mean I'd get them mixed up for sure if they weren't labeled and FWIW, those baskets don't seem "dirty" at all and if the were I could wipe them out pretty easily since I have plastic baskets.
BayGirl2
i voted yes, but not because i don't want my clean and dirty clothes to be in the same baskets, but because our laundry machines are on same floor as our bedrooms. i just drag everyone's hampers into the hall where i sort the clothes. after clean and folded they all get placed into separate laundry baskets, by person, to put away.
:yeahthat: I answered Other, because I guess we do use separate containers, but not bc of germs. The hampers and wet bags go to the laundry room for sorting. The clean clothes come back in baskets. But if dirty cloths end up in a basket for some reason I don't clean it or anything. Our laundry room is also on the same floor as the bedrooms.
Octobermommy
I had to vote other. Usually dirty clothes go directly into the sorter in the laundry room, and then are taken back to the closet in a basket. However, if there are dirty clothes laying around and I have a laundry basket handy I will use that to carry the clothes to the sorter. My general philosophy on this is that a basket is a basket.
:yeahthat:
carolinamama
Nope. I use the same basket to take laundry down to wash and bring the clean load back up. Items that are really dirt (like painting clothes or lawn mowing clothes) immediately go to the laundry room so they aren't in a basket really until they're clean.
:yeahthat:
YouAreTheFocus
I voted other bc we use hampers with fabric liners. We put the dirty clothes in the hampers, then when it's laundry time, we throw in the liner along with the load.
SkyrMommy
I never thought to have different baskets. Everyone has a basket in their closet, I bring them out to the laundry area, do laundry, throw the clean things back into the respective baskets and then into the rooms to fold and put away... baskets back into closets to fill with more dirty clothes.
daisymommy
Nope. I use the same basket to take laundry down to wash and bring the clean load back up. Items that are really dirt (like painting clothes or lawn mowing clothes) immediately go to the laundry room so they aren't in a basket really until they're clean.
:yeahthat: Fwiw, our bedroom and laundry room are separated by 3 levels. Dirty clothes go into hampers in each bedroom, then a load travels downstairs with me in a laundry basket, washed, and carried back up 3 flights of stairs. Yeah, it's a good way to burn off calories ;)
AnnieW625
We have a laundry sorter, and two clean laundry bins. In an ideal world I'd get rid of a laundry bin because clothes get put away so much easier when there isn't one. I got hooked on mine when I did my laundry in laundromat in college, but it has made me ooh so lazy (and that's not good IMHO). I'd need to keep at least one for my clothes line.
ilfaith
This sounds absurd, but I don't have baskets. I found over the years that dh takes over my laundry baskets as a way to "clean-up" aka pile junk in a basket instead of sorting it properly. Then the junk just lives in the laundry basket. So I just stopped having baskets. Each room has a dirty clothes hamper. I sort onto the floor and scoop the load up in my arms and carry it to the laundry room. Clean clothes get scooped out the dryer and dumped on the couch to be folded.
I don't think it sounds absurd at all. Maybe it's because our house is all on one level so I don't have to bring clothes downstairs from a bedroom or schlep down to a basement to do laundry, but I never use a basket. I do own one, which sits atop my dryer and holds cleaning supplies. Like you I have a couple of hampers at either end of the house (one for DH and I and one for the boys), I sort on the floor (in the hallway outside the laundry room) and the clean clothes go directly onto the bed in the guest room (where they may or may not be folded and put away in a timely manner).
But it is funny that this question was raised, because a couple of weeks ago I was doing laundry while visiting my parents (in the home where I grew up) and as I was getting ready to take my clothes out of the dryer (in the basement) I thought "oh wait, do I have to put these nice clean clothes back in the basket that was just full of dirty stuff?" I ended up just bringing armfuls of laundry up to the family room and folding them on the couch.
adamlau
Dedicated clean clothes basket here, occasional bouts of hamper reuse.
ThreeofUs
We have bags inside baskets (wood baskets) for dirty clothes, so I can wash the bags. (Really, you don't want to know what my guys bring in.)
We use plastic clothes baskets to get clothes out of the dryer and fold into.
But this wasn't a "thought out" system; it just evolved this way. And as long as I could rinse out the baskets if something horribly dirty was put in one, I don't think I'd care.
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