Washing all kinds of clothes together is wrong for obvious reasons. However, you might be tempted to throw in a towel or set sheets in a small load of clothes to fill up your washing machine. So, is this decision right or wrong?
Firstly, it is wrong to combine sheets and towels with other clothes in the washer or dryer. It does not matter whether they are all in the same color. There are many reasons to justify washing them separately as we outline below.
Why you Should Not Wash Sheets and Towels with Clothes
The lint factor: Whether new or old, towels produce lint. In most cases, the rate of lint production depends on the quality of your towel.
The shedding and pilling results from the use of cotton. It is a natural fiber with short threads that pill in the processes of wear and tear.
When towels produce lint, it goes to the lint catcher in the washing machine. However, some of it gets attached to other garments that are together with the towel in the washer.
Lint is not only bad looking but also difficult to remove. It can permanently ruin your garments by making them more prone to collecting lint balls in the future.
Different cleaning times: Towels, sheets and clothes do not get clean at the same rate. A washing machine cleans clothes at a much faster rate unless they have heavy soiling. Towels are mostly heavy duty and some sheets can as well fall into this category.
Washing machine settings: When sorting clothes for different washer settings, you will realize that towels and sheets do not belong to the same category with most clothes. They mostly belong to the cotton setting. On the other hand, the appropriate settings for regular clothes vary widely because of factors such as color and fabric.
Size issues: Sheets and towels are big in size. Accordingly, they are likely to trap or wrap around small clothing items thereby preventing them from cleaning properly.
Water temperature settings: Towels and sheets mostly qualify for washing with hot water. They are characterized by germs and dirt from dead skin cells. However, clothes feature regular dirt that is easily removable with lukewarm or cold water under regular settings.
Should you Wash Sheets and Towels Together
Sheets and towels should not go into the washer in the same load. They are different in so many ways such that the decision of washing them together does more harm than good.
In the first place, lint is still a problem even when washing sheets and towels together. It is an outright fact that towels produce lint. However, there are sheets that do so as well. A combination of the two can be messy. However, you are more likely to feel worse when a pair of sheets that does not produce lint traps fuzz from your towel.
Secondly, sheets are bigger in size compared to towels. Accordingly, a towel is likely to get trapped inside sheets and come out looking unevenly cleaned.
Lastly, the cleaning times for towels and sheets are also very different.
Can you Dry Sheets, Towels and Clothes Together
It is not a good idea to dry sheets, towels and clothes together. Some clothes take as little as 15 minutes to dry.
On the other hand, a pair of sheets can take a short or relatively long period to dry, depending on size and fabric. A towel takes long to dry.
Combining all these in a tumble dryer makes the drying period unnecessarily long because some items dry before others. Furthermore, it is still possible for towels to stuff the rest of the laundry with lint at this stage.
Dry each of these items separately for best results.
