Do you use separate baskets for clean and dirty laundry?

No but that’s because it’s a big plastic bin. If it were a cloth bag then I’d keep them separated between washings. Unless your clothes have moist, seeping guck on them then I can’t see why your husband thinks the clothes get contaminated/dirty.

I use separate baskets.

It’s not a PITA for me, because I use my dirty-laundry basket as the hamper, and I keep it in a different location.

Just one basket takes them down to the laundry and the same basket brings them up.

No, but then I’m not OCD.

“Moist, seeping guck”...now there’s an image! Even at my yuckiest I’ve never had a problem with moist, seeping guck and a laundry basket. If things are seeping and gucking I put them directly into the washing machine.
@keobooks : If your hubby is that worried about it, perhaps he should take on all the laundry tasks?

I don’t have a laundry basket. Frankly, I have a laundry pile, on the floor near the bed. When laundry time comes, I pick out one dirty item with a large surface area, like a towel, and pile a load of laundry on it. Folding the corners up into an ersatz handle, I carry them downstairs.

When the clean laundry comes out, I set that (now clean) towel on my folding surface, fold the clothes and stack them, pulling the towel around them to carry them easily up the stairs. Clothes go in drawers, towel goes back on the rack in the bathroom. Safe, effective, sustainable, and I don’t have to worry about any plastic hampers or baskets, whether clean or dirty.

No, we don’t do baskets. Each person is responsible to see that their dirty clothes are dumped on the floor in the laundry room, and I put them in the washer and dryer, and then fold them and separate each pile. Each person then goes to the laundry room and picks up his own pile of clothes.

@JilltheTooth That’s what it’s come down to—sort of. I told him that from now on, if it’s so important to him, I’ll lie about using separate baskets to humor him. If it bothers him, he can do all his own laundry. He said it would bother him, so all the laundry in the house is clean except for a big pile of his stuff.

I thinking either eventually, he’ll do his own laundry or he’ll stop being so picky. Being a slob, I have no problem waiting it out and letting the laundry pile grow. The only thing that really ticks me off is that I swear I’ve seen him fish out a “cleanish” pair of pants from the pile. And now I’m baffled. To me, fishing out something from a big pile of dirty laundry is way worse than wearing something clean that was in a “dirty” basket.

From seeing the answers here, I’m thinking maybe it’s more of a cultural upbringing thing (or an OCD thing) than a logical thing.

Separate baskets because the one for dirty clothes is like a bin and use the regular rectangular or round ones for clean clothes to fold or iron. I tend to be on the OCD side, but still I don’t see why you wouldn’t use the same basket since dirty clothes (unless heavily soiled) do not transfer the dirt onto the plasctic basket.

However, I understand your husband and see no reason why you shouldn’t accomodate with something that seems important to him. It really isn’t a big deal and it will make him happy!

One basket.

@Porifera – I would think that anything the asker describes as a “major PITA” would be counted as “a big deal,” at least to her.

Anyone who’s got it made by having someone else do their laundry shouldn’t complain.

@Porifera I humored him for years, but with a bigger house and a crawling baby, it’s getting too much. I have been CONSTANTLY doing laundry now because babies are just little laundry making machines. And it’s hard to keep track of all the baskets—or god forbid we run out of the official clean baskets and I have to stop everything even though there are plenty of “dirty” baskets available. it

It’s not a huge thing, but its one of those little annoying things that is getting to me after all this time. Also, since I quit working to stay at home for a year, for some reason, this laundry nitpicking thing just gets to me.

@laureth Right! In that case she should compromise but never disregard the importance this has for her husband —after all she says she comes from a family of slobs and most likely he doesn’t.

I don’t use 2 baskets. I put a clean piece of cloth over the same basket. Or I just give it a wipe.

@keobooks I understand.
I guess I was just talking for myself. Since for me it’s comforting to be totally organized and I am very methodical, it is easy for me, it comes natural…but if it’s such a major PITA for you, then either do what you feel or try talking to him about this some more.

If something gets enough muck on it, it gets hand-washed first. Both the SO and I use linen lined baskets for storing dirty laundry, and neither of us have given a thought about using a separate one for clean laundry only.

I was just going to suggest that he either take over the responsibility of doing it all or just his own, but I now see that it’s been covered. A sister’s husband started doing his own several years ago, and it seems to be working out just fine.

I have a dirty clothes basket, and a really dirty clothes basket (exercise clothes). Clean clothes are usually in or on the dresser.

@Porifera Ahh I’m extremely disorganized and sloppy. I’ve always just barely scraped by at keeping house—and sometimes not that much. It’s always been hard for me to do things in any sort of methodical manner. It’s hard for me to keep stuff straight on a normal level and adding this special request that isn’t totally necessary is just an added burden.

I think the real deal is that if “stay at home mom” was a regular job, I never would have applied for it. I’d never get hired for it and if I did slip through and get the job, I’d get fired for incompetence in housekeeping. I thinkt overall, this is getting depressing for me to be constantly working at a job I suck at (cleaning—not being a parent0 and it gets to tme that there have been times I’ve been proud of myself for FINALLY finishing the laundry, and I catch him re-washing everything because I didn’t do it right—or I did it right but put it in the wrong basket.

How about this. Take two identical t-shirts (or whatever) and wash them. Carry one up in a “clean” basket, and carry the other up in a “dirty” basket. Ask him if he can tell the two apart.

Like @Neizvestnaya said, unless the “dirty” basket has something as bad as a wet mud pile (or babypoop) in it that actually defiles the clean clothes, I cannot tell how someone would notice the difference, and I’d be interested in hearing if @keobooks‘s husband can.

If, as I suspect, it’s not actual physical dirt getting on the clean clothes, but something more akin to metaphysical, bad-basket-karma ickiness, well, at least you’ll know.

@keobooks Well the problem here isn’t just a laundry basket or two, it’s the overall keeping of the house. This can be a major issue between a couple, specially when one comes from a very organized house. I sympathize with you and the only thing I can think of is that you should tell him all this you have so clearly explained here, he has to make an effort to understand where you are coming from in reagrd to house keeping and either relax his ways or at least be very understanding, specially now that you have a baby in the house.
What works in my household is that everyone tries to do what is less annoying or burdensome for them. Like I would do the dishes but do not like to put them away. I would iron a mountain of clothes but do not like folding shirts.

@keobooks : I, too, am a slob, from a long line of slobs, and I’m grateful that I didn’t have a husband when KatawaGrey was a baby because it all rapidly went to hell. The baby care trumps all else. My baby was clean and well cared for, I was mostly clean, and the rest was just not important enough for me to worry about. I really don’t want to sound harsh about your husband, but it sounds like he needs to step up a bit because baby care is exhausting. You already have your hands more than full with that.

Now is the perfect time to discuss your husband agreeing to set aside money to bring in someone at least once a month to clean in a fashion that would make him comfortable. Ask him to sit down with you and make out a list of stuff he wants around the house that he thinks should fall under your jurisdiction. Look over the list with interest but only to get his perspective and not at all to feel it’s all your job to get done because you’re at home full time.

I’m telling you, if he can swing it or put in a few hours of overtime to make it happen then having someone else come and thoroughly clean floors, bathtubs, showers, inside windows and upholstery will make the rest more bearable. You don’t have to be a good cleaner in order to have clean and sloppy people don’t have to get a load of passive aggressive shite.

My hampers and basket are one-way streets: clothes go in when heading for the wash. When clean laundry comes out of the dryer, it gets folded and put away right then.

When I used to carry everything to the laundromat on foot, though, I had a large wheeled basked lined with a green trash bag against mud splashes, dirty snow, etc. Clean folded laundry went right back in there for the trip home. I was on my own, with no one to complain or criticize me, and I was fine with that.

However, I don’t take the lettuce out of a plastic bag, wash it, and put it back into the same unwashed bag. To me that would be like getting out of the shower and putting on the same underwear that I just took off.

This is too funny… I feel the same way as your husband! But I don’t have enough room for 4 laundry baskets in my little apartment. I do, however, refuse to put certain clean laundry on the bottom of the laundry basket. For example, sheets cannot go on the bottom, neither can any pjs, but jeans can because I wear them outside. I may be a little OCD.

Also, what’s PITA… pain in the ass??

@SamIAm

I think PITA means, People for The Inethical Treatment of Animals. ;-p Or it could mean, Pain In The Ass.

We talked. He doesn’t mind my terrible housekeeping because he says I do a great job of taking care of our daughter. I should mention that he does more than his fair share of housework. I think it’s mostly me who feels bad. It just feels especially bad when I get ONE thing done—laundry—and he redoes it.

Right now he’s installing all the baby gates in the house and he gave my daughter her nightly dose of anti-gas medicine. He also cleaned out the back of my car this evening and watched her for a few hours so I could get a break for once. I think I’m just going stir crazy.

It is good to see that people do it both ways. This means that neither one of us is totally weird and we just grew up differently.

@keobooks Nice to hear you brought up the subject to him. Nothing beats good communication.
You say you are going crazy and it’s understandable. I have no children and therefore would be the last person suitable to give you any advice on motherhood. But one thing I constantly hear from my sister and girlfriends is that they wish they had taken it easier with their first child and tried to enjoy it to the fullest without worrying too much. I know…easier said than done, but thought I’d let you know in case you needed a reminder :)

No, but I have certainly pondered this issue more than once over the years. For the record, I have OCD and I have a bit of an obsession about germs. Being a biologist on top of that hasn’t helped much, either.

Anyway, my solution was to try not to think too much about it.

Yes! Because once your dirty clothes have been in a bin, you dont want to put your clean ones in it do you? I always use two seperate baskets.

How dirty do my clothes get at my age? Mainly soil and grass stains on the knees and some tomato sauce spots on a shirt.

Same basket for all.

My clothes don’t get THAT dirty so I can’t imagine any dirt transference from unclean clothes to basket and THEN from basket back to clean clothes (unless there were lice or flea eggs involved).

Absent any parasite problems or a car mechanic husband with grease all over his clothes, I just don’t see the need for separate everything. Too much effort. Too little real benefit.

But it’s nice to hear that your nubby seems to have his priorities straight and realizes that taking good care of a human being (the child) is far more important than objects (clothing).

I also think having him do his own clothing is the perfect solution. At least it saves the effort of doing everything twice.

If having his clothes put in the same basket bothers him on some sort of emotional level then acknowledge his right to have it the way that it’s comfortable for him and allow him to do it that way. But he should be the one doing it.

Presumably, whatever happens to yours or the child’s clothing doesn’t affect or bother him. So that’s the best solution all around.

Babies are far more important (and deserving of your energy) than clothing is really the bottom line here.

I dont use seperate or different baskets or bins, having 4 kids I use whatever I can get my hand on (toy bins, plastic tubs ect), but I am a wipie lover and I just so happen to wipe the baskets or whatever I used out whether clean clothes or dirty clothes just came in or out of em.

I only really wear one clothing set, so I don’t get many dirty clothes. I’ll change only if I get them wet from swimming or something like that (because I dont want my undergarments showing through).