<p>“Shout” brand “Color Catcher”- found at Target and Walmart around here. I have always used “warm” water for washing everything- no need to use cold. I have often been nice to son and washed any new red items at home by putting them in the sink with a bit of Tide laundry detergent and warm/hot water then rinsing- repeating 3 or 4 times until no more color bleeds to get out the excess dyes before throwing them in with the color catcher and any type of clothes. Using liquid fabric softener helps preserve colors.</p>
<p>I know it is best to sort clothes but I simplify things by doing it all together if it is one load, only separating if 2 or more. You can put a full load in a front loader for washing and separate it for drying. I also learned to “cook” clothes back in the dorms when dryers were (and still are) free. “Hot” on dryers the past 10 or more years isn’t as hot as decades ago. As you can tell, we’re not into special care clothing- not worth the cleaning/washing hassles. Even after 4 years of doing his own laundry son has occasional questions. His current apt building has a top loader- I bought the non-he detergent for him. </p>
<p>I remember the taking care of laundry process. Telling a kid to do things and having him do them are two different things- our son ignored what he could get away with (life became too short to force the issue). Began with the laundry basket to his room for him to put away, never did (had to empty the basket- on his closet floor, I wasn’t going to put things away, piles grew- to use it), having son take his own folded clothes stack to his room- it sat in the laundry room for days. Then his were piled unsorted in a laundry basket- for days. It has evolved to his bringing his dirty laundry home on visits where it may sit dirty for days, in the dryer until I empty it to use it or folded in piles on top of the machines until he packs and leaves. I once caught him in the act of wearing a towel down to the laundry room to get boxer shorts from his (dirty) laundry bag- I gues it’s as H says, clothes get clean just by sitting in the laundry pile. Son and I now coordinate our doing laundry here so we don’t interfere with each other’s needs. When I did his laundry he changed jeans every day whether they needed washing or not, now that he pays per load and does it himself he reuses them.</p>
<p>I don’t separate my clothes and wash with cold water. Saves energy, my clothes come out bright as ever, I have never understood why people bother to sort. The exception is with new reds or new dark wash jeans or similar, those get washed with only like colors the first couple times. No problems. </p>
<p>I am very picky about the dryer though. My dryer at home is pretty predictable but the ones at school are not, so only socks and underwear and things I don’t mind losing go in there.</p>
<p>wow, i’ve been doing mine since i was 12 (along with my mothers).</p>
<p>College laundry isn’t all that hard to figure out (at my school). The washer has three buttons: whites, darks, colors.</p>
<p>Plus it helps if you go to the mat when it isn’t busy at all. I do that and am normally able to find two washers and dryers.</p>
<p>However, kids at my school are very bad at leaving their stuff in the washer/dryer then running off to some 3 hour class. It peevs me off to no end.</p>
<p>Color catchers do work, but you can use them more then once as well, just dry them well after each use.</p>
<p>I suggested taping laundry instructions to the bottle of detergent when S left for college but he refused on the grounds that it would be embarrassing–even taped to the bottom.</p>
<p>Regarding competition for washers/dryers–try to pick a time to do laundry when no one else might need the machines. For example, I would imagine that Sat and esp Sun afternoons/evenings are heavy machine use days. If your student has a stretch of time during the week perhaps between classes (not evenings), the machines are likely not going to be in use. Friday afternoons/evenings might be a good time as well, but a student might not want to give up a Friday evening for Laundry!</p>
<p>For all those future college students and parents, summer before the start of college should be a break-in for doing own laundry. At least your student would know how to get clothes separated, and proper temps for washing and drying.</p>
<p>And yes, front loaders can be quite daunting machines in terms of proper use. If I remember correctly, the dorm orientation (RA) gave a brief instruction on use of the machines according to our student. Might be helpful if more dorms/RAs did this during orientation!</p>
<p>There are plenty of things that kids do not know how to do when they get to college – from laundry to cleaning the bathroom to making their bed (that’s with fresh, clean sheets) to writing a check. Recently one of the teachers at my son’s high school retired. What a blow to future students’ educations. He taught a “life” class in which he went over a lot of basic skills that kids needed to know. A few of my students took it … and loved it! One girl told me that she now knows how to change the oil in her car. </p>
<p>My sons do not know how to change the oil in the car, but they can do laundry and cook.</p>
<p>My son checked in early, so there was a brief floor meeting. I too was hoping there would be an orientation on how the machines worked, where to throw away trash, etc, but that will hopefully be covered in the “official” floor meetings that will be held soon now that all the kids are moved in on campus.</p>
<p>Although my son has been doing his laundry this summer, and has been having to cook for himself a lot because of my weird job schedule, he still had to learn the new machines in his dorm.</p>
<p>Bless his heart, I could see from his campus cash card, it was an all day affair. I just wrote him an encouraging email that it will get better with time, he will constantly be learning, as I still am, and he will hopefully learn from his mistakes and find “shortcuts” to make the process simpler and less time consuming.</p>
<p>I am happy he had this experience during the fun orientation week where he had the flexibility and time to learn, rather than while class is in session, when most kids do their first college laundry.</p>
<p>Love the life skills teacher note. Back when my older sisters were in high school, at Catholic girls high school, they had a much loved nun who taught a class where the girls learned how to change flat tires and change their oil. The class was no longer offered when I attended, but we still had home ec, where we learned how to sew, cook, and do budgets. Now, as my alma mater has moved to offering APs and other more advanced college prep courses, I was sorry to see those courses were no longer on the curriculum.
While I’m all for APs and college prep, I think it would still be helpful to offer a semester in home ec.</p>
<p>One time I was in the laundry room at my dorm, my wash was done, and I needed a dryer. None were available but 2 were finished. Waited 10 minutes. No one came to claim it. </p>
<p>So I opened the empty dryers and noticed 2 benign loads of T-shirts only–one white, one colors. I took them out, folded them, and left a cheerful/funny note about needing the dryers, and that it was kristin5792 from dorm room xyz who did it. </p>
<p>Imagine my surprise when I came back down about an hour later to see other stacks of neatly folded clothes with nice notes on top of them. I assume the rightful owners always got their stacks (because I’m sure we would have heard about it if multiple loads of laundry suddenly went missing), and didn’t feel like such a pain for removing someone’s clothes!</p>
<p>Guess college kids can be civil after all. Who’d’ve thunk it.</p>
<p>Funny story from move-in day last year. As older D and I helped younger D organize her dorm room, H and older D’s boyfriend went exploring. They found the laundry room in D’s complex. In it was an obviously confused girl standing in front of the bank of machines. She saw them and asked for help. I wish I had been there to see the two men try to explain laundry to this poor freshman. When they were done, they turned to find a woman filming them. When my H walked by her, she said that it was just too funny not to film. Especially when they were trying explain the reason behind separating the colors. Maybe it’s on youtube.</p>
<p>D is lucky. Laundry is free. I asked if she wanted an iron this year and she said no because she can just toss stuff in the dryer to get the wrinkles out, just like at home. At least she does know how to iron.</p>
<p>I am reminded of an old Bill Cosby routine where he explains why men are no good at housework, etc. He would sabotage his wife’s efforts to “train” him by constantly messing up the dishes, laundry, cooking. It really is so much easier and faster to do it ourselves than to have to go back and correct their mishaps. But when they have to live alone, ie, traveling on the road for work or going away to college, they do somehow manage.</p>
<p>My kids started doing laundry (especially S) in grade school. There is red dirt at their school that stains badly if you don’t pre-spot. He liked his clothes to remain nice, so he was motivated to learn to pre-spot & wash. He would intermittently wash from grade school onward, so it wasn’t a big deal for him when he started college. D has always been a lot less organized about laundry, but is able to manage it. I think she & her buddies all do it together & it’s more social. S just gets it done & is very efficient.</p>
<p>Overfilling the dryer is a huge mistake many folks make, which slows drying time a lot. Clean lint trap is KEY. </p>
<p>Hope the person using the dryer checks the setting on the dryer. Many have a “fluff” setting that just “fluffs” but does NOT dry. That might be an issue for clothes that don’t seem to be getting dry. Ask your kiddo if they are warm/hot when he opens the dryer at least. If they aren’t, the setting is “fluff” or equivalent or something is wrong with the dryer(s) he is using.</p>
<p>Good tips! I know my son checked the settings because that was another phone call, what setting to dry the different fabrics/colors. He knows what to do at home, but the machines were different, and he unfortunately is a perfectionist like his parents.</p>
<p>I do think his long drying time was a combination of overloading and the “wet ball” and initially, the lint trap.</p>
<p>I have been doing laundry for more years than I want to count, and thought I knew every trick of the trade. </p>
<p>Recently, a older tie dye shirt got into the regular wash and transferred some red to a pair of pants in the wash. I couldn’t get the ink out. Pretty bummed - they were nice Khakis.</p>
<p>I found a product by Shout that I use now to prevent this from happening. It literally catches loose dyes in the wash and allows you to wash dark clothes with lights and whites without worry. It’s awesome! My daughter had a brand new pair of super dark wash jeans and I tossed one of those in the laundry and washed it with other clothes without fear. Normally, I would have washed those pants separately.</p>
<p>I ruined my entire college wardrobe by washing tie dyed stuff with my regular wash, which is why I’ve been so paranoid about my son doing laundry on his own.</p>
<p>I think I got him overcautious, as he called me before he put his clothes in both the washer and dryer, to make sure he didn’t ruin anything.</p>
<p>As he’s a big boy and we can’t just buy his clothes off the rack, and he is away at college with no car, I was more than happy to take the time with him to give him advice on using these unfamiliar college machines, especially after we spent lots of hours and money on his college wardrobe, since he’s been wearing uniforms for the last 13 years. </p>
<p>I have been searching for those color catchers and have not found them, but I will keep looking. In the meantime, he’s got a cash card to do his laundry, which is great, since I still have to worry about quarters when we do the wash in a hotel when traveling.</p>
<p>We once washed a white top of D’s at a hotel washer/dryer & it ended up with spots! I showed it to the front desk clerk & he helped use an entire Tide pen to get out all the spots & ran it through the washer & dryer again. As a bonus, he gave us an extra unused Tide pen in case some new spots appeared. </p>
<p>We were quite amazed that the spots appeared and glad that the clerk helped us remove the spots so cheerfully!</p>
<p>Don’t know if any of you want to send your children (should they not be able to get to a store quickly) this, but try Amazon for the Shout Color Catcher cloths. It is a little more expensive than Target.</p>
<p>Especially if you are working as a waitress and are washing your work apron with your <em>lots of new college clothes for next month</em> and happen to have a gel pen in the apron pocket.
…</p>
<p>On recs from this thread, we just bought some SHOUT! Stain Catcher sheets and will have D take some up & my niece take some when she leaves for college in two days. The reviews I read of this product are quite positive as well. D always mixes all her clothes & rarely washes, so one box of sheets should last her a very, very long time! :)</p>
<p>Lime green slip plus new red anything yields a horrible color- lesson learned eons ago. Also learned how to not sort and to overdry clothes for expediency- not what my mother taught me! Had clothes that were not drying at my S-in-law’s once- finally checked the never cleaned lint filter… Labels give cleanining instructions and college son likely to read and follow them to the letter, have hopefully taught him to use logic. Many laundry rules are meant to be broken, especially if you consider they’re merely clothes. Free dryers mean no one will steal drying time, i suspect that’s why dorms can charge only for washers (they have limited access so others don’t take advantage of them).</p>