I have a confession to make--I don't do laundry "right." I know all the rules. My mom taught me well. But somewhere along the road (actually, I know exactly "where" it happened) I threw it out the window. (The window, the second story window. High, low. Low, high. Threw it out the window.)
I was doing laundry alongside my mother from the time I could toddle. Year after year, I separated my whites from my colors. (Although I was forever confusing which side of the hamper was which.) I knew heavy fabrics like jeans and towels should be separate from permanent press items.
But then I went off to college. And all of my training went *splat.* Now, before you go assuming I was going through some kind of rebellious stage, let me assure you I was not. No, friends, this was all about the money. Yep, the money. You see, doing laundry in a coin operated laundry room is REALLY EXPENSIVE (especially when you're 19), and saving up all of those quarters was a pain (even though my mom did it for me for four years straight. thanks, mom!)
[side note: if you do need to save quarters for any reason and you happen to have old film canisters laying around the house *ahem,* they hold exactly seven dollars in a very convenient fashion. You're welcome.]
Even though the quarters weren't really mine, I just couldn't bear to put quarter after quarter into those little slots in order to do multiple loads of laundry the "right" way. AND besides the money, I just didn't have enough clothes to make properly-separated loads of laundry without running out of every last item of clothing in order to make a full load.
And so (hold on to your hats, people), I combined EVERYTHING INTO ONE BIG LOAD. Yep, that's right. OH, THE HORROR!! And load after load, year after year, everything's turned out all right. I've never had white-turned-pink-items-because-of-that-darn-red-sock. I keep those likely-to-bleed-fabrics separate a time or two and have no problems.
So here I am, 8 years later, and still having the audacity to throw everything into one load.
Yes, it's awesome that my husband and I only make 1 (or maybe 2) loads of laundry of week. But you know what, I actually enjoy laundry. And if I didn't have to pay the water and electric bills and if we had enough laundry to fill up more than two baskets (future-me will probably want to punch present-day-me in the face right now), then I totally would do all of those extra loads.
But for now, I'm just enjoying dropped jaws of classically (laundry) trained women everywhere.