comment: >
  
  My mom and I wipe ours out because of this. It’s fkn nasty- imagine the germs from your dirty underwear getting on your clean clothes.
context: This is a friendly reminder to read our rules.
  Remember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not "thoughts had in the shower!"
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  Rule-breaking posts may result in bans. >
  
  I have a hamper for dirties, clean clothes get piled and carried as is, no basket needed and no empty basket needing storing >
  
  Meanwhile, the cat is in the kitchen, rubbing its ass on the cutting board >
  
  This made me actually laugh out loud >
  
  Cross contamination? Are you eating your clothes raw? That’d be like saying folding your clothes on the couch is cross contamination because you sat on the couch wearing clothes (assuming you’re not a nudist at home). It isn’t raw chicken getting on your celery stick. >
  
  My husband and I were just joking about washing our socks in the same load. We wonder if mine keep running off with his and that's why we keep having incomplete pairs. >
  
  I don't understand this. In 15+ years of doing my own washing, I've never lost a sock. How do you do that? >
  
  If we knew what happened to them, they wouldn't be lost >
  
  The most likely answer is they're getting flushed out of the washer with the water. Socks are usually small enough that they can slip under an agitator, in older models, and simply get sent to the sewer.
  Occasionally, you'll find someone's washing machine is on the fritz, and when they open it up they'll find all their missing socks, but not in any condition anyone would want. >
  
  I had times when the sock is hiding at the top of the washer, stuck by the water.
  If I didn't bend down and look, it would have ended up in someone else's pile (community laundry) >
  
  My laundry stays in a laundry bag. Laundry bag gets washed with the clothes each time. >
  
  Same >
  
  Laundry basket for dirties, put clean ones in drawers or hangers. Problem solved. >
  
  Or use two different laundry baskets. They stack anyway. >
  
  How dirty are your clothes? I’ve never had an issue with this >
  
  Underwear with period blood in it says hi. >
  
  Should maybe dump those directly in the washer. Usually when I have something that is unusually stained, I pre-wash them and put them in the washer waiting for the next wash. >
  
  This is great if you have constant access to a washer. >
  
  No cross contamination here. 2 separate hampers 1 for white, 1 colors. Bring dirty clothes in hampers to the washing machine, pickup clean dry clothes from the drier in the laundry basket >
  
  My dirty little secret is that I don't separate clothes by color. >
  
  Wash bedding and towels on 60°C+ and never separate whites from colours and have had no dye bleed. >
  
  Clothes made now with colours that bleed usually say so on the tag. I have a few items that say, "To get this cool colour we use a process that might result in the dye bleeding, so wash this separately." >
  
  Is it not common to have separate baskets for clean and dirty laundry? That's how it's always been at my house >
  
  I've never heard of this.  TIL at 48 yrs old that people have separate baskets for dirty clothes and clean clothes. >
  
  I'm trying to picture how filthy and stinky everyone's clothes are that this is even a problem. We have plastic laundry baskets, the worst I've seen is a few crumbs or cat hairs in them after putting laundry in the wash. Which I wipe out with a wet cloth before putting clean clothes back in.
  I guess if I'm swimming in my clothes in a muddy swamp I put them directly into the wash without having them sit in a basket for a week. This is the only scenario I've come up with that they all need separate baskets for. >
  
  Apparently I’m the oddball… one basket (whites and colors) into the washer.. then the dryer, and back into the basket.  Compared to leaving clothes in the washer for a few days, this is a very minor sin… >
  
  I get it. It appears we are in the minority but whatever. >
  
  Yeah we have four baskets and two are designated clean. Growing up we just had one, but clothes went straight from the dryer on to my parents bed in a pile to fold >
  
  I have a tall laundry hamper with a linen liner inside for dirty clothes then a white plastic bushel basket for clean clothes to take them to another room to fold/hang. 
  The linen liner on the dirty clothes hamper gets thrown in with the laundry every month or so. The plastic basket is easy to clean if it happens to get dirty and stays in the laundry room. >
  
  Not here. I carry laundry from the hamper to the washing machine and then usually toss my clean clothes on my bed to fold or put them in a clean laundry basket. I’m not putting my clean clothes in a basket that previously carried dirty clothes. >
  
  I use a hamper for dirty clothes and a clothes basket for clean clothes. No cross contamination. >
  
  This! >
  
  How dirty are your dirty clothes (and thus laundry basket) if it is contaminated? Would folding laundry on my couch (which I've sat on in dirty clothes) be cross-contamination? The second you put on your clothes you contaminate them. >
  
  That’s assuming a washer and dryer truly sanitize 🫠 >
  
  Which they don't, cross contamination happens before even taking them out of the washer/dryer... The laundry basket is irrelevant. >
  
  I keep separate hampers for clean and dirty clothes. The dirty ones are tall and skinny to pile high and the clean ones are shallow and wide for easier folding and sorting. >
  
  In most cases there's no such thing. Everything in the basket will be washed anyways so why would it matter if they touch something dirtier in there.
  But in some cases it can make a difference and it should be noted. I have work clothes that get really dirty with all sorts of muck and grime, so I keep those separate and wash them with each other not my normal clothes. >
  
  I use a tote instead of a hamper and just wash it with my clothes >
  
  We had "hampers" for dirty and "baskets" for clean. No idea why we call them different things but that's how my mom did it >
  
  I would say that is pretty common. They even sell the two different kinds most places where they are sold.
  The taller ones with bags, are not for clean clothes (hampers). The wider, shorter ones, are for carrying clean clothes (baskets).
  That’s not weird at all. >
  
  I actually have a separate bin in the kitchen pantry to collect all the dishcloths and towels that might be a source of cross-contamination.
  My husband once grabbed it, washed it all in hot water, dried it, and stuffed it back into the bin.  (I usually fold dish towels while I watch TV.)
  “That bin is where we keep the botulism spores and salmonella!” I said as I piled it all back into the washer and re-washed it.
  While the washer was running, he washed the bin, disinfected it with bleach, and still stuffed the clean towels in it. >
  
  It's the 10 day rule...kind of like when you drop a shrimp on the floor and pick it up within 1 second.....still fine to eat. 😉 >
  
  Wait.. people put clean clothes in their dirty baskets?? We use different baskets. >
  
  There are some damn scardy cats in this world. The media has made you afraid of everything. What the hell are you rolling around in to be afraid of your own clothes? SMH Do you guys change your bed sheets everyday too, cuz I assure you, they have way more dirt and germs than the clothes you wear. >
  
  What’s the point of washing my clothes, if I’m just gonna put lots of underwear germs back onto it? >
  
  Not in my home.  Hampers are for dirty clothes only.  Clean clothes are moved by hand directly to the bedroom to be folded and put away. >
  
  I had to teach so many friends this when we did laundry together. The look of realization always felt good. Then they'd understand why I carried lysol and paper towels in my laundry supplies. >
  
  If one would purchase mostly the same type of sock you would reduce sock folding by a large amount, only folding for travel, gym etc and still folding your special socks to keep them together. Couldn't post this so I tried to find a laundry post to comment on...I'm new :) >
  
  I use a laundry bag, cover the basket with it, wash it with the laundry, then fish it from the dryer and move everything to it. Laundry bags are a game changer everyone should invest in. >
  
  I’m a service plumber so I see some real shit… and sometimes get some on me. My dirty laundry basket gets a rinse every time it gets emptied, just in case. >
  
  Cloth laundry bag that goes in my wire hamper. It gets washed on laundry days too. >
  
  I have a tall, cloth dirty clothes hamper and a short white plastic basket for clean clothes that get folded. Soooo no cross contamination. >
  
  That's why I use a laundry bag, which gets thrown into the washer with the clothes. Been doing that since 2015. >
  
  Wait, you don't have one basket for dirty clothes and a separate basket for clean clothes? >
  
  Sez YOU! Laundry baskets are for dirty laundry only. When using a coin laundry, my wife always placed our newly cleaned items inside of a large, clean plastic bag to carry home. >
  
  I have a laundry basket for dirty and carry the clean to my room in my arms. It’s a pain but I don’t want more baskets around. >
  
  I have dirty hampers for every day clothes, socks and underwear, and scrubs. Then I have a completely separate plastic hamper to bring them up in when they’re clean. I cringed the one time my bf brought my stuff back up in one of the dirty hampers. >
  
  [throws laundry bag in his face]
  "WASH IT AGAIN!" >
  
  My whole household has thought I was weird for the longest time. "don't put my clothes in there, that's my dirty basket!" It's not a big deal to them. It is a big deal to me. But also one of the reasons I do my own laundry. >
  
  Not sure how contaminated a plastic hamper can become from laundry. >
  
  If you don't have a clean and a dirty hamper  you are gross, lol. >
  
  Ok. I mean, I ain't rolling around in shit all day like some people apparently. >
  
  Wait -- do people really use the same basket for both clean and dirty clothes? 
  Isn't it more common to have a dirty laundry hamper and a separate basket for clean laundry?