Silly "real life" question: am I doing laundry wrong?

[krytella]

Like most people, I learned to wash my clothes from my parents. My mom separates colors militantly (light, dark, bright, red), washes all her clothes in cold water, and hangs almost all her clothes to dry.

But I'm having issues with this. Question for people with vaginas: how do you wash your underpants? The internet tells me to wash "underwear" (I guess they mean white men's briefs?) on hot, but "lingerie" on delicate cold. All my nice underwear, including fancy mens' underwear with prints on it, says to wash cold and hang to dry.


I'm having a problem. When I do this according to the instructions, most of my underwear doesn't get clean. I end up re-washing everything by hand to get rid of any vaginal discharge that's in the crotch. Is it my soap? Should I stop using "eco-friendly" stuff? If you have any underwear outside the completely plain white cotton category, how do you wash it?

Comments

[anatsuno]

I.. actually only have cotton underwear, now, but it hasn't always been that way. :) You can totally get away with some heat! I dunno if your detergent is part of the problem or not, but start by washing your undies in a semi-delicate cycle with a low temp that's not *cold* - like, here I would use 30°C, and see if that makes a difference. then, because that should totally help, start adding 2 or 3 tablespoons of bicarb (baking soda) to your load of laundry. It boosts the cleaning power of your detergent, is harmless for the fabrics, & is a great help on the deodorizing front.

<3

[krytella]

Ooh, I will try the baking soda! Makes sense that it would help extra since vaginal secretions are acidic and bicarbonate is a base.

[krytella]

Ok, I tried the baking soda + "warm" cycle and it was pretty effective. Only 2 pairs of panties I had to re-wash by hand. Thanks!

[anatsuno]

one other thing that could help is, prior to washing a load of laundry, instead of chucking your panties in the hamper, put them to soak in water+bicarb. If you have a recipient with a lid, like a small bucket or whatever, you could just soak your underwear in that 24h before you do the laundry - that should help too. :)