Downsides of cold water, no-sort laundry method

Dear Cold-Wash, No-Sort Laundry Method,

I hate to say it, but I'm falling out of love with you. As with all passionate affairs, perhaps I jumped in too fast... I know I didn't pay attention to any of the warnings from friends...

Here's what I loved about you:

• No sorting! What's not to love about that? Just grabbing all the stinky laundry from the various hampers in the house. No searching just for whites or darks or lights or delicates.
• Due to not sorting, being able to wash a full load every time! No guilt about wasted energy or power.
• Never having to worry about that one mischievous red sock turning all the whites pink.
• The power I was saving by not heating the water for every load of wash.
• Washing in cold makes the colors -- and thus the clothes -- last longer

So with all that to love, what's the problem, you wonder? Well, I hate to say it. I've tried to ignore it. But really, I don't think the clothes are getting as clean as they used to when I washed on warm. The knees of my kids' pants. The inevitable food drips on their shirts. The use of their sleeves in place of napkins. OK. I can see the common denominator here. But don't try to blame this on the kids. I'm sorry. They can't go.

I guess I should have exercised more caution. When I first wrote about this, many of you tried to warn me that it works in some cases, but almost all of you had caveats: especially with sheets and towels (darn those dust mites!), and diapers.

So, I guess I won't go all the way back to full sorting and everything warm wash/cold rinse. But I think I will for some of the loads. I hate that I'll be sorting more, but hey, on the bright side I guess if I can do 80% of my loads on cold (4 out of 5) as New American Dream suggests, it'll still be making an impact. So I guess our love might survive after all...

XOXO

Renee