A method and device for the wet treatment of laundry batches provides to load the drum in a plurality of steps. To this end, the laundry batch is divided into partial batches which are gradually loaded into the drum. In particular, the drum is driven in rotation between successive partial batches at a rotational speed which corresponds to the spinning speed and/or supplies liquid to the partial batches during loading. As a result, the individual partial batches are compacted. Due to this compaction, space is provided for the next partial batch. As a result, the drum can be loaded with larger laundry batches of greater weight. This results in a more cost-efficient wet treatment.