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Mark
Mark is the founder and lead content planner here at HowToCleanStuff.net. He spent 4 years as a professional carpet cleaner followed by a career providing professional cleaning services to businesses and residential homes.
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Before you can wash anything, you have to be able to find it! I have ONE laundry basket for my whole family of five. This stuff about everyone having their own just means something gets missed and you’re doing laundry at 1:00 a.m. the night before the big presentation. So find one big basket and put it in a common area for everyone to use.
Separate the clothes into piles. Whites, darks, reds, towels, jeans and specials. Specials are anything that says, “Don’t Wash, Dry Clean Only,” “100% Cotton,” “Gentle Cycle,” “Cold Water,” or anything else that looks like special instructions. I always separate the reds because there is too much of a chance of the color bleeding onto another and it is easier to do a small load of reds than to replace the favorite shirt I bought years ago.
I always check my clothes for stains or repairs while sorting. If stained, spray with stain remover and throw them in the pile; most stain removers will say to let it set for awhile to work effectively. Repairs are set aside to be taken to the seamstress or repaired myself.
When you get ready to wash look at the load to determine if it is small, medium or large. Set your water level accordingly. Keep in mind that you want enough water for the clothes to agitate freely, not be all bunched up. If you get all the clothes in the washer and they are stuffed together – run more water or take some out! You will just ruin your clothes and not get them clean if they are jammed in there.
Follow the label instructions for the detergent, but don’t forget the softener or your clothes will come out of the dryer clinging to each other. Try to choose a softener that you can add to a ball in the beginning like Downy or softener sheets like Bounce, that way you don’t have to remember to add the softener before the rinse cycle.
Follow the manufacturer’s instructions on how to run the washer – use the instruction booklet if you have to. Today’s washers are akin to programming a computer so know what you are doing or choose the simplest wash available.
Dry your clothes in the same groups you washed them in. Blouses and shirts will dry faster than jeans, so don’t put them in together; otherwise you will end up with wrinkled shirts or damp jeans. Also, don’t dry your towels with clothes; the towels can leave little flakes of material on your clothes that will be hard to remove.
Your wash isn’t done until the clothes are put away. Leaving them thrown in the basket will just wrinkle them and if you did fold them, will just crease the folds; either way, it increases your chance of having to iron them. So take a few minutes and put them away.
Decreases absorbency.
The properties that make fabric softener work for most things make towels, etc. much less absorbent.
These days it’s quite easy to find environmentally friendly detergents and soaps, so use these instead!!! In my experience, they work just as well and in some cases better than normal detergent.