Guide to Washing Clothes

Pre Washing Checkout

1. Before washing, empty your pockets. You’d be surprised at the havoc a single receipt can cause on a load of black laundry.
2. Take off any pins or ornaments that may be on your shirts or trousers. If you work in a job where a name tag if required or even if you just love your band buttons.
3. Inspect everything for damage. It’s best to mend any tears before laundering, because otherwise, damage could get much worse. Imagine your favorite shirt. . . now imagine it unraveling.
4. Close zippers and hooks before you throw your favorite pieces in the machine. Snags can damage clothes.
5. Examine your shirt for stains. You’ll need to apply a stain remover to clear up any marks prior to washing.

Pre Washing Stains Treatment

1. Soak stains in cold water before washing. Keep in mind that warm or hot water will set stains.
2. Begin to dab at the spot, but don’t rub it. You will work the spot in if you rub or scrub the stain.
3. Apply stain remover and allow it to sit for some time, from a few hours to overnight for best results. You can try a prewash product, or if you don’t have that, apply liquid laundry detergent or a paste made from laundry detergent and a splash of water.

To Bleach or Not to Bleach?
You may be tempted to splash a little bleach on more troublesome spots, but use a little caution when you apply it. Whites are okay with your run-of-the-mill standard bleach, but colors are a little trickier. Check the care tags on your clothes to make sure that color-safe bleach can be used. If it’s marked “no bleach,” use bleach alternatives like Ecover Bleach Alternative.

Washing

1. Choose your detergent. Don’t just grab any detergent that you can find to launder your clothes. There is a difference between cheaper and mid-priced detergent. Cheaper brands like Tide and Cheer aren’t recommended for front-loading machines and will clean most clothes well. Don’t use this type of detergent with delicate clothes, and instead use low-suds detergent such as a cold water wool wash liquid.
2. Sort your clothes before washing. You’ll save your choice pieces from undue wear, and keep your more delicate items from being damaged by heavy jeans and jackets.
3. Separate your clothes by color. Group dark colors and light colors. You can also separate heavily soiled clothes to make sure that they don’t damage hardly-dirty clothes.
4. Wash your clothes on a medium temperature setting for casuals. Wash your woolens and delicates in cold water, and white in hot.

Drying

1. If you’re doing your wash in the laundromat, you may have multiple loads of washed clothes to dry at the same time. It can help if you separate items that may distribute lint, such as sweatshirts, robes, and towels from items like knits, corduroys, and synthetics.
2. Shake out your clothes before putting them in the dryer. You can reduce wrinkles significantly by shaking items out.
3. Add a touch of fabric softener to make your clothes fluffier.
4. Before starting the dryer, check and make sure that the lint trap has been cleaned. A clean lint trap will ensure that your clothes dry quickly.