If you’re a clean freak or a fashion lover, you’ll understand how important it is to treat your laundry with as much care as humanly possible. For those that are looking to up their laundry game, here are ten unique and useful washing machine tips that will blow away true clean freaks!
1. Know Your Detergents
Many homeowners simply pick the cheapest possible detergent off store shelves when selecting a detergent. However, this is always a bad idea. Not only can cheap detergent ruin your clothes, but it can pose many harmful health risks as well.
To ensure you’re treating your clothes with care, and that they smell fantastic, you need to go with a quality, specifically-crafted detergent for your laundry needs. Don’t believe everything that is written on the bottle of a detergent because many brands like to fabricate lies and sell their product.
Instead, do your research and look for a good eco-friendly detergent that will help you get the best-washed batch of clothes.
2. Washing Polyester
Polyester is often considered to be a pain to clean properly. Their labels are notoriously unreliable, so you need a solid polyester laundry guide, like this one from Hunker to get the job done right. Once you’ve educated yourself on the issue, you’ll never experience the tragedy of damaging a quality piece of polyester clothing again.
3. Don’t Wait to Treat Stains
Many dinners and lunches are often spoiled by big stains on shirts and dresses. You can never be too careful with food because at the end o the day you also want to enjoy the meal that you are having. Nothing can ruin a solid outfit quite like a large, evident stain.
That being said, you can handle the majority of stains quite easily (as long as you take immediate action). Be sure to rinse, soak, and apply stain remover ASAP when you notice a stain. Use cold water in your washing machine when washing the stained garment for the best possible results. With any luck, you’ll save that amazing sweater.
4. Water Temp is Everything
Just like you take care of the temperature of the water for the rest of your things you need to take care of it when you wash your clothes as well. The key to having neat and tidy clothes is setting the water to the perfect temperature. If you fail to use the right water temp, you’ll make your clothes at risk of shrinking, building, and many other types of damage. Many clothing items will have specific temp instructions on their tags, so be sure to look closely! This temp will keep all your stylish clothing super clean and comfortable!
5. Wash Whites Separately
White is the most tricky color to work with when it comes to washing clothes. Some people are not aware of the fact that they have to wash their white clothes and colored clothes separately. If you want to keep your white clothing looking shiny, new, and clean, you’ll need to wash them separately from the rest of your clothing.
Otherwise, you’ll experience a lot of color bleeding that will ruin your white clothing. We will talk about color bleeding more later on, but know ahead of time that you should never throw pure white clothing into an otherwise-colorful pile of laundry.
6. Be Wrinkle Conscious
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Many people assume that preventing wrinkles during your laundry sessions is completely reliant on how you use your washer. That is simply not true, however. You’ll want to use the proper temperature setting for your water in the washer if you want to pre-de-wrinkle your clothing. That being said, you’ll want to use your washer’s settings to keep wrinkles out of your clothing as well.
7. Treat Delicates Delicately
While it may seem like a no-brainer, many people fail to treat their delicates delicately. When you fail to wash delicates as instructed (on their tags), you can make them lose their shape, color, and comfort. When handling bras and other wired clothing, you need to be especially careful to follow any given instructions. Doing so will ensure these delicates remain in good condition for decades to come.
8. Avoid Fading Issues
Fading can ruin a sharply colored, vivid shirt. If you’re using a detergent that’s too harsh, or you fail to turn your dark-colored clothing inside out pre-wash, you’ll put yourself at a much higher risk of fading your clothes. When washing pure black clothing, you may want to consider separating them from the rest of the pack (as you would with white clothing) and using a black-centric detergent to get the job done.
9. Say Goodbye to Bleeding Colors
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Bleeding colors can turn an entire load of laundry into a full-blown disaster. Outside of simply washing whites by themselves, you’ll want to avoid putting other light-colored clothing together with colors that bleed easily. Pink, red, and yellow clothing are all known to bleed more easily within washing machines. Additionally, it’s important to read your clothes’ tags for any color bleeding warnings because once you put a garment in the washing machine and press that button there is no turning back.
10. Don’t Use too Much Detergent
Using too much detergent will immediately cause huge issues with your load of laundry. Not only can this cause colors to bleed, and your clothing to be damaged in other ways, but it can end up damaging your washer as well. Overflowing suds and detergent build-up are the two most common threats using too much detergent can pose to your laundry.
Become a Laundry Expert
With these ten tips and a ton of practice, you’ll quickly become a laundry wizard. It’s difficult to overstate how much money, time, and suffering you can save yourself if you handle your laundry with care. The more you invest your time in the activities of your home the more tricks you will be able to learn and share with your friends.
