Doing laundry is not most people's idea of a good time. But your time will feel less like it has been wasted if your laundry actually comes out nice and clean. To get cleaner clothing and also simplify your routine, follow these laundry tips.
1. Separate Your Colors
While it may be tempting to just toss everything into the machine at once, you are best off spending an extra two minutes sorting everything into three piles: darks, lights, and whites. This way, you can add bleach to your whites to keep them white. The color from the darks won't bleed into the lights and change their tone, either.
2. Use Warm Water in Most Cases
Yes, using cold water may save you money on energy bills, but it won't get your clothing as clean. Most clothing is best off being washed in warm water. You only want to use hot water on items like underwear and socks, which may be truly soiled and in need of more aggressive washing. You can rinse in cold water, but use warm or hot for the soapy part of the cycle.
3. Don't Overfill the Washer
Your clothing needs to be loosely piled inside the washer. If you pack it in, there won't be enough space for all of the clothes to move about in the water, so they won't really get clean. Don't fill the washer to the brim, either. Fill it to the top of the agitator, and select "full load." If the clothing only comes halfway up the agitator, you can set the washer to "medium load." Only use "small load" when you have just a handful of items in there.
4. Use a Good-Quality Detergent
Cheaper detergents don't really save you money. You have to use a lot more, and sometimes you end up needing to re-wash the clothing because the detergent does not get the clothes clean the first time! It's worth paying a little more for a name brand that really gets your clothing clean without the need for rewashing or the use of a lot of stain removers.
Follow the laundry tips above for cleaner clothing in less time. Of course, if doing laundry starts to feel too overwhelming, you can always hire a professional to take over this task for you. There are even services that will pick up your dirty clothing, wash it, and then return it clean.