You May Be Doing Your Home Laundry Wrong

Doing laundry is an inevitable part of life. Everyone needs clean clothes to wear, and unless you have the funds and desire to never wear the same thing twice, you need to learn how to do laundry properly. But, the question is, even after you have run your clothes through a washer and dryer cycle, are they actually fully clean?

There may be times when we wash and dry our clothes, but they are still wrinkled, stretched, lacking buttons, stained with another color, or still exhibiting stains despite the cycle they have just been through. If this is the case, you may be doing your laundry wrong.

Here are some of the most common ways people actually ruin their clothes during laundry, so you can avoid them:

• Overusing detergent. This will do your clothes more harm than good. Adding more detergent will not clean dirt off, but rather locking it in and cause residue buildup on your clothes.
• Overloading your washing machine. Do you want your laundry to be washed with maximum efficiently? Everyone does! While it may seem natural to assume washing more clothes at once is more efficient, the opposite can actually be true. Overloading will give your clothes less space to move around, which robs them from being cleaned properly.
• Neglecting buttons. Do you leave your clothes buttoned when you throw them in the wash? If so, the constant movement of the clothes will add more pressure on the button area, making it more likely they could be pulled off during the process.
• Not separating clothes based on color. Never ever mix white clothes with colored clothes unless you want your whites to look dull and tinted. Colored clothes will bleed some of their pigmentation into the water, even if you’ve washed them before. This can be a costly mistake, so just be prudent up front.
• Rubbing your clothes too vigorously when removing stains. This can damage the fibers and stretch your clothing unevenly, leaving spots of stretched material behind.
• Overusing bleach. The more bleach you use, the faster you can remove a stain, right? While that may be true, you can also damage the surrounding fabric and cause unplanned discoloration. Use bleach in moderation, and always be sure to read an item’s care tag first because some fabrics never be in contact with bleach at all.

Not cleaning your machine. Proper maintenance is crucial to keeping your machine properly functioning. You should clean your washer and dryer occasionally to remove lint and detergent buildup. One of the easiest ways to do this is to clean your lint filter after every use.

Chris George Homes
Oklahoma City Realtor
Let’s get in touch: 405.843.8188