Machine Washing

Rainy-Days

A neighbour of mine commented this morning how my sheets are always beautiful and white she wanted to know what laundry product I used - and it was the same as hers. This is not rocket science stuff, but to her it felt like it was because her whites go to grey. The problem was she was doing three washes a week and sorting nothing!

If you are chucking everything in together and hoping for the best it isn't going to happen. If you sort through your things put them into colour piles then your things will last almost indefinitely and save you money from having to keep replacing them.

Sort your clothes into four piles:
Whites
Light coloureds,
Dark coloureds and
Delicates

Whites are cottons and linens including basic white T shirts and underwear.

Anything that produces lint such as towels should always be washed separately. I have a full load of towels and do them altogether once a week (they are all white).

If you are washing jeans or corduroy, turn them inside out as not only will they be better protected in the washing cycle, they will not fade so much in the sunshine on the line when they take a good while to dry. Don't ever put towels in with cordrouy as the lint will make a bee line straight for the cords!

Check pockets before washing for tissues, pens, coins and sweets!

Make sure that you are not filing the washing machine drum to within a millimetre of it's life. You have to leave some space so that your clothes can move around during the washing cycle, it is the agitated action of the clothes with the washing powder/liquid that then removes the dirt and debris.

If you know something that bleeds in the wash fast set it. Boil a kettle and disolve in a bowl five tablespoons of salt - ordinary cheap salt. Then add cold water so your bowl is 3/4 full and the temperature of the water is cool. Add the clothing and then give it a really good squeeze through, leave in the water for 15 minutes stiring it around every now and again, then rinse off. It may bleed a little after the first normal wash but the worst has been stopped in it's tracks!

Washing socks at 60 degrees will kill off the fungus that causes athletes foot! If you then hang them on the line to dry in the sunshine the UVA rays will kill off any other remaining bacteria!

MaggieBaking

I didn't know about fast setting, thanks for the tip!

oldtractor

Interesting info. I prefer to wash on cold with laundry gloop, grey whites and not-so-clean-socks we put up with. occasionally I do a 30 degree quick wash [30 mins] and add some oxi-bleach to whiten things up or for very dirty or smelly thinhs like DH's socks and oily overalls . Saves lots of electricity and oil and I have reduced my energy bills and carbon footprint.

Rainy-Days

I think people seem to believe that a quick 30 minute wash is a lesser wash than an hour long job which most of them take. I use quick washes quite a bit, especially with the dog towels and I have never had a situation where I thought urgh it could have done with longer. In fact the wash results have come out the same only I have had to manually switch it round to fast spin to get a better drying result. Either way doing it on fast saves about 20 or so more minutes of washing time and electricity so you are right, it does work.

It's how you group your clothes together and how much you put into the wash that will determine the end result.

rachbc

No your right its not rocket science - my mum taught me to sort laundry when i was about 4 - and my 4 year old gets understands this concept!

Raksha

rachbc wrote: »

No your right its not rocket science - my mum taught me to sort laundry when i was about 4 - and my 4 year old gets understands this concept!

So why doesn't my 50 year old OH? My kids (all boys, aged from 29 down to 14) do, so why doesn't he?

bigfatpig

I try not to buy anything white so don't get grey things!

If I wear white I get it dirty within about 10minutes and DH invariably dries his not quite clean enough hands on white towels leaving dirty marks so I go for coloured things every time.

GreyQueen

I had the correct sorting of laundry dinned into me as a nipper; my Mum isn't houseproud, just clean-enough and comfortable, but she does have "a bit of a thing" about dingy whites and I guess I've inherited it.

At the moment, I'm loading an exclusively white wash (bedsheet, nightie and a white tee-shirt) which I'll run at 30 degrees for 1 hour.

You can also brighten whites by drying them outside on the line, if you have that facility (sadly I don't).

In the olden days, before the invention of chlorine bleach, it was the custom to lighten freshly-woven linen by lying it flat on the grass. I have been somewhere in Ulster to a reconstructed village which was open as a tourist attraction and it had a linen-bleaching green in a small cylindrical watching hut for whomever was on duty to guard the linens from thieves.....very interesting. It was about 30 years ago and I can't remember exactly where it was, prob in Co Down or nearby.

You can also "bleach" whites outside on the line in frosty weather but be careful of hanging white woollens in the sun as they can perversely turn yellow......

nonnatus

Lovely post OP! My mum taught me the fine arts of using the washing machine 20 years ago, pretty much as you have written them. I tried in vain to convince my ex that the washing machine wasn't a miracle-making-tardis-like-creature but he never ever listened and to my frustration, continually packed it full to the brim.

As a consequence, his washes never cleaned effectively. Even today, when the kids return to me after a week with him they complain about how nothing smells right and that their PE kits are mucky after a wash! :cool:

Raksha

Oh yes, I forgot to relay this hint:

Forget the high spin speeds, all they do is iron the creases in that you will NEVER get rid of - 700rpm is quite enough, shake everything before you hang it on the line, pull it into shape if necessary. when it's dry, fold it all and put it away, and you may never have to iron ever again!

UnluckyT

good post Op.
Was taught basics too by mum, who 'tried' to teach ex-stepdad how to use the washing machine and basic consepts.
When he got the hint that he had to help round the house more and why he didnt have any clean clothes, he just chucked it in the machine, asked mum what programme she used, to then ask whats that smell about 10/15mins of it being in the tumble as the silly so and so had neglected to put washing powder in? Sounds wicked, but he'd been shown/asked/had it mentioned enough times?