Laundry Tips For Everyone!

Style One: Diligent Sorter

Defined By: In the never-ending story that is laundry duty, you use every sorting method at your disposal. Denim stays away from polyester, and towels get a whole load to themselves.

1. Pass Along Your Knowledge

You’re an expert sorter, but maybe your partner didn’t ace all their classes at Laundry U like you did. To get everyone on board, keep a dry erase marker by the washer and write notes on the machine to your partner about what goes where and when. Tip: Post-it Notes work, too, if you don’t want to write on your machine.

2. Refresh Your Towels

Remember how fluffy and absorbent your towels used to be? Bring the fluffy back by running towels through the washer on a medium water temperature with ¼ cup vinegar – no fabric softener needed! (More fluffy towel tricks here.)

3. Embrace Hand-Washing

Instead of running a load for every type of fabric you own, hand wash items that lean towards the delicate side like lace and silk. Not only will you save money on your water bill – you’ll save time, because you can hand wash your skivvies while you’re machine-washing your workout clothes.

Style Two: Hasty Sorter

Defined By: You keep your red jeans away from your white sheets, but that’s about as detailed as things get.

1. Use Two Laundry Bins

Have two separate hampers: One for whites and one for colors. When you toss a shirt in the laundry, throw it in the appropriate hamper. By having two hampers, you essentially erase sorting from your routine. Tip: If you regularly hand wash clothes, consider having three hampers.

2. Invest In Mesh Bags

Mesh bags were invented to protect bras, but you use them to protect anything like easily lost socks and delicate like lace shirts that you don’t want getting bashed about by your other clothes. They’re also perfect for knits that might snag and unravel.

3. Wash Two Loads, Dry One

Two washer loads can equal one dryer load. This works especially well if laundry duty takes place in a laundromat or in a building’s basement with a larger dryer. If you have a standard one washer, one dryer set-up, simply hold off on starting the dryer until it’s filled with two washer loads.

Style Three: Non-Sorter

Defined By: You’re an equal-opportunity washer and toss everything into one load, all of the time. It’s all clothing, right?

1. Go With Warm Water

This isn’t a foolproof plan – you may still have some color issues if you’re mixing bright red and white. But, hot water will definitely make your colors bleed, and cold water won’t get sheets and underwear as clean as they should be, so go with the happy medium water temperature. Warm for the win.

2. Go Inside-Out

If you’re skipping the sorting step of laundry, turn everything inside-out so any color bleeding will affect the parts of your clothes not on display. Bonus: A lot of your clothing ends up inside-out when you get undressed anyway, so there’s not really any extra work.

3. Find a Laundry Service

Everybody has a chore they hate. If yours happens to be laundry, stop the self-torture and hire out. In most cities, you can have your laundry washed and folded for as little as $1 per pound. If you really hate laundry duty (or just don’t have time to do it), this may be a great option for you.

For more great tips, visit: http://bit.ly/1ux0Bde