Home Laundry is Harder than it Looks
One of the world’s biggest soap manufacturers, Procter & Gamble, says people do their laundry improperly by not sorting loads, overloading machines, and washing clothes too often.
People spend more time doing wash now than 50 years ago, but research shows the clothes are coming out less clean and more worn than elsewhere in the world.
Today people have the largest wardrobes in history, and most people wash their clothes too often. Europeans commonly wear an outfit two to three times before washing.
Europeans also use different machines. They are more likely to use gentler, front-loading machines that look similar to a dryer instead of top-loading machines. The agitator in the middle of the top-loading machine beats garments and knocks the dirt out of them, while the tumbling motion of the front-loader reaches a better level of cleanliness with no unncessary roughness.
The Procter & Gamble study found the average American woman in the laundry room seven to nine hours per week, up from the 1960s. This phenomenon is likely due to the singular wearing of garments and larger wardrobes.
Here are some tips for getting the most out of your wardrobe and machinery. You can always bring your wash to us and we’ll them take care of the dulldrudgery.
Simple Steps for Cleaning Laundry Properly
• Check pockets
• Pretreat stains
• Sort loads by
1. Color
2. Construction and fabric type
3. Amount of soil
• Select proper water temperature
• Select appropriate cycle
• Fill washer with water
• Add detergent and laundry boosters following instructions
• Add clothing to washer following recommended load
Drying Loads for Fewer Wrinkles & Less Drying Time
• Sort by fiber content
• Sort by weight
• Do not overload the dryer
• Select drying temperature based on fiber content
• Remove promptly
• Fold or hang right away
Common Laundry Mistakes
• Overloading the washer
• Poor load sorting
• Failure to measure laundry additives
• Too low water temperature
• Failure to sort for drying
• Overloading the dryer