Laundry
Taking care of the laundry will require much time and energy in your life. Knowing how to do it properly and efficiently will help you cut down on many wasted hours of work and many ruined articles of clothing.
To begin, sort your dirty laundry:
- Pile for towels, rags, washcloths
- Pile for bedding
- Pile for lights, whites, etc
- Piles for delicates or hand washables
- Pile for babies
- Pile for darks
- Pile for work clothes
- Pile for reds—these may “bleed” onto lighter fabrics
It sounds like a lot of piles doesn’t it? Not everyone will have that many it depends upon their families needs. A generalized way is to sort your lights from your darks. Otherwise your lights will start looking dingy. If you have red clothing, sometimes the color will bleed onto others, check the labels for any new clothing as how to launder it.
You can throw a few towels with their respective piles (light or dark) if you have only a few to launder. If you have nicer item clothing like dress clothes, keep those separate from your work clothes.
To begin, put them in your washer. Make sure to evenly separate the clothing around the drum in the washer. If you put heavier items all on one side, it can make your washer off balance when spinning. Unroll pants and put them around the washer, instead of stuffing them in the same place. Do the same thing for bedding, wrap it around, instead of stuffing it into a ball.
Add your desired amount of soap. Check your labels. Typically you can wash everything in cold water. It saves on your utilities bill. The only item we washed in hot water was cloth diapers. We needed the hot water, to get rid of the bacteria. Skip the fabric softener, it is unnecessary. If you want a natural choice, use one cup of vinegar instead of commercial brands. Your clothing will not smell like vinegar when dried.
Make sure not to over fill your washer. The clothing needs to be able to move back and forth to wash it. If it is too stuffed or compacted it can’t get clean.
Double check the settings for:
- Proper water fill
- Water temperature
- Wash settings—a regular wash is normally fine for everything
When it is done, you can take it out and put it into the dryer on a regular dry mode. For towels and beddings, a higher heat setting is needed. If you have access to a clothesline, hang out your items. Let the sun dry your items, its FREE. Be sure to hang just the ends over the rope, you want most of the item to blow freely to dry thoroughly.
