How To Do Laundry

Help When You Need to Wash Your Clothes

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Step1: Sort Your Laundry

Sort you dirty laundry into whites, bright colors and dark colors. Otherwise colors may bleed onto your white and bright laundry and ruin it.

Also separate laundry that produces lint (towels, sweatshirts, flannel) from those that attract lint (corduroy, velvets, permanent-press)

Step2: Close Zippers and Empty Pockets

Before washing make sure all zippers are closed and all pockets are empty. Turn shirts with printed artwork inside out.

Open zippers can rip delicate clothing apart, stuff from the pockets can ruin the clothing, the washing machine or both.

Step3: Add Laundry Soap

Add the right amount of laundry soap into the right slot in the washing machine.

The right amount is printed on the detergent package and the right slot you can find from the users manual of the washing machine or from the text printed next to the slots on some machines.

You machine may have a slot for pre-wash soap, normal wash soap, softener and bleach. Thats four slots, but mostly you only need to use the normal wash soap slot and the one for softener.

Step4: Choose Temperature

Usually you want to use the highest temperature that you clothes will stand. This is something you find out by reading the care label on every piece of clothing.

Step5: Don't Save Energy

This might be a bit constroversial, but I allways use as many rinse cycles as the machine will allow as this removes more detergent leftovers from the garments.

I also use the highest temperature that the clothing can stand to make sure it becomes clean. That's the whole reasone with washing it anyway, that is becomes clean and fresh.

Step6: Wash

Add clothes, close lid and start the machine. Then wait until it's done.

In a professional laundromat this will usually be less than an hour, while in home washing machines it could be up to two hours depending on the chosen cycle.

Step7: Dry

Put the clothes in the dryer. Put delicates on a clothing rack or hanger to air dry outside or in a well ventilated room.

The care label will tell you what clothes needs special drying.

Step8: Fold

When completely dry, fold you clean laundry and put it where you normally have your clean clothes.