I know this sounds extremely stupid but I just have no idea how to do laundry the right way. I am 25 years old and with a family and two small children. I never really had anyone growing up to show me how to do house hold things. Yes I do know HOW to do laundry I just dont think I do it right. Our clothes dont ever last long. They seem to get dingy quick, and they never seem to smell good. I think the smell might be our water, because we have well water. We have a home filtering system but I think that might be why the clothes dont keep their good smell. Is there anything that I can put in the load to help with the smell? What is the best temp to wash certain clothes in? Is it better to do big loads or a bunch of small ones? Do I need to separate all the clothes, such as all jeans one pile, all shirts one pile, all towels one pile and all miscellaneous one pile? What is a good stain fighter? Is it best to put the stain fighter on the stain right after it gets on the shirt? Is it better to use liquid or powder detergent? lol. I know this sounds simple but really please help me out so I can quit messing our clothes up! No mean answers, dont waist my time or yours! thanks!
3 Responses
This is what I do…
I separate the piles, jeans, shirts, towels, under clothes and whites
I use cold water with everything except towels and under clothes and I use warm or hot for that
I use Tide liquid NOT with bleach though..you can get Tide with a
fragrance added…like Spring Fresh
Downy in the rinse cycle and then a Downy sheet in the dryer
Delicate items should be washed in cold water on delicate cycle with Woolite or something similar…hang dry
Sweaters would be included in Delicate to keep from shrinking
Never over load the washer or dryer
I use shout on spots before washing, it is best to pretreat the spots asap….
I will sometime put colored t-shirts and colored underwear in one pile
That should help some. If I think of anything else, I will let you know.
added: one more thing, since you have small children…if you are out somewhere and they spill something on their clothes, you can take a napkin or whatever you can find, wet it with water and keep pressing it on the spot….it should bring the spot right out or most of it anyway.
I don’t think well water is your problem. That is suppose to be THE best water to have. My mother always had a well and I love the water at her house. You can have the water tested though.
added: Just to make a comment on what Jeff said about the powder Tide..if you use the powder, make sure that you put the detergent in, fill the washing machine with water and let agitate for a few seconds to make sure all of the powder is disolved, the add the clothes, other wise, you could have dry powder still on your clothes
Use clorox bleach on whites and clorox 2 on colors
I am 54 years old today. I have been married 3 times and that is another story. What I am trying to say is that I have been in the position to wash my own clothes many times. My mother told me to always buy Tide. While Tide is more expensive it would clean the clothes better. Trust me, I have tried all the other detergents at one time or the other in an attempt to save money. I always come back to Tide. And, as far as Tide goes I still think the powder is a better deal the the liquid. I know they want you to buy the liquid, but from my experience the powder lasts far longer. Also in our area (Central FL) there is always a $1 off coupon in the Sunday paper. I would only use another detergent if it meant the difference between clean clothes and my family eating.
I separate by color and wash dressy clothes separately from everyday clothes. Everything white and off-white goes into it’s own load. Everything really dark (navy or black for example) goes into its own load. If I have enough clothes I also like to do an in-between load (not white but not dark either).
Each item of clothing should have a tag (generally located inside in the back). Shirts or skirts may have the tag located on an inside seam near the bottom of the inside portion of the garment. The tag will give you instructions for hot or cold, hand wash, etc.
Two tricks that may help your dinginess problem are to wash clothes (especially jeans) inside out and hang clothing to dry then put it into the dryer with one or two fabric softener sheets to freshen it, get the wrinkles out and make it smell nice.
I have to agree that Tide is the best detergent although it is a bit expensive for my budget. I also prefer liquid to powder because we have a septic tank, but I’m not sure if it makes a difference in the life or cleanliness of the clothing.
I also use Oxi-clean (powder) (instructions on the can) in every load for stains and to brighten colors. I have also used color-safe Clorox bleach for bad stains previously but haven’t needed it since I started using Oxi-clean. Oxi-clean also makes a great spray bottle pre-treater that should be used if you have stains. And yes, the sooner the better. They even have a travel-sized bottle you can carry in your purse.
For scent I like Gain or Downy fabric softener sheets.