laundry tips | Imamother

grs

Mon, Feb 20 2006, 8:42 pm

I'm embarrassed to post this, but -I'm terrible with laundry. I feel like most of my kids clothes look terrible and I'm probably not doing my wash right. MY mother never did laundry (she had live in help) so she cna't even teach me. Anyone have any basic tips? maybe Laundry 101 or better yet Laundry for Dummies?
Thanks!

hisorerus ↓

Mon, Feb 20 2006, 8:44 pm

Some of the links on here might help, I may post my own later IY"H.
http://www.flylady.net/pages/F.....y.asp

chen ↓

Mon, Feb 20 2006, 10:29 pm

Chen's Top 10 Laundry Mistakes (not in any particular order)

1. Mixing whites with darks or coloreds. (against the law in South Africa LOL

)
2. Overloading machine
3. Washing anything except 100% cotton and bed and bath linens in hot water.
4. Washing in hot water anything cotton that just-just fits.
5. Mixing lint givers (towels) with lint-takers (velour, corduroy)
6. Machine washing anything labeled DRY CLEAN ONLY
7. Leaving laundry in the machine (washer or dryer) after load is finished.
8. Leaving tissues in pockets
9. Using too much fabric softener
10.Pouring bleach when you are wearing your brand-new royal-blue outfit.

sunnymom

Mon, Feb 20 2006, 11:30 pm

Hey Chen
As per your post, if you lived in South Africa, you wouldn't have to do laundry at all... you'd have someone to do it for you...!!!

chocolate moose

Tue, Feb 21 2006, 11:25 am

Some of it is in the setup.

I have four hampers:

One for regular whites
One for regular colors

Then I have two for stuff I wash on cold, gentle, and then hang to dry.

Sheets are done by themselves, and hung to dry.

Each day I do one load. Usually Thursday Friday for the top two and then dry them in the dryer, and then Monday Tuesday for the rest.

If stuff is particular dirty, I pretreat and let soak, either for 30 minutes or the whole day, since I do only one load at a time. That really helps!

I sort & give out once a week, usually Friday.

I always have new laundry to do, but you have to make a division somewhere.

ektsm

Tue, Feb 21 2006, 11:35 am

I wash everything in hot water I just seperate the colors; lights, whites, darks, baby clothes. I use the same detergent for everything but add 1 tbls of viniger to the baby clothes. Then I dry everything on low to medium depending if it's clothes or sheets and put any delicate clothes to dry on a house line.

↑ chen ↓

Tue, Feb 21 2006, 11:40 am

Whee, SaraG, another multiple-hamper lady! I thought I was alone on the planet! Life's a breeze when your laundry practically sorts itself. I'd have a few more hampers except we haven't the space.

I also have multiple mesh bags. That way my handful of white cotton items that can take hot water can go in the wash with all the guys' underthings, or with the white bed linens, and be retrieved immediately.

red sea ↓

Tue, Feb 21 2006, 11:46 am

Kids shirts and pants only get washed in cold water, unless they are seriously dirty, then occasionally warm. Lots of stuff gets washed inside out, it keeps them looking better especially the shabbos clothes and anything with screen printing on it. Sweaters and shabbos clothes hang dry. All the clothes gets put away hot from dryer so they don't wrinkle. Just pj's and underwear type stuff get thrown in hot water.

↑ chen

Tue, Feb 21 2006, 11:52 am

lucky wrote:

Chen,

Did you steal my list??? Nah, my list is longer then this. Wink

Uh, well, I only posted the top 10... Very Happy

I've been doing my own laundry since I was about 12. My mother, who grew up in the all-cotton era and boiling sheets in a vat atop the stove, didn't know from gentle-care fabrics. She machine-washed my beloved filmy dotted-swiss shabbos dress (the machine had only one cycle: magnum force) and it ended up in tatters. From that day on I hand-washed nearly everything I cared about. (Dad wasn't too happy to have my stuff dripping in the tub all the time, but my clothes lasted a lot longer.)

goldrose

Tue, Feb 21 2006, 3:35 pm

worst mistake we made was to leave a pen in my husband's shirt pocket!! ink DOES NOT come out........(in that thickness and amount, for sure - no matter how much hairspray you use!)

mother48

Tue, Feb 21 2006, 4:20 pm

this one is more for safety, but empty the lint b4 you use the dryer. (could cvshl cause fire)

I find a liquid detergent works better then powder.

for dirty loads, soak for a while.

for whites, I add in bleach (not too much). feel machine with hot and let soak overnight. then, I put the machine back on in the morning and let it finish the load. I then rerun a full load (on a shorter cycle) with just detergent, so no bleach smell on clothing, and safer for kids.

FOLLOW THE CARE LABELS ON THE CLOTHING:)

↑ lucky

Wed, Feb 22 2006, 11:03 pm

Very important. Check pockets before washing. Sure is agravating to pick bits of shredded tissues from a dark load.

Close zippers. Less chance of them breaking.
I double rinse bleach loads.
I use ammonia for smelly dark socks. It takes away the smell.
I love the pop-up hampers. Use it to sort laundry, or I use it when both hampers are full.

I wash laundry every day.

Milk Munch

Tue, Apr 25 2006, 8:37 pm

USE PERM PRESS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Its between gentle and regular. Anything that would normally have to be ironed.
Dry on Medium. Take out of dryer as soon as you can. Better to underdry than overdry.
(when you over dry, things shrink and ends curl up)
Once I figured this out, I stopped shrinking things and stopped ironing!
I also make a separate load for all my boys pants--jean, courderoy...thick fabrics, because they take longer to dry than other clothes.

Dont' ignore your heavy duty cycle either!!
I use that for my kitchen towels that get soooo grungy and for whites.
And lastly--pretreat a spot as soon as possible. I keep multiple bottle of stain spray throughout the house and spray a stain right away. So much more comes out since I started doing that.
Good luck!

Frumom

Thu, Apr 27 2006, 1:46 pm

Maybe I'm not doing things right, but personally I wash all clothing together on perm press. I hang up all my shirts and skirts and dry everything else. Seems to work for us though, colors dont run, and doesnt take much prep either.

BlumaG ↓

Thu, Apr 27 2006, 2:03 pm

if u use powder detergent let the water run in first then add detergent toherwise it can clump up and make white marks on clothing

I try to do most loads in one day twice a wk
I have 5 baskets for sorting after, one for each person and one for ironing

↑ BlumaG

Tue, Jan 09 2007, 3:38 pm

I see my post from last year and it makes me laugh

I now only use concentrated liquid detergent, seems to clean better
and I do one load a day
actually bh DH now puts on the loads and switches them all I have to do is organize and fold