The amazing world of laundry

Hey there! Let’s talk about laundry, something which everyone knows about but doesn’t want to do. I am sure that you also know what laundry is but do you know how to do it? Well, if yes then more power to you but if no then you are at the right place. This is the amazing world of laundry.

Should I be separating my laundry by colours or fabrics or textures? How often should I wash my clothes? What should be the temperature or the spin cycle or drying time? I am sure these are the questions popping in your mind before starting laundry, I have asked these questions myself too, it’s normal after all doing laundry is not easy if you have 10 different fabrics with 10 different colours. What I am trying to say that research is important and so is the process. If you know the basics, you can master anything.

Laundry is not only washing your clothes but it is the full process of washing them, drying them, and folding them until it is back at your closet ready to be worn again.

Process for Laundry

The laundry process can be loosely separated into three parts that are sorting, washing and drying.

Sorting

The first important step before you even start washing your clothes is separating and sorting them properly. You can separate your clothes mainly based on fabrics, colours and sometimes textures. Proper sorting will keep your whites white and the delicate clothes in excellent condition. There is not a perfect way to sort your clothes. Different people sort their clothes differently, it depends on their preference. But for starters, here is an example, you can sort your clothes by their fabrics like cottons, wools and synthetics (polyester, acrylic, mixed) as the washing machines have mainly three programs that are cottons, synthetics (mixed) and delicates (hand-wash).

Now, that you sorted them with their fabrics, you can go ahead and sort them by their colours. You can keep lighter ones on one side and darker ones on the other. The reason to keep your whites separate is because the colours from darker fabrics can transfer to lighter ones and obviously you would want your whites to remain white rather than some pale pinks or greens. The lighter pastel colour clothing should also be separated from the darker ones because of the same reason.

At first, it may seem like a hassle to make so many clothing piles but once you get the hang of it, you can just take a quick glance and should be able to understand which cloth will go where.

Washing

I cannot stress this enough how important it is to check the tags of your clothes. The water bucket symbol essentially means at which temperature you should wash your clothes and if the water bucket symbol is crossed then it is not machine washable.

Now, onto the actual washing process. The general rule of thumb is the colder the temperature of the water, the gentler the wash will be and the shrinkage of the clothes will also be low. It is good for delicate clothes but cold water is not effective for washing stains.

I believe liquid detergents are better as they do not leave stains unlike powder detergents that leaves stains if the water is cold. But then again, it is a preference not a necessity.

It is important to set the correct temperature before washing clothes as using hot water fades the colours and leads to shrinkage of clothes but they do help in removing stains. So, if you have a heavily soiled cloth then you can choose to wash it with hot water but caution is important as you would not want to damage your clothes.

Follow the machine instructions and adjust the temperature, spin speed accordingly. Do not forget to check the tags of your clothing especially the delicate ones before putting them in the machine as some of them are not meant to be machine washable like cashmere, silks, suits, etc. In addition to that any piece of clothing that looks fragile should also be put in the delicate program.

An important tip here is that before washing just turn your clothes inside out if you want to retain colours and reduce damage.

Drying

Now that you have done washing your clothes let’s move onto drying. People tend to take this step lightly and let their clothes tumble dry. It may be good for some but natural air drying is much better. Especially it helps the white clothes as they do not turn off white and also keeps the clothes fresh. It also prevents stains on sweaters, leggings, gym wears, etc. You should also not dry your heavy clothes by hanging them as it pulls on the weight so rather than hanging them vertically, laying them horizontally retains the shape of the heavy clothes.

Maintenance tips for your clothes

These tips are just some of the things to be mindful of while maintaining your clothes.

1. Do not wash your clothes everyday or too frequently. The clothes that are too close to your body like the tees and underwear can be washed frequently but if you do not sweat too much then washing them with water is enough. Your sweatshirts, jackets, denims do not require frequent washing. If you have a good solid rotation of clothes then washing them once a week or two or three times a month is enough. If your clothes such as suits do get stained then you can just give them for dry cleaning. Not washing them frequently helps the fibers to stay together and increase the lifespan of your cloth.

2. More detergent does not mean better washing. In case of using detergent, it is important to know that less is more. If you use too much detergent then it will stay in the fabric and make it stiff. You can follow the instructions written on the back of your detergent bottle for proper washing.

3. Storing and hanging your clothes properly. Hang your jackets, suits, shirts, coats and fold your t-shirts and sweaters. It is generally the most efficient way to store your cloth as it will save time and space in your closet. You should always fold your really heavy clothes too as they can be pulled down due to its weight and it may lose its shape.

5. You can use a shaver to remove the lints on your clothes. You can also find shavers that are especially made for fabrics to remove the lints. It keeps your fabrics looking fresh, clean and new.

6. Iron your clothes at the right temperature. You can check the tags of clothes for ironing instructions or many irons already have temperature settings on them. Follow them properly.

I hope you learned something from this article and get an idea of how to do your own laundry as I believe that everyone should do their own laundry. So, the next time your laundry is piling up, just go ahead and clean them yourself and instead of asking your parents to do it for you.

With that being said, Dhobi G is a go-to help for anything related to laundry. You may browse many more similar tips at https://blog.dhobig.com/. Visit Dhobi G at www.dhobig.com. Make sure to check them out on Facebook as well at https://www.facebook.com/DhobiGOnline/.