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to Do Laundry by B. Dear You are now living on your own, and Mom is far, far away. An ever increasing pile of dirty clothes are piling up and it's getting harder and harder to leap over them as you walk into the room. How are you going to resolve this mess? Not to worry, I'm here to help. Whether you have just left for college or just moved into your own place, knowing how to wash your clothes is pretty easy. Many of us just don't know how because no one ever explained to us how it is done. Follow the steps below and before you know it, you'll have some nice clean duds. Gather and Sort the Dirty Laundry: The first thing that you will need to do is gather all the dirty laundry. If you have a clothes hamper in each bedroom or each bathroom this task will be a lot easier. If you don't, you will have to gather your clothing from wherever it has been placed and consolidate it in one place. When gathering your dirty clothes, separate them into three baskets by color. One pile for Darks, Reds and Whites. (If you don't have baskets, piles on the floor will do. These clothes are dirty so it doesn't matter if they go on the floor). Seperating the clothes by color is important, because you can destroy expensive clothing by washing the wrong colors together. I have thrown away many pink dress shirts and socks due to improper sorting. Seperate Delicates form Normal Clothing: Depending on the type of clothes you wear, you may have a fourth pile that will be "delicates". Delicates are clothing that can be damaged if they are washed using the normal washing process. There are special settings for this clothing on the washer and these should be washed separately from normal clothing by color as well. Examples of delicates are sweaters, fine materials like silk, etc. Find a Washing Machine: To wash clothes you will need a washing machine. (This is not necessarily a true statement but bear with me for the sake of simplicity.) One can be found in the basement of your house, a local laundromat, or your Mom's house. Operation of the Washing Machine: There are a few different types of machines, but they all operate in pretty much the same way. Open the machine, load your clothes to about half full, add the amount of clothes washer detergent and fabric softener indicated on the bottle, close the lid, and turn the machine on. Fabric softener shouldn't be added until after the water fills up the inside of the machine so it won't lay on the clothes in it's concentrated form. Pouring it in after the waher has filled with water allows the water to dilute it. Wash the Colors Separately: Reds should be washed in cold water. This will prevent a minimal amount of color to be washed out (also called bleeding) of the clothing. If you've sorted properly and color washes out, it will get onto other reds and not cause a problem because you separated them. Reds and whites don't play nice and should be kept apart. Don't wash reds with whites unless you'd like you'd like your whites to be pinks. Washing the Darks: Washing dark colored clothing is pretty simple. Wash them in cold to minimize the bleeding of colors. The majority of my clothes are in this category although your wardrobe may, and probably does differ significantly from mine. Washing Whites: Whites are washed a bit differently. To get them super white, we want to wash them in hot water. This will get all the dirt out and we don't have to worry about washing dye out of the clothing since they are white. You may need to add a bit of stain treatment to remove the tougher stains that really show up on whites. Add the treatment before washing and let it sit for about fifteen minutes. Then wash away. Drying Clothing: After each washing, the clothes will need to be dried. Clothes can be dried in a dryer or on a clothes line. If drying on the clothesline, be sure to use clean, dry clothespins to hold items in place on the line. This will prevent clothes from being blown off and getting dirty again. If using a clothes dryer, simply open the door of the drier, select a time and temperature of dry on the knob , add a fabric softener/anti-static sheet and turn it on. Wait until the drier has completed it's cycle, empty the lint trap, then repeat with the next batch of wet clothes. Never filll the dryer more than half-full with clothes or it will take forever for them to dry. It is important to hang clothes up immediately after drying to make ironing them a whole lot easier. Fold Clothing: Hang all dress shirts or other hangable items on hangers. Clothes that aren't hung on hangers, should be folded neatly and organized according to where they go in the house. Once folded, clothes can be placed into baskets and taken to the proper drawer where they will be ready for the next time you wear them. If you have any additional information to add to this list, I'd love to hear about it. Please send any comments, questions or other remarks to contact@pro-think.com. |
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