While some people love doing household chores, there’s the other half who don’t. Thy absolutely dread the time of the day that is allocated for cleaning up.
All chores are bad, but the worse ones are the ones that have additional steps after you’re done – like laundry. First you have to wash the clothes, then dry them then fold them. That the triple step chore! The worst mind of chore.
You know what makes doing your laundry worse? When you take out your clothes and realise that the colour from on of your dark clothes bled all over your whites and now, they are stained, and your dark clothes are faded.
Like WTH? As if doing laundry isn’t hard enough!
Well, looks like it is time to address the most common issues people face when doing their laundry:
1. How to keep your whites, white
Avoid: Mixing in coloured clothes when washing white clothes.
Some fabrics like cotton are not colourfast, so their dye molecules end up the wash water and settle on other white or light-coloured clothes.
What to do:
+ Wash your whites separately
+ Wash with a colour remover or soak items in boiling water and oxygen bleach in a basin monthly
2. How to keep your darks, dark
Avoid: Overloading the laundry when washing darks
Washing too many clothes together makes the clothing collide with one another in the washing machine during the wash cycle, which causes some of the fibres in the fabric to break, exposing the raw fibre ends. This actually disrupts the surface of the fabric, tricking the eye into seeing less colour.
What to do:
+ Wash your all your darks clothes together without any light or white coloured clothes
+ Wash items of similar weight at the same time
+ Choose the shortest setting, like speed wash
+ Use laundry detergent without bleach
+ Closing all zippers, fasten all hooks, and turn items inside out for less collision
+ Let them dry in the sun instead of dryer
3. How to keep brights, bright
Avoid: Washing brights together with darks
This can cause some of the darks to stain your brightly coloured clothes making them look faded and dull.
What to do:
+ Separate your clothes by colour intensity
+ Choose the shortest setting, like speed wash
+ Turn items inside out
4. How to avoid colours from bleeding/running
Avoid: Immediately washing brand new dark or brightly coloured clothing
When you wash it immediately, you won’t know if the colour will bleed or not, this can result in the colour bleeding and staining your other clothes.
What to do:
+ Soak your bright fabrics in salt or vinegar before washing
+ Don’t put stained items in dryer
+ Hand wash or wash separately to avoid staining other clothes
5. Deodorant, sweat, grease or any stains
Avoid: Chucking it in the laundry immediately
While you might think, omg I have a stain, I must wash this immediately, that isn’t always the solution. Sometimes the stain won’t be properly removed causing it to stay there permanently.
What to do:
+ For perspiration or greasy stains: Pre-treat with colourless liquid detergent, dishwashing liquid, or shampoo
+ For food stains or underarm yellowing : Apply undiluted liquid oxygen bleach directly to the fabric immediately before laundering
