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Washing made easy - Do laundry like a pro

How can you be sure that your favourite jeans and your expensive designer sweater don’t come out half as big, twice as wide or a totally different color to what you put into the machine in the first place? We’ve put together the best basic tips for anyone out there who needs boost their laundry IQ.

Washing

Blue with blue, white with white. Sounds like a no-brainer, right? But there are lots of different colors and fabrics, so pay attention to this. The first thing you should do is read the care label on the garment. Then look at the color and sort your wash into piles based on these three simple rules:

  • Color. Sort into whites, light colors and dark colors based on the lightest color in the garment. That way your white sheets and T-shirts will never come out pink or baby blue.
  • Temperature. The care label specifies a temperature, and you should never wash a garment at a higher temperature than this. Otherwise you risk ruining it. On the other hand, garments are often marked at lower temperatures than they can actually stand, and too low won't get it clean. If you can't find the care label, use your common sense. Does it seem like a delicate garment? What kind of fabric is it made of? Feel it and put it in the same pile as garments of roughly the same type.
  • Wash program. Check the garment's care label and select the program based on what it says. Clothing labeled ‘Hand Wash’ can be machine-washed if your washer has a special hand-wash program. Right, then. How many piles did you end up with? Too many? Keep the color piles, but you can mix garments with different temperature labeling if you select a program and temperature based on the most sensitive garment in the pile.


    • Select the right program

    Most garments can be machine-washed, but you need to select the right program based on the fabric, color, and how soiled the garments are. An intensive/heavy duty program for heavily soiled garments. An eco-wash program for a normal wash of natural fiber garments. A fast/quick wash program for small loads of lightly soiled garments. Programs with extra rinses for allergy sufferers. Gentle wash programs for synthetics and clothing with screen prints.

    Wool has its own program, and some washing machines have special programs for sports gear, including trainers and sports jackets. Many sports jackets are made of waterproof, breathable fabrics like Gore-Tex®, which should never be treated with fabric softener. For night-time washing, there are special programs where you switch the machine onto spin when it suits you.


    How soiled is heavily soiled?

    Lightly soiled washing: Clothes without obvious stains that just need freshening up.
    Normally soiled washing: Clothes worn for a whole day that might have a few visible stains. Heavily soiled washing: Clothes worn for at least one day (such as socks) that you’ve had close to your skin (like underwear), or textiles used in contexts where they get particularlysoiled (such as bath towels).
    Very heavily soiled washing: Textiles with heavy stains of mud, grass, food or wine, for example. Or tea towels and bed sheets that have been used for a while, and gym/sports clothes.

    Tips and tricks

    • Empty those pockets! It’s no fun losing stuff and damaging your washer in the process.

    • Get softer clothes. Forget about fabric softener: make your towels and cotton jumpers softer by tumble dring them for a few minutes. Then you can either continue drying them in the dryer or hang them up to line dry.

    • Keep your bras white. Most white synthetic lingerie is dyed white. When you wash it with bleach, the white color is bleached out, and you’re left with a gray-looking rag! To avoid this happening, wash your nice white lingerie in detergent for colors that doesn’t contain bleach.

    • To dry clean or not to dry clean – that’s the question. A few words of advice here: First of all, choose an environmentally conscious drycleaner. And only use dry cleaning when the garment is really dirty. Half of all garments left for dry cleaning only actually need airing and ironing.