Laundry Cleaning Tips

1. Only wash what really needs washing. All too often, we take off clothes we’ve worn and throw them straight in the laundry basket without stopping to check if they’re clean enough to wear again. Laundering clothes unnecessarily not only wastes time, but precious energy and water. So start giving garments a quick whiff test first ~ you’ll be surprised at what you can put back in the wardrobe for another day.

2. Sort, sort, sort. It’s the best way to save energy (and money) in the laundry. Sorting whites from colours avoids the need to do extra treatments; and sorting drying into piles of similar fabrics also means that if you must use the dryer it’s on for as short a time as possible.

You can also save on energy consumption by having the thermostat on your hot water set to a maximum of 40°C; removing clothes from the dryer before they’re fully dry and letting evaporation finish the job; and, of course, using the clothesline whenever possible.

3. Learn to love the cold. Up to 90 per cent of the energy used in the average washing machine is in water heating. So try to use detergents that wash well in cold water ~ as opposed to those that rely on a warm or hot wash to work.

4. So you’ve forgotten to remove tissues from pockets. It’s an easy mistake to make ~ and can coat an entire wash in tiny pieces of white fluff that refuse to be shaken free. The solution is simply to place the load in the dryer rather than hanging on the line. Once the load is completely dry, remove from the dryer, give each piece a good shake, clean the lint filter and then place the load back in the dryer for an extra ten minutes.

5. Stopping socks from going missing. ‘Disappearing socks’ can be a serious annoyance ~ but a good tip for minimising it is to place all socks and underwear in their own basket and wash them together as a separate weekly load. You should find this a better way of keeping socks together than throwing them in with everything else.

Wherever possible, use natural-based laundry detergents that are grey water safe and help protect the environment by reducing chemical contamination of our streams and waterways.