Looking to buy a portable washing machine that meet your needs. Wouldn’t it be great if you found a way of making your laundry smell better too without having to use dryer sheets?
What about making your whites whiter? I bet you’d be happy to know how to dry your clothes faster while reducing your dryer’s energy consumption.
Even if you’re a pro in laundry, the tips I am going to share below might surprise you. These are laundry tips and secrets meant to crack some of your biggest laundry troubles as well as save you cash and time.
Let’s take a closer look.
Trick 1: Making your whites whiter
Are your white clothes going a bit yellow? Looking for a way to make them whiter? Bluing, which is also known as washing blue, dolly blue, or laundry blue, will come in handy. You can find bluing at almost any grocery store.
As the names suggest, the product adds some blue dye into the laundry. Now you might be wondering, how does a blue dye make whites whiter? It’s a matter of illusions. The blue dye creates the illusion of the white being brighter and whiter.
Try this: once you’ve cleaned your whites, and them in the sun to dry. This makes them whiter as well.
Trick 2: Giving your laundry a fantastic smell without using dryer sheets
Traditionally, if you want to make your laundry smell great, you’re told you have to add dryer sheets in there. But these are costly and if someone else is doing your laundry, they might be tempted to overuse the sheets, increasing the cost even further.
Again, overusing these can create a sticky coat that blocks the dryer’s airflow. That, in turn, causes the dryer to be inefficient and increases the energy bill by making the machine work harder.
But do you know there’s another way to make your laundry smell sweet that is way cheaper and equally as effective? Here:
- Just get a clean old sock or a piece of hand towel.
- Pour on it three drops of peppermint, rose, or vanilla extract.
- Then toss the sock/towel into the dryer with the other garments.
This method is a lot cheaper, and it doesn’t leave a coating in the dryer that blocks the airflow.
Trick 3: Dealing with static without dryer sheets
Having trouble with static in the dryer? The problem with static is that it sticks the clothes together, making them vulnerable to wear and tear and wrinkling.
But when you have static, you don’t have to use dryer sheets. There’s another way – aluminum foil balls.
These balls discharge the accumulated static, thereby keeping your clothes safe.
Trick 4: Keeping your jeans from fading
Jeans are particularly prone to fading. That being said, the way you wash your clothes plays a huge part in determining how fast they fade.
So how can you slow down the fading of jeans?
- First, turn them inside out before putting them in the washer. That way, it is the insides, rather than the outsides that will receive more abrasion. There’s no problem with the insides fading; no one see them after all.
- Next, avoid washing your jeans in hot/warm water. Hot water removes the dye, while cold water sets the dye. That’s why it makes sense to use cold water to wash jeans.
- And finally hang them to dry. The dryer’s heat is not good for the jeans, as it can fade them. Hanging the jeans to dry slows down the fading process.
Trick 5: Avoiding the problem of over-drying clothes
You probably already know the problem with overdrying your clothes. It makes them shrink and wear faster.
Well, if you’re so done with overdrying your loads, there’s a way out – invest in a dryer rack.
Once you’ve done that, do this each time to avoid overdrying your clothes – dry the clothes in the dryer for 20 minutes. That will remove most of the water. After that, hang them on the rack to finish drying.
This trick helps you save on your energy consumption and also humidifies your house, which can be very helpful during winter.
Worried about space? Don’t be. Invest in a rack you can fold when it’s not in use. That way, you can free up the space once the clothes are done drying.
Trick 6: Avoiding the high heat setting on the dryer
Many people believe that when they turn up the dryer’s heat, that will dry the clothes faster. While that is true, you got to realize that high temperatures in the dryer wears clothes faster.
Instead of high heat levels, set the dryer to a longer cycle with medium heat. Medium heat is less harmful to the clothes’ longevity.
Trick 7: Preventing socks from getting lost
Losing socks is an all too familiar issue. Even I cannot count the number of times I have lost a sock in the washer. The most annoying thing is that it is normally one sock that disappears, leaving its partner useless.
But I found a way that works to avoid this problem – mesh bags.
Purchase a zippered mesh bag and throw your socks in there every time you want to put them in the washer. That will keep them in one place, and you will never lose a sock again.
Or go for the alternative to mesh bags – safety pins. Safety pins stick each sock with its partner. It’s possible to lose one sock, but losing a pair of socks pinned together is almost impossible. It seems the sock goblin hates pairs!
Trick 8: Avoiding stubborn stains
The main factor that makes stains stubborn and difficult to remove is time. With every second that passes, most stains set and grow harder to remove.
That is why time is so important when it comes to stain removal.
Keep a bottle of stain remover in the bathroom, so you can spray stains quickly when they get on clothes.
Speaking of stains, here is a guide to effective ways of removing different common stains. The guide will give you effective solutions to lipstick stains, blood stains, ink stains, mud, sweat stains, and a whole lot of other stains.
Trick 9: Smart sorting
Many things can go wrong between the time you put garments in the laundry basket and the time you’re ready to put the garments in the washer. And because of that, it’s possible to miss important details like the need to pretreat a certain stained shirt or emptying the pockets of a certain pair of pants.
There’s a smart way to sort everything so you never miss these details again.
Tie a knot around any garment with a stubborn stain like an ink or coffee stain before putting the garment in the hamper. That way, you will remember to pretreat the stain on the garment before putting the garment in the washer.
Again, for the issue of emptying pockets, do this – once you have checked the pockets of each pair of paints, pull up the zipper and put it in the hamper.
That way, you will be sure to check the pockets of each pair of pants that has its zipper down before putting it in the washing machine.
Trick 10: Reducing the folding workload
I’ll be honest – I hate folding clothes. It’s not like the task is hard or extremely tiring, I guess I am just lazy in that sector.
That is why I just had to find an alternative to folding clothes – hanging them. I iron my clothes immediately to avoid wrinkling and hang them in the closet.
In case you don’t have a large enough closet, there’s a way out – install metal bars at a corner in your bedroom and hang your clothes on there. You could also use a thread secured to iron nails.
As for the clothes that cannot be hanged, don’t procrastinate on folding them. Fold as soon as they are done drying or you will have a larger workload to deal with later.
Trick 11: Drying the clothes faster
Drying the clothes faster not only saves time but also money by reducing the dryer’s work. If you want to reduce your energy bill, it’d be so helpful to find a way to dry the clothes faster.
And here are some methods worth trying:
- Add a towel to the load before turning on the dryer – the towel will absorb some of the water, thereby speeding up the process of drying.
- Run an extra spin cycle – the washer’s spinner doesn’t spend as much energy as the dryer. Keeping in mind an extra spin cycle removes extra water, reducing the workload for the dryer, this will save energy consumption on the dryer while speeding up the drying process.
Trick 12: Staying organized and avoiding mishaps in the laundry room
If you’re the kind of person who puts items in the washer and goes about other businesses before returning later to start the wash, you probably agree with two things. First, it’s possible to forget what’s in the washer, which isn’t convenient if you had already added water.
And secondly, it’s easy to ruin the clothes by choosing the wrong wash settings for the clothes in there.
To beat these mishaps, try making notes.
Keep a marker by the washer and use it to create notes on what is in the washer at any particular time, as well as the appropriate cycle/wash settings.
That way, even if you don’t start the wash immediately, you will remember what you put in there. You will also know the appropriate settings to run the wash on.
Having a disorganized laundry room can make doing laundry a daunting task. But organizing the room and adding some decorative elements such as flowers can make the room more welcoming and the task easier and fun.
You could even install a stereo in there to make the atmosphere livelier.
Trick 13: staying excited about doing laundry
Even difficult tasks can be something to look forward to, provided there is some god compensation.
As for laundry, you might not get paid for the work you do at home, keeping everyone’s clothes clean, but the pockets hold occasional rewards.
When you find money in the pockets, don’t return it to the owner; that is for you! Keep it as your reward 😊
Another way to make laundry exciting, as I said before, would be to add a stereo in the laundry room. And while folding the clothes, watch your favorite show. You will complete an important task while feeling a lot less guilty about wasting your time watching TV.
Final Word
Even though you’re looking to buy a portable washing machine, laundry doesn’t have to be daunting. It doesn’t have to be boring or tiring. All it takes is doing it right.
Even just by organizing your laundry room and setting it in a way that it is welcoming, you can make it a more exciting task to wash clothes.
The laundry hacks described above are meant to answer some of your most critical laundry questions. They show you how to make your whites whiter, avoid losing socks, deal with static, and even conserve energy by drying clothes faster.