Five rules of effective laundry that almost everyone breaks: tips from an expert

When performing daily tasks, we often do not think about the details of the process and often do something wrong – the end result does not seem to affect the end result, and that's fine. Take, for example, such an everyday thing as laundry. We throw things into the machine, take them out, hang them up, and that's it. We don't even think about why the door of the washing machine has a convex glass and don't always follow the mode required for a particular item.

Meanwhile, Consumer Reports engineer Rich Handel says that following all the rules and subtleties of the process will simultaneously extend the life of your appliances and your clothes. Here are the 5 most common mistakes that almost everyone makes and which are not so difficult to fix.

Use fabric softener

Handel calls fabric softeners a waste of money. At best, this product will not harm; at worst, it will leave stains on your clothes and irritation on your skin. In addition, the conditioner impairs the ability of towels to absorb moisture. Moreover, the moldy smell that you sometimes smell from the drum can also be a negative consequence of its operation. Therefore, you should simply refuse this product.

Soak clothes in the bathroom

According to the expert, quickly soaking not-too-dirty clothes in the bathroom or in a basin to "freshen them up" can damage the fabric and wash the paint off the clothes. A washing machine running on the rinse plus spin cycle without detergent will do a much better job of this task. The same life hack can replace soaking heavily soiled items before washing if your machine does not have this mode.

Using too much detergent

Modern laundry detergents are effective and concentrated enough to do their job even if you use the minimum recommended dosage. Washing with too much detergent or liquid is not only unreasonable from the point of view of the family budget. It can also lead to clogging of the machine with excess detergent, which means mold, unpleasant white or yellow stains on clothes, and skin irritation due to poorly rinsed clothes. Therefore, for optimal results, the expert advises following the instructions on the package and not exceeding the recommended dosage.

Drying clothes in the dryer before the stains are completely removed

Before putting clothes in the dryer, it is important to make sure that all stains on the fabric have disappeared. Otherwise, the hot air will only fix the stains and it will be impossible to remove them. So, if you have stains on your clothes, treat them with a suitable stain remover before the main cycle, check the result after the wash, and then put them in the dryer.

Overloading the washing machine

Sometimes it happens that you don't have time to do laundry during the week and by the weekend a whole bunch of things accumulate, which is easier to throw into the drum all at once. This solution seems to be optimal in terms of saving time and resources, but the quality of the wash suffers greatly. Overloading the washer prevents the water and foam from circulating well between the laundry and washing away dirt. The same goes for the hot air in the dryer. Therefore, it is better to be a little patient and put the laundry through two or three times.