7 Steps To Washing Your Laundry Like A Professional

Are you wondering how to do your laundry like a professional? Well, you can wash your clothes and make them sparkling clean. It takes more than just dipping in water with soap solution and then rinsing before drying them. So if you prefer doing laundry at home as opposed to leaving it in the hands of a professional, then these 7 steps will help you do it correctly.

1. Use the right water temperature
If you check the care label on your clothes, you will see the recommended water temperature that you must use when washing the cloth. If you are handling clothes that might fade or shrink, then water temperatures of 20 degree centigrade might be ideal. 35 degrees centigrade is considered warm water temperature, and is ideal for clothes that have light to medium colors. On the other hand, 55 degrees centigrade is considered hot, and can be used on clothes that can stand high temperatures without shrinking or losing colors. Hot water may be ideal for sports outfit, heavily soiled clothes, bed sheets, towels etc

2. Get rid of stains in good time
Some stains won’t go away when you fail to remove them in time. The best way to deal with most stains is to rinse them with cold water before they ever get a chance to settle on the fabric. It also depends on the kind of fabric you are dealing with. For instance, silk and wool may require special care.

However, stains on linen, cotton or any other washable material is easy to get rid of. You are warned not to rub the stain as it may spread throughout the fabric. Another mistake that people do with stains is that they often wash them with hot water. If you are unsure of the nature of the stain, don’t use hot water on it as high water temperatures settle stains. Also avoid any chlorine-based material, unless the tag on the fabric says you may use such detergents.

3. When adding laundry detergent
If you are using a top loading machine, it’s recommended that you dissolve the detergent properly before immersing your clothes in the solution. To mix properly, add water halfway, add the detergent and then continue filling with water. Then you can add the garments you want to wash.

4. Keep colors intact
Use the recommended dose of premium detergent. If you are washing dark clothes, turn then inside out before washing. Also, when drying your clothes in a cloth line, hang them inside out. Do not dry clothes in direct sunlight. Excessive sun-rays bleach colors.

5. Soaking garments
When soaking, make sure you separate colored clothes from white ones. You may want to test for color fastness as some colors will run even if left to soak in plain water. Watch out for materials such as viscose, polyester, silk or wool. Some people also make a mistake of only soaking a part of their garment. If you do this, you won’t get even results. And lastly, there’s an exception to this; don’t soak clothes that are multi-colored or fast with colors.

6. Best drying practices
Some fabric, particularly sweaters will lose their shape when left to dry on the hanging line. So it’s best that you lay them on a flat surface and allow them to dry in direct sunlight. However, when using a dryer, it should be on cool or warm mode, not unless you’re drying heavy materials such as a towel. The repeated hot cycle sets can make them shrink or crease.

7. Ironing
Finally, ironing is the simplest part of it. Just before you power up the iron box, make sure you check instructions on the garment you want to iron. You want to avoid damaging the cloth at all cost, especially if it’s an expensive piece. Use a fabric conditioner that reduces static clinging when ironing. This makes ironing much easier. Nylon clothes don’t need ironing as you would simply burn them if you tried ironing them. But they can crease or shrink, so the best way to prevent this is to use the right detergent when washing to reduce chances of shrinking.

With the 7 steps above, you can always wash your laundry like a professional. When you take the instructions as highlighted in the care label of the garment, you will certainly know what to do with it when it comes to washing. There are also good detergents out there to soften your clothes as they dry, so you won’t even need to iron them in some cases.