Confess. Do you or your family wear something once and then toss it into the hamper? We wash too often, too hot and we dry too much. Here are the tips for you to really save time, water, energy and extend the life of your clothes!
1. Wear it one more day. Avoid washing and your clothes will last longer. Do a sniff check if you like, and if needed - hang them up, spray with Pure Effect Clothing & Shoe Mist and let them dry.
2. Fix the stain right away. Soak it up, or spray it generously with some Pure Effects mist or All Clean.
3. Hang immediately. Don't leave laundry lying around in the machine to avoid unpleasant smells.
4. Don't mix white and coloured clothes in the same washing machine, to avoid the colours bleeding and discolouring the white laundry.
5. Wash at low temperatures (30-40 °C) to save energy, protect textile fibres, dyes and impregnations, etc.
Yes, these tips will take you far. If you want a few more, here's a bonus set:
- Close zippers before throwing laundry in the machine. Otherwise, they easily make holes in other garments.
- Don't rub stains: wipe them off with a clean cloth (dry or wet) to remove any food or other residue. Never rub a stain, it should dissolve. Rubbing can push colour into the textile fibres.
- Time & love. Give the stain some time and love, think of it as "slow cleaning". Be a detective - what was the stain and what is the best way to dissolve it? Blood is best dissolved with cold water, for example. Google it for best practice.
- Freshen up instead of washing. The essence of odour removal is to remove the source of the smell. You can never mask a bad smell with perfume. Spray the garment with Pure effect mist and be sure to cover the entire surface where the smell is.
- Air the fabric. Odour-producing bacteria thrive in heat and humidity. Remember to unpack your sports bag! And empty the washing machine and hang the laundry as soon as you can when it's done.
- Fill the machine. Most washing machines can hold 5-6 kilos of laundry. They often use the same amount of detergent and heat up the same amount of water even if you're only running a single garment.
- Skip fabric softener. Most of it goes down the drain and affects our waterways, and towels, for example, become less absorbent of fabric softener.
- Skip drying. Using heat to remove moisture is very energy-intensive. And it destroys the fibres, just look in the lint tray and you'll see what's coming off :)
- Shop smart. Think laundry already when you buy clothes. You can already have an impact on your carbon footprint, for example by choosing wool materials that don't bind as much dirt, or avoiding garments that need to be washed separately.
- Air the machine. It's enough to run a wash at a higher (60-90 degrees) temperature once a month. Leaving the detergent compartment, the wash door and the air flow door open afterwards will aerate the washing machine and minimize bacteria growth and smell.
Happy washing!