How
to Do Laundry
by
B. Dear
You are now
living on your own and Mom
is far, far
away. An ever increasing pile of dirty clothes are piling up and it's
getting harder and harder to leap over them as you walk through the
room.
Whether you have just left for college or just
moved into your own place, knowing how to wash your
clothes
will eventually become a necessity.
The first thing that you will need to do is gather all the dirty
laundry. Having a clothes hamper
in each bedroom or each bathroom will make this task a lot easier. If
you
don't, you will have to gather your clothing from wherever it has been
placed and consolidate it in one place. While doing this, separate the
clothes into three baskets (if you don't have baskets, piles on the
floor will do. These clothes are dirty so it doesn't matter if they go
on the floor). Separate the clothing by color into a pile of reds,
colors (blues, greens, etc.) and whites. This part
is
important,
because you can destroy clothing by washing the wrong colors together
and it can get expensive. I have thrown away many pink dress shirts
and socks due to improper sorting.
Depending on the type of clothes you wear, you may have a fourth pile
that will be "delicates". Delicates are clothing that can be damaged if
they are washed using the normal washing process. There are special
settings for this clothing on the washer and these should be washed
separately from normal clothing by color as well. Examples of delicates
are sweaters, fine materials like silk, etc.
To start washing clothes you will need a washing machine. There are a
few
different types of machines, but they all operate in pretty much the
same way. Open the machine, load your clothes to about half
full,
add clothes washer detergent and fabric softener, close the lid, and
turn the machine on. Fabric softener shouldn't be added until after the
water
fills up the inside of the machine so it won't lay on the clothes in
it's
concentrated form. Pouring it in after allows the water to dilute it.
Wash the colors separately. Reds are washed in cold water. This will
prevent a minimal amount of color to be washed out (or bleed out) of
the clothing. If color washes out, it will get onto other reds and not
cause a problem because we have separated them. Reds and whites don't
play nice and should be kept apart. Don't wash them with whites unless
you'd like your whites to be pinks.
Colors are pretty simple. Wash them in cold to minimize the bleeding of
colors. The majority of my clothes are in this category. Your wardrobe
may and probably does differ from mine.
Whites are washed a bit differently. To get them nice and white, we
want to wash them in hot water. This will get all the dirt out. You may
need to add a stain treatment to remove tough stains. Add the treatment
before washing and let it sit for about fifteen minutes. Then wash away.
After each washing, the clothes will need to be dried. Clothes can be
dried in a dryer or on a clothes line. If drying on the clothesline, be
sure to use clean, dry clothespins to hold items in place on the line.
This will prevent clothes from being blown off and getting dirty again.
If using a clothes dryer, simply open the door of the drier, select a
time and temperature of dry on the knob , add a fabric
softener/anti-static sheet and turn it on. Wait until the drier has
completed it's cycle, empty the lint trap, then repeat with the next
batch of wet clothes.
It is important to hang clothes up immediately after drying
to
make ironing at a later time a lot easier.
Clothes that aren't hung on hangers, are folded neatly, organized by
where they go in the house, then placed into baskets to be taken to the
proper drawer where they are stored until the next wearing.
|
|
|