Thank goodness times have changed and we don’t have to wash our laundry like in the “good ol’ days” with wash tubs and scrub boards. However, the laundry basics such as properly sorting your clothing prior to washing, has not changed.
Proper laundry sorting is important to prevent laundry problems like dye transfer from one garment to another, shrinking, and lint accumulations over the rest of the wash.
Sort laundry loads according to:
COLOR
We’ve all thrown in the new pair of jeans with the rest of the laundry and turned a light colored shirt Tye-dyed blue. Take the time to sort your clothing as follows:
* Whites and pastels together
* Same color brights
* Dark Colors
** Multicolored items with lots of white background are best washed separately first. If colors don’t bleed or run, they can be washed with other items next time.
FABRIC AND CONSTRUCTION
In regards to fabric, some materials are more delicate than others. Tossing in a loosely knit item with rougher fabrics can cause pulls and tears to those lightweight items. In regards to construction, have you ever thrown a new towel into the wash with the rest of your clothing thinking, “It’s just one towel” only to result in lots of little lint balls on your favorite T-shirt?
* Separate delicate or lightweight fabrics from heavier items.
* Separate lint givers (terrycloth) from lint catchers (corduroy).
DEGREE OF SOIL
* Heavily soiled work or play clothes should be washed separately from lightly soiled laundry.
* Wash soiled bed linens and towels separately to avoid contaminating other clothes.
When in a hurry, you may be tempted to throw everything into one load but taking a few minutes to sort them out will maintain the pieces longer. To cut down on your sort time, consider having two hampers for your clothing. Have one for lights and one for darks to color sort ahead of time throughout the week. When it’s time to launder, you’ll just need to sort out the ones that need special attention such as the dedicates, lint givers, and heavily soiled.
As always, take the time to read the care label and if the item says dry-clean only, send them to a professional dry cleaner, like Classic Cleaners.
Happy sorting!
– S.O.
