CindyLou bought me a candle that smells like fresh laundry, bless her, because the rest of my laundry does not ever smell clean. Generally speaking, the pile of dirty laundry is much larger than the clean, so it wins.
I'm trying to figure out why I loathe it so hard. I've come up with the following reasons:
#1. It's never actually done. You can do it all day long every single day, and it never actually ends.
#2. The dryer bitch (as previously discussed on Twitter, if you have something in your dryer that steals socks, it does not deserve to be called a fairy) steals socks.
#3. It involves waiting. Every other chore can be done the MINUTE (or 15) that you get motivated to do it. Laundry? No. You have to find it all, sort it, wash it, dry it, put it away. One load is a waste of like...2 hours.
#4. It smells amazing...but only for like...20 minutes.
#5. The dryer itself collects lint dust. Yay, so I get to do laundry AND dust? Lucky me!
#6. ...and probably the most logical, I might actually be doing it wrong. Here's where you handy readers come in.
Everything I read says that the more you wash your clothes in cold water, the more energy efficient you're being, and the more environment you save. Yay!
I've also read that it gets clothes equally as clean if washed in cold. <--those people? Dirty liars. If I wash the dirtiest jeans everrrrrr (which I now live with) in cold water, they don't come even a little bit clean. And my whites are so much brighter after being washed in hot water.
I've also heard that powder laundry soap clogs drains, and therefore always use liquid. And then somebody else told me that liquid causes colors to fade. Le Sigh. I need to hang out with Martha Stewart, for real.
So....my questions for you (and I expect comments, people! Show me the laundry love!) are:
#1. Do you sort your laundry, or does everything get thrown in the same pile and washed the same?
#2. Do you dry anything?
#3. Do you change the temperature of your water?
#4. Do you use liquid or powder soap?
#5. Do you use fabric softener (you should, because OMG DOWNY SMELLS SO GOOD)?
Anything else you'd like to add would be just lovely. <3
Yours Truly,
Nomz
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
♫ Laundry is the devil.
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13 comments:
1. I sort delicate sweaters. Everything else is sorted by temperature unless there's something obvious like a new red jacket.
2. I dry everything until it's almost too hot to touch.
3. Hot water for underoos. Cold for everything else. I'll put jeans in wherever there is room but if I'm JUST doing a load of jeans I wash them in cold.
4. Liquid. You have to let it dissolve and bubble up a bit - like two inches of water - before you put clothes on top of it or else you can get splotchyness. Though I've only noticed that on sheets. As far as I'm aware, the rest of my colored clothes are FINE.
5. I use a dryer sheet. Anything else is too much work.
BONUS: Don't buy in to all the hype about clothes fading. They have to fade. When you buy clothes the fabric has never been washed. It's carrying dye that isn't attached to the fabric. It will come off no matter what you do.
BONUS TWO: Don't make laundry harder than it has to be. You, your girls, and any guy you've chosen clearly have personalities big enough that no one has attention left over for nitpicking your clothes. And if they do...well, that's their problem. But no one's judging your worth as a person by the number of faded T-shirts coming from your household.
Ummmm...sorry, can't help. I don't do laundry. My husband has done all our laundry for 18 years. I'll see if he can help you! :)
I always use hot unless it's something colored that I'm afraid it's going to fade or bleed. Hot water also makes the smell stick longer.
I never sort unless I'm superbleaching my white hoodie, haha.
I always use powder soap because it seems to go further for less, and it dissolves into the water for higher smelling potential.
I use Downey for SHIZZLE.
1. I sort it into three groups; towels all go together (plus the bath mat), whites (sometimes with greys mixed in for good measure, because we own like 6 pieces of white clothes between us) & darks. Which is basically everything that isn't primarily white, at least in the House of Sin. My Mom is like a manic sorter.
2. Socks, towels, cotton undies (never bras or the pretty undies, though!), shirts I know won't shrink/are already shrunk, and Gus's T-shirts he wears under his uniform.
3. I usually do towels in warm water, so they don't get that cute "hey, I've been hanging in a bathroom & now I smell like doom" leftover smell, but usually everything else splashes in the cold. I really haven't noticed a difference, swear!
4 & 5. We use http://www.mrsmeyers.com/Products/Laundry/Lavender_Laundry_Detergent_-_64_Loads & http://www.mrsmeyers.com/Products/Laundry/Lavender_Fabric_Softener_, both of which combined make our clothes smell like happiness. The scent sticks around SO much longer if we line-dry things!
Other bits of brilliance I've picked up (and because I love laundry; like, I would come do yours, and be happy about it it):
- Always flip shirts inside-out before they go in the washer to keep them from pilling/graphic prints from fading/etc
- Zip up/button jeans and pants so they don't catch or snag on anything else spinning through the wash with them
- Pick two or three days a week and make them designated laundry days, because that way you never create Epic Laundry. Usually, I do a load of dark clothes Wednesday & the rest on Sunday (towels and whites) since there's just two of us.
- Always fold the clothes after you take them out of the dryer, even if it's just to put them in the basket. Dealing with them once is so much better than having to go back later and fold them, or run them through the dryer again to de-wrinkle.
<3!
I've always considered Ashley to be the goddess of all things laundry, as demonstrated above.
The sitch in our fam is usually an assortment of towels, darks, whites and mixed colors that I know won't bleed. The latter assortment belongs to the seven-year-old.
I have skipped out on the fabric softener and dryer sheets both because their effect is so temporary. As for soap, I could use some help because 'whatever is on sale' doesn't always cut it.
Whatever brilliant color saving tips you get must be shared! As well as what gets the brightest whites, because hot damn, those dull out quickly.
Suds away,
Calamity Jill
Use cold for colors, hot for whites, no matter what. Why? Because hard water makes whites grey in cold water. Invest in GOOD laundry detergent and those dirty jeans you are talking about will come out clean in cold. Dont use Cheer, Tide, Gain, Sun, etc. Get Fresh Start or that Sams Club detergent, better yet, get Amway if you can afford it. The cheap ones are all suds and no power, and they are harder on your septic system.
DO a load a day and you wont hate it so much. Just make it a part of your routine to put a load in before work, and then put it in the dryer after work. Fold when you can.
1. I sort my clothes into whites/lights, darks, and towels/jeans. If I only have one delicate or two, I throw it in with whatever color that delicate happens to be.
2. I dry just about everything, with the exception of: bras, silk, certain dresses.
3. Whites get warm (I never use hot), darks get cold, and towels/jeans get warm.
4. I always use liquid. I don't like the powder soap because it sometimes leaves this weird white filmy residue on my clothes. That said, theres a cold-water specific type from tide that works really well, and I LOVE Method's detergent that comes in a small pump bottle. LOVE.
5. I don't use a smelly detergent because it doesn't tend to make a difference if I use laundry softener. I don't like in-the-wash laundry softener... I prefer the fabric sheets since they make a great smell! Downy is the best, but Tide comes close after!
6. I love that you can let clothes sit for two hours and then go back and get them when theyre done. That gives me two full hours to do whatever else int he house I want to do. Can't get that from other chores!
Oh this made my day! Laundry is the DEVIL! I always do the whites seperate so I can bleach the heck out of them with HOT water. Everything else gets thrown in together in warm water with powder detergent thats dissolved in the bottom before adding any laundry. Fabric softner only gets used if I'm hanging the laundry outside. ( which happens from early spring until they freeze before I'm able to hang them up!) I'm addicted to my clothes line! I love the idea of a laundry schedule but it doesnt happen in my house! I have too many clothes on too many little bodies to not do at least 1-2 loads each day! Loved that you took on this subject!!
so, don't hate but my hubby does the laundry (except for my work clothes) and my teenager does his own laundry. But he does sort. He does use the dryer. He does change water temperature. We use liquid detergent and fabric softener.
When I did medical billing we use to have a saying that the accounts receivables were like dirty laundry. For every claim you get paid another claim enters the system.
Ok Nomz.
First off, your behind so you go to my house and use my super duper big machines. *Twice the laundry in half the time.
Now once you are cought up this is what I do. Get 4 hampers.
Jeans
Darks
Towels
Whites
All my laundry is done on warm wash cold rinse. And dried on med. I try to dry all blankets and sheets outside on my hillbilly cloths line * as my hubby calls it.
Soap****** Tide (only) Liquid dial soap on stains scrubbed with a stiff brush or together, and Liquid Downey. I think pre washes are a waste of money and that is the reason for liquid dial. Whites get clorax bleach* and yes I think it makes a diffrance. I only use bleach on whites and white towels. I do put a 1/4 cup in the water when I wash sheets but I make sure it is mixed well.
Hint the 4 hampers make it so when there full I am motivated to do it. Also let the girls help to seperate laundry this would be a good chore for them... just saying.
Im a old fashion farm wife so simple works for me. I also try never to do more the two loads in a day. Hope this helps. .
Hugs Cindy lou.
LAUNDRY!
Ive learned a lot from living with lots of dirty clothes lately too - that tractor grease - ew! And it stinks!
SO -
Tide liquid with the Frebreeze smells SO yummy and it has stain lifiting powers :) I also use a super scoop of Oxy in Cody's clothes.
We have 3 hampers - one for his work stuff - that goes to the cleaners thankfully - one for his dirty home work stuff, and one for mine. I wash all of his dirty stuff together and last - after my colors, whites, towels, sheets. After his load - I clean the washer with clorox and then run water/and drain the washer - its a little extra work -but our clothes are keeping their smell goods longer!
Ive tried the powder baking soda/oxy detergent it works - but had to use extra oxy with it - so it was costing more money...
We wash everything on warm/cold except bras :) and sorry - wish I had some to give to you btw but I gave my old ones to good homes when I moved in - but not to worry - Im on those girls at school :)
xoxo
Okay for those of you that want keep clothes from fading tips listen up!!
White vinigar- 1/4 of a cup added with laundry soap locks in any loose dyes. Espeacailly those black jeans that always fade turn them inside out and add the vinigar (works best when you do this the VERY FIrst time)
I have a household of Five. So...
I do one load a day, I don't sort unless it is new and might bleed!
I use liquid Tide (for Allergy Reasons). Recently tried the Tide Febreeze Sport and smells amazing!!
And because of this change I don't use liquid fabric softner anymore just Bounce Dryer Sheets!
I wash everything in cold except my husbands (I have been working on a ranch/farm Jeans) those get warm water.
In the winter I dry everything on low heat (I think the good smells stick better on low). Plus it is another source of heat when it is below zero! During the summer the clothes line gets a work out!!
So hear is to my less stressful time consuming laundry! One load a day makes for one happy mama!!
Dude. Shout Color Catcher = NO MORE SORTING!!! best.laundry.invention.ever.
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