Alright, guys, I'm gonna share an unpopular opinion: doing laundry is fun. I'm not kidding. I guess the routine of it all is comforting in a way, y'know. It's by far my favorite chore. Well, it
was my favorite chore. My current apartment, unlike my previous apartment, isn't as great in its laundry facilities. I still have my own washer in-unit, but it's small, and there's no dryer! It's just not a thing in China. I had to resort to buying one of those awkward portable dryers that aren't the most efficient at drying clothes. Anyway, I feel like I'm kinda digressing a little here, so let me get at least closer to the point of today's post.
Laundry; you can love it like I used to, or you can hate it, but we all need to do it, and if you want to minimize possible damage to your clothes, there are a few "mistakes" you should avoid making. I gotta admit: a few of these are things that I didn't even know were important, such as this first one:
Filling the Washer Incorrectly
I mean, I know there's an order in which you should fill your washer, and I've always just done clothes, detergent, water. It makes sense, right? Let the detergent soak into your clothes, then the water mixes them all up. Wrong! A washer I had suggested detergent, clothes, water, so that's what I've been doing. Apparently, that's wrong too!
Clothes, water, detergent is the way to go, it seems, for the most efficient distribution of detergent, but since my current washer has a compartment for detergent where the water flows into the washer, I don't have much of a choice in protocol anymore, lol.
Tossing in Socks
Ok, here's another one I'm extremely guilty of doing because I've been mixing my socks with my clothes since the day I started doing my own laundry, lol. I use the same laundry basket for clothes and socks, so everything just gets tossed in together in the washer.
Turns out, you should put your socks in first, at the bottom of your washer to avoid them getting attached to your other clothes and disappearing. I've only ever had one singular sock go missing, so this isn't as big of an issue for me, so maybe I'll just continue doing what I've been doing all along. 😂
Rubbing Stains Furiously
I'm sure we're all well-acquainted with that mini heart attack that occurs when you spill or drop something on your clothes (especially if they're brand new 😩), but resist the urge to immediately grab a rag to attempt to erase history! Stains can spread when rubbed, and it's also really bad for the fabric to be rubbing at it. Y'know, friction and all. What you can do is yes, spring into action immediately because the longer you leave the stain for, the more it soaks into the clothing, and the harder it will be to get out. However, use a white cloth so that colors don't transfer, and dab (not rub) the stain from the outside in. This decreases the likelihood of the stain spreading as well.
Using Too Much Detergent
This one is surprising to me because I didn't know using too much detergent is a thing. I usually only do my laundry when I have a full load, so I just fill the detergent cap to Level 5, and that works well for me, but apparently, if your water is too sudsy, the suds (along with the dirt it removed) can get trapped in places like under a collar. How to remedy the situation is to use half the amount of detergent you normally use and gradually increase the amount if your clothes don't come out as clean as you like them. I might actually give this a try because my clothes don't usually get dirty, just my workout clothes, so as long as I can get my clothes to come out smelling clean, I might not have to fill the cap to 5 after all. 🤔
At the end of the day, though, guys, your laundry habits are up to you. I know I definitely have my own idiosyncrasies when it comes to laundry like how I have to load the washer one garment at a time, kind of to check what all is going in there so that I can make sure they all come out. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but it's just something that goes into my process, lol.
What are some other laundry "mistakes" you've heard about?
