How to Do Laundry

The first time my husband had to do the laundry he was clueless! I was pregnant and bedridden which meant he was in charge of all of the household chores. He didn't even know how to operate the washing machine! How does a person get lucky enough to go through the majority of their life without having to do the laundry? Well, for those people who fall into my husband's category, here are a few basic tips for people who have never had to do the laundry.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Dirty laundry, detergent, bleach,stain remover, liquid fabric softener, dryer sheets

1. Let's start with operating the washing machine. Depending on the size of the load of laundry, you should set the machine on small, medium or large. You also need to chose the water temperature. Depending on the type of items you are washing, this selection will be either cold, warm or hot.

2. Before putting the items in the washer, you may also want to pretreat heavily stained clothes with a stain remover like Shout.
   The amount of detergent you will use will depend on the size of your load as well. If you are unsure, you can always read the instructions on the detergent label. I use a full cap of liquid laundry detergent for a large load and a half cap full with small to medium loads.

3. Towels should be washed in hot water with one cap full of bleach to ensure that all the germs get destroyed. The bleach will not affect colored towels if you wait until the washer fills up with water before you put the bleach in. Never wash towels with other items of clothing. Towels are lint catchers and will transfer the lint to your clothes, and as we all know, clothes with lint on them doesn't look very good. Some people who are trying to go green use warm water to cut down on the use of electricity or gas to heat the water. This is fine as well.

4. Dark,light and bright-colored clothing should be washed separately,in case of possible bleeding. They also should be washed in cold water to prevent the colors from fading.

5. When using the dryer, always make sure you clean the lint filter after each drying. This will not only help keep your dryer in good working condition, it will also prevent some of the lint from the last load from accumulating on the current load. Last but not least, never dry clothing that is 100% cotton. Drying clothing made from this type of fabric will cause it to get wider and shorter. So, these are the basic steps in successfully washing and drying a load of laundry. Happy laundry days!

Tips & Warnings

• If you really want your laundry to smell fresh and clean use a liquid fabric softener like Downey. Dryer sheets placed in the dryer will permeate that good smell too!
• be careful when putting bleach in the load of towels. keep the bottle and the cap a few inches away from yourself just in case some of it drips. If it gets on your clothing you'll have a nice white spot on your clothes and there's nothing you can do to remove it.