The Basics:
The first step to doing laundry is to sort your clothes into piles by colors. You should have a white and light-colored pile, a pile of dark-colored clothes, a pile of red clothes, and a pile of bright color clothes. You want to keep those reds separate otherwise you will have red splotches on all your clothes.
If you just bought new dark-colored items (such as dark navy socks or black pants), you may want to soak those in the sink first to get out all the excess dye before mixing them with your other clothes. Also, some dyes will rub onto your wash machine without presoaks.
Put towels in a separate pile from your clothes. These give off a lot of lint so be sure to use a fabric cling sheet. You may also toss in bed sheets and blankets if they do not require special instructions.
Sorting Tips:
Pull all the pockets out of all your pants, just to be sure there are no “surprises”. Nothing is worse than forgetting a piece of candy in one of your pockets. Remove all lighters and flammable substances. Take out papers and tissues. Remove coins, keys, and other lose items. Zip all the zippers. Put your lingerie and delicates in a special bag made for these (you can find these at local stores for about $4) or use a pillow case. Turn shirts inside out, especially shirts with designs or writing on them.
The Persil website (listed in References below has excellent tips for several different types of fabrics and items.
Learn how to read washing symbols by visiting Fashion-on-the-web.com’s site (http://www.fashion-on-the-web.com/laundr... ).
Pretreat:
Spray any deep stains (especially blood and dyes) with pretreatment solutions found at all grocery and most general retail shops. Read the instructions on the treatment product to know how long to soak solution on stains. Don’t use pretreatment on dry-clean clothes.
Water temperature:
Generally use cold water for dark colors. Use warm water for lighter colors and cottons. Of course, try to follow the clothes’ labels and the wash machine instruction manual for proper water temperatures. Hot water is good for whites and dirty or greasy items. Cold water also prevents shrinkage and color bleeding.
Washing:
Before adding the clothes, start the wash machine and add the proper soap amounts. Allow the soap to mix with the water, then add the clothes. Use the proper water load depending on the amount of clothes. Water levels usually range from small to extra-large. The amount of soap added should be relative to these water levels. Use a little extra soap for really dirty clothes. Do not over load the washer as this can both wrinkle your clothes and damage your machine.
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