Clothes with deep colors are more likely to bleed dye when washed. To avoid damaging other clothing, sort laundry according to color, separating lights from darks. Wash and dry heavier items, like towels, separately from lighter weight clothes to prevent damage to finer fabrics and to ensure even drying.
Step 2: Sort by color
Most people know that sorting laundry begins by separating white clothes from dark ones. However, some experts think that you should go even further and organize clothes by shades. Start by putting together a pile of clothes: Whites – no patterns or embroidery.
Surveys indicate that American households average five loads of laundry per week, with many families doing laundry more than once a day. By comparison, other countries such as France typically average more like three laundry loads each week.
How big is a load of laundry? You have a medium or regular load if the drum is around half full, for a large load you'll have to fill it until three-quarters full, and if you have even more laundry to do, fill it up until you can fit your palm between the wall of the drum and your clothes.
The flowchart starts with someone collecting and sorting dirty clothes. Then they put the clothes into the washing machine. Then the person adds washing powder and fabric softener. After the person selects the cycle and temperature, the washing begins.
If you have a regular top-loading machine, it's best to fill your washer with water first, then add your detergent, then add your clothes. This helps evenly distribute the detergent in the water before it hits your clothes. Remember that the nicer you are to your washer and dryer the longer they'll last.
15 pounds or laundry can include: 3 jeans, 3 pants, 5 shirts, 3 towels, 7 pairs of socks, 4 sweatshirts and 9 pairs of underwear. This is a rough estimate and final weights depend on material and overall weight of each item but should help give you a rough idea.
Washing a load of laundry that's too large or small is never a good idea. Too large, and you can damage your washing machine's drum and decrease its efficiency (in addition to keeping clothes from getting as clean). Contrarily, running loads that are too small wastes water and mechanical energy.
Salvation Army district manager Tom Canfield estimates three to six items, depending on size, weigh a pound. Three to four shirts, two or three pairs of jeans, or five to six pieces of kids' clothing add up to $1.49 (or one pound).
After collecting over 60,000 data points over several months, he discovered that Fridays and Sundays are the best days for students to do their laundry. In fact, students are most likely to find open machines on Friday mornings roughly between 10 and 11 a.m. And the worst days to do laundry?
Average costs to wash a load of laundry range from $1.50 to $4.00, with the national average hovering right around $2.00 (source).
Depending on how you fill your washing machine, the sort of clothes you wear and how fresh you like your clothes, the average person does laundry anywhere between one to three times a week.
We recommend washing your socks separately if you prefer to use warm or hot water for your clothing items. However, if you're washing socks with clothes that also require a cold cycle, laundering them together is fine!
Can you wash your sheets and blankets together? Yes — but avoid washing soiled dish towels and underwear with your bedding. Towels and underwear are items that get especially dirty and need to be washed separately in hot water to remove bacteria.
Sorting laundry loads
It's very important to wash your lights and darks laundry separately, as darker dyes can ruin lighter fabrics. Sort your greys, blacks, navies, reds, dark purples and similar colours into one load, and your pinks, lavenders, light blues, light greens and yellows into another laundry.