Just some stuff about me.
Washer
plant-based soap flakes or a liquid laundry soap that requires just a tablespoon or so per load
First, wash everything-and I do mean everything-on warm. Yes, your darks. Yes, even your delicates. But what if I use a detergent designed for cold water? you ask. It doesn’t matter-warm, warm, warm. The thing is, even cold-water detergents are designed to work in water that’s 58 to 62 degrees Fahrenheit; manufacturers define this as cold. Unfortunately, cold water in our homes is likely just 53 or so degrees. And that means our cold-water setting isn’t warm enough to dissolve our detergents-which means they’re not activating and our clothes aren’t getting clean.
You’re going to wash everything on the express cycle, sometimes called the fast, quick, or super-speed cycle. Running for a total of roughly twenty-eight minutes, depending on your machine, the express cycle takes your clothes through an eight-minute wash and an eight-minute rinse (plus the rest and the spin)-plenty of time to get your clothes clean
Select High Spin for each of your loads; you want your textiles to be as dry as possible to shorten their time spent in your dryer and on your drying racks.
If you have a load of really, really dirty clothes-for example, clothes you’ve worn hiking or gardening-add a quarter cup of washing soda, poured right on top of your clothes, to boost the cleaning power of the wash. The washing soda, or sodium carbonate (often sold in grocery stores-although it’s not food safe), softens the water, allowing the detergent both to remove dirt from your textiles and keep the soil in the water, rather than redepositing it on the clothes
Consider adding a dye-trapping laundry sheet to each wash.
So how do you keep your whites white? First, don’t ever wash with chlorine bleach. Second, to maintain your textiles’ white dye, wash your whites with a gentle soap and a tablespoon of chlorine-free oxygen bleach. This nontoxic, biodegradable bleach alternative, also known as sodium percarbonate, will whiten your clothes safely and beautifully. One caveat: Don’t use it for washing silks or woolens.
it’s not the soap that truly gets your clothes clean-it’s the water. The soap just lowers the viscosity of the water molecules, or in other words, it makes the water wetter. This allows the water to slide right through your clothes, removing dirt, oil, and more.
for white clothes, kitchen towels, etc. throw in a tablespoon of oxygen bleach
Stain removal:
you’re going to conduct this stain removal not right when the stain happens, but immediately before washing the garment
get rid of stains by using such basic household products as rubbing alcohol and vinegar.
If you’re running out the door or you’re at work and you spill something on your shirt or pants, your first go-to is rubbing alcohol. (After all, you likely don’t have time to run a wash.) Simply hold a towel on the inside of the garment while spraying or applying rubbing alcohol on the stain. This will work roughly 80 percent of the time, and the rubbing alcohol will not leave a ring on your garment. (I’d suggest keeping a small bottle of rubbing alcohol handy at work, just for this purpose.)
Ring around the collar:
Underarm stain: For these oily organic stains-human sweat glands in the armpits secrete an oily, smelly compound-you need to use an oil-based stain solution. Place a few drops directly onto each underarm stain. Then sprinkle the tiniest bit (maybe ten grains) of sodium percarbonate onto each dollop of solution and rub in with your finger. Let this mixture set for thirty minutes. Go for a walk, write a note to your congressperson, or Hula-Hoop. When the time is up, pour (carefully so you don’t burn yourself-I use a tea kettle) nearly boiling water right through the stain. Then throw the shirt into the wash. (This trick also works for ring-around-the-collar and stained cuffs, whose perspiration stains, similar to underarm stains, include myriad minerals, lactic acid, urea, and dead skin. The oil-based stain solution lifts the oil, and then the sodium percarbonate works on the minerals and dead skin
Have you ever put an item into the dryer and then discovered a light brown stain after drying? These phantom stains occur when a bit of sugar-from fruit juice or ketchup, for example-remains on the garment after washing. The sugar caramelizes in the dryer and, unfortunately, shows up as a stain. To remove a phantom stain, I suggest using the same process recommended for removing perspiration. Place a few drops of an oil-based stain solution directly onto the stain. Then sprinkle a bit of sodium percarbonate onto the solution, rub in with your finger, and let this mixture set for a half hour. Finally, pour nearly boiling water (ever so carefully) right through the stain. After washing once more, the stain should be gone.
Red wine: to eliminate this organic stain from a garment, mix a tablespoon of sodium percarbonate in a bowl of very hot water. Now dip the stained portion of the item into the bowl, give it a swish (the stain should change color), and throw it into the wash.
Dryer
Equipment:
Steaming/ironing
When your machine begins to smell, it’s time to get cleaning. Simply pour one pound of Borax directly into your empty washing machine; turn on your hottest, longest cycle; and then pour a gallon of white vinegar in your dispenser. Done! Periodically, I also scrub the dispenser drawer with a fifty-fifty mixture of vinegar and water. As for cleaning your dryer, once it’s cool, spray the inside with your fifty-fifty mixture of vinegar and water, and then wipe down with a clean, white terry washcloth.
Other treatment:
Colorizing denim: Add one-quarter cup of salt to a sink or large bowl filled with hot water. Then place your denim item into the basin and leave overnight. The next day, simply wash and dry as normal, and your denim should permanently hold its color.
if an item has picked up the smell of cigarette smoke or smells like your favorite Thai restaurant, just spritz it lightly with straight vodka and the smell will disappear
and it all starts with a special way of preparing your wool garments during the sorting process. First, fold your sweater, just like you’re going to be tucking it into a dresser drawer, then tightly roll it up, and place it into a mesh bag. If your mesh bag is too big for your sweater, like most of mine are, fold the bag snugly over the sweater and fasten the mesh securely with two or three safety pins. Each wool item should be stuffed as tightly as a giant sausage, with a mesh bag as its casing.
Now that you’ve sorted, you’ll need to do one more thing before washing: Gather up any wool and silk items from your piles. For each silky item (actual silk or fabric that just feels like silk), turn it inside out and place it into a mesh bag, one item per bag if possible. If your mesh bag is too big for your item, fold the bag down smaller and fasten the mesh with two or three safety pins.
if you mix cool colors with warm colors, a micro blue bleed, for example, might dot a red button-down with purple or a yellow T-shirt with green. In addition, due to their greater amount of dye, cool-colored clothes tend to be heavier than warm-colored clothes, and that means lots of abrasion if mixed together in a wash load
Separating laundry:
30 min, 65 deg F or warmer (18.33 C)
2 tbl plant based detergent
Stain remover - vinegar and water spray
Horsehair brush on soap bar for stain remover
Liquid hand soap on stains
Oxygen bleach (oxyclean) for strong stains
Jeans (denim) to set color, soak in really hot water with 1/4 cup salt
Express cycle (30 min) or perm press
Buy portable steamer for wrinkled clothes?
Silk and wool - in mesh bag. Suit also, separate jacket and pants. Very tight, like sausage. So it doesn’t move. Never in dryer
Fabric softener coats fabric, reduces absorbancy and traps stains
Essential oils on dryer ball. But watch out for pets
Active wear - oxygen bleach