We spend good money on our clothes and we want to make sure they last as long as possible. The best way to do this is to do your laundry properly.
Doing your laundry the right way will keep your clothes from wearing out prematurely while making sure colors stay bright and bold. Knowing some laundry tricks can also prevent stains from ruining your favorite outfits.
Here are the laundry hacks that will help you get the most out of your clothing.
1) Clean Your Washer
Your washing machine can get a grimy build up after all those loads of dirty laundry which can leave your clothes looking dull. Eliminate this gunk by placing a quart of white vinegar and a cup of baking soda into your washer after it fills up on the setting with the hottest water and biggest load.
Let it cycle a bit then open the lid and let your solution sit for an hour. After the time is up, let the cycle finish. You can run the cycle again with a quart of vinegar to make sure any loose gunk is flushed away.
2) Sunshine As the Ultimate Stain Remover
If you have any stubborn stains, especially ones caused by tomatoes, put your clothes out to dry in the sun to help blast away those stains away. Your clothes should be soaking wet when you lay them in full sun. This works best on whites.
3) Soften It Up
Sometimes new fabrics can be pretty stiff. You can soften up your clothing by adding a cup of vinegar to your rinse cycle.
4) Bread as a Lipstick Stain Remover
You can blot a wad of bread (minus the crust) onto a lipstick stain to remove it. What doesn’t come up with the bread will come out in the laundry.
5) Tennis Ball in the Dryer
Putting two or three tennis balls in your dryer with your comforters, pillow or other bedding items helps them to retain their cozy fluffiness and helps them to dry faster.
6) Ink Stains
Spray some hairspray or pour some hand sanitizer onto your ink stains and let it sit for 10 minutes before throwing your clothes in the wash. It will help make those ink stains completely disappear.
7) Black Pepper for Black Clothing
If you want to keep your black clothes looking their blackest, you can add 1 to 2 tsp. of black pepper into the water with your clothes at the beginning of the wash cycle.
The coarseness removes residue while the tint of the pepper strengthens the hue of your black clothing.
8) Grease Stains
Grease can ruin your clothing for good so you’ll want to combat it as quickly as possible. Rub some chalk or baby powder over your stain to absorb the oil. Wash your clothing as you normally would to fully remove the stain.
9) Brighten Whites With Lemon
If your whites seems a little dull, try tossing some sliced lemons in a pot full of water until it boils. Turn your heat off and put in your whites and let them sit for an hour.
Next, toss your clothes into the wash as you normally. They should be all brightened up when you take them out. Dry in the sun for maximum whiteness.
10) Extra Stinky Laundry
If you have some laundry that is extra stinky, you can add 1 cup of vinegar into the washing machine at the beginning of the wash cycle to get that stink out.
11) Unshrink Clothing
If you shrunk your favorite pieces of clothing you can still salvage it. Fill up a large container with lukewarm water and add in about 1 tbsp. of hair conditioner. Put your garment in and soak it for a half hour. Gently stretch it back out and rinse with water. Let your garment air dry while lying flat.
12) Make Clothes Dry Faster
Place a fluffy dry towel into your dryer with your wet clothes to help the wet garments dry faster.
13) Keep Colors From Running
Adding a 1/2 cup of salt into your wash cycle to prevent your colors from bleeding during their first wash.
14) Steam Out Wrinkles With Ice Cubes
Put a few ice cubes into your dryer and run it on its hottest setting. This will remove wrinkles from your clothing. Just don’t put too much clothing in the dryer!
15) Reusable Dryer Sheets
Pour some fabric softener onto a hand towel and let it dry. You can use the towel as a reusable dryer sheet.
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