Every garment comes with a care tag. If you want a healthy relationship with your favorite clothes, then the best way to foster some TLC is to get to know the real them. It’s all there on the care tag like a dating site profile. You’ll discover which like the water, their preferred bathing temperature, and if they have a severe bleach allergy. Knowing your clothing’s care instructions will ensure your favorite sweater isn’t reduced to the size of a sock.
Some clothing items just work harder than others. Although you may be tempted to treat them all to the most vigorous setting, unnecessary agitation will wear out your garments quicker. Sometimes it is best to create two groups. One for those items you wore only a few hours while binging Netflix and another for the stuff that did some gardening, sports, or other intense encounters. Denim also deserves its own pile because its rough, durable material can really rub the rest the wrong way. Separate loads mean you’ll not only save your clothes, but you’ll also save money of electricity, water, and detergent.
Once you are confident that you aren’t drowning anything that isn’t meant to swim (like silk, wool, and linens), and you’ve separated the lightweights from the heavyweights, the next step is to place your clothes into the proper groups. That means a pile for the darks (black, navy, forest green), a pile for the whites, and a pile for all those colors in between. Colors dictate temperature. Hot water washes out the darks, and cold water leaves your whites gray. So, you’ll get longer use out of your wardrobe and prevent that dark red shirt from turning your whites to pink.
Nothing that goes in your pockets belongs in the washer. But pockets are sneaky like that. They consider hiding their contents for the wash a little payback for all the work you make them do. Pens, lipstick, notes, gum, and coins can ruin your laundry or break your washer. You can pat them down, but as mentioned, pockets are tricky, so it’s best to turn them inside out to be certain nothing in being concealed.