After reading Laundry Love in three days, I can tell you that the book is pretty great. Here are my key takeaways from Patric Richardson’s cheerful book if you do not have time to pick up a copy:
DO
Do use warm water for every laundry load. Cold water does not dissolve soap, thus rendering it ineffective and leaving it along with dirt in your clothes.
Do use the 30 minute express wash for every load. Slow spins prolong your clothes abrasion and exposure to soapy water. Fast spins act as a centrifuge to pin clothes to the barrel of the machine, leaving garments dryer and minimizing the weakening time on a drying rack.
Do use washing soda instead of baking soda to strengthen the cleaning power of a wash.
Do turn silk like materials inside out and place them in small mesh bags before washing. Roll up knits and place them in mesh bags that tightly hold the garments as well. Safety pins can be used to secure mesh bags that are too big for their respective garments.
Do air out your clothes at the end of the day instead of washing them after a single use unless you truly dirtied the garment (i.e. a spill). Stinky clothes can be sanitized and deodorized with a spritz of cheap vodka. See bonus section below for additional vodka use.
Do purchase Richardson's recommended products to show your clothes some love: gentle detergent (soap flakes or plant based liquid soap), bleach alternative (100% sodium percarbonate), washing soda, small laundry brush (I may just use a toothbrush), laundry soap bar, 50/50 white vinegar and water spray, 70% rubbing alcohol, The Laundress Stain Solution oil-soap stain remover, Amodex ink remover, cheap vodka, mesh washing bags, tennis balls, wool dryer balls, and plastic bumpy dryer balls.
Do purchase Laundry Love for a full list of instructions on how to treat every stain. Normally, I would recommend checking the book out at the library, but this book will repeatedly be needed for reference. Chapter 7 is a stain treatment gold mine; thus, I plan to keep it in my laundry room to prevent stain stress.
DON’T
Don't bleach white towels; they were dyed white, because cotton is naturally an ecru color. You can use a bleach alternative to brighten whites.
Don't sort into whites, colors, and darks. Sort into whites, cools, warms, and blacks. If there is a color bleed, red into orange or blue into purple is not an issue. [I personally wash socks and towels together to prevent them from roughing up other clothes; so my piles are whites, warms, cools/darks, and roughs. Richardson never touched on rough clothing though, so take this side note as you will.]
Don’t dry clean. Professional cleaners use harsh chemicals while taking up too much of your time and money. Brand tags say “dry clean only,” because producers do not believe you know how to properly clean your clothes. All bulky and delicate items can be cleaned in a bathtub with a few soap flakes if a washing machine would be too rough.
Don’t toss your favorite jeans when the color drains out of them. Instead, use a bluing solution to bring back their color.
Don’t use dish detergent to remove stains; it is too harsh on garments and does not actually remove all stains. Do use removers meant for oily (ex: butter), organic (ex: fruit), and inorganic (ex: makeup) stains. Richardson will school you in chapter 7.
Don’t do a load of laundry a day. Instead, make sure all of your clothes are clean at the beginning of the week so you can take advantage of your wardrobes' full potential.
Don’t dread doing your laundry. We are blessed with the opportunity to have and wear clean clothes.
Bonus
Vodka can sanitize kitchen cutting boards that can not go in the dishwasher.
Mix a tablespoon of rubbing alcohol and a few drops of essential oil into your vodka spray bottle so that no one will drink it.
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