My mom has 6 kids, and she has seen every laundry stain in the book from chocolate to grass stains! I’ve picked up on a few of her laundry tips and tricks over the years, and I am here to share all the secrets with you!
This post is all about genius laundry tips for keeping your clothes looking brand new!
Laundry is not the most fun chore out there, but done right – it can prolong the lifetime of your clothing and end up saving you lots of money in the long run! This post will cover laundry tips, how to separate your clothing properly, and must-have laundry products that I love and have been using for years!
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Laundry Tips and Tricks
- If you use powdered laundry detergent, put the powder into your washing machine BEFORE you add in you clothes. If you use a top-loader turn on the water, put in the laundry detergent, and then add in your clothing. This ensures that the detergent dissolves properly and is mixed evenly with all your clothes! If you use a natural powdered laundry detergent that does not dissolve as well, make sure you dissolve the powder in a little bit of warm water before doing cold water cycles!
- Borax is a great laundry booster, and is especially helpful with removing deodorant and sweat stains. I use borax a ton when washing my husbands work shirts! His deodorant tends to cling to his work shirts and borax is the extra boost that the detergent needs to break down the deodorant. Sprinkle in a generous amount, but be careful not to use borax with delicate fabrics.
- When in doubt, use vinegar. Distilled white vinegar is one of the cheapest and most effective stain removers available. It works so well because it is slightly acidic which helps break down common stains like coffee and grass. You can either use vinegar to treat individual stains, or you can add in a generous splash to your washing machine. Don’t worry though! Your clothes will not smell like vinegar!
- Blood comes out with cold water if it hasn’t dried yet. If you are dealing with a blood stain, try and get it under cold water as soon as possible. The majority of the stain will come out under the cool water, and then I would treat the remaining stain with an OxiClean Stick. Do not use warm or hot water as it ‘bakes’ the stain in.
- Fels-naptha is great for baby stains! Fels-naptha works great on all stains, but particularly baby poop and vomit. Saturate the stain with water and rub the Fels-naptha stick directly on the clothing and let it sit, or grate in a generous amount of Fels-naptha directly into your washing machine and run the cycle.
- Wash dark colors in cool water and whites in hot water. In general, reserve hot water cycles for white clothing. Hot water can cause darker colors to fade or bleed and it shrinks certain fabric types like wool, linen, cotton, and silk.
- Dry whites in the sun, if possible. The sun is amazing for so many reasons, and it even helps brighten whites and fade stains. The UV rays from the sun act as a natural bleach! I always dry my white tennis shoes in the sun, and it works like a charm every time.
- Clean shoes with OxiClean Stain Stick. The only reason me and my husband’s gym shoes still look brand new is because of the OxiClean Stain Stick. We both have white Hokas, and after almost an entire year, they literally look brand new. Run your shoes under warm water and then use the stain stick to cover the shoes in the product and work in the gel to the fabric. Let it sit for at least and hour and then toss the shoes into your washing machine and run a normal cycle. If the shoes are white, splash in a little bit of bleach. Leave them out to air dry – preferably in the sun!
- If you don’t have time to wash an item of clothing, spray with Lysol or fabric spray, dribble with water, and throw in the dryer with dryer sheets or dryer balls for ten minutes. It will be fresh and wrinkle free!
How to Separate Clothes for Washing
Leaning how to properly separate my laundry changed the laundry game! You probably separate your dark laundry from your whites, BUT you should be separating on another factor too. You need to be separating you laundry on the weight of the fabric too. How does this work? First, separate your laundry into darks and lights. Second, separate darks by fabric weight. Items like jeans, hoodies, and heavy clothing goes into one pile, and lighter weight fabric like t-shirts and workout clothes go in another pile. Now do the same with whites.
Now you should have four buckets of laundry. Now you may be thinking, why do I need to ALSO separate by fabric weight? Because different fabric types absorb the laundry detergent differently, and your heavier fabrics will be hogging all of the laundry soap from lighter clothing items. Grouping by color AND fabric weight will ensure that your clothes are getting washed as thoroughly as possible! I especially use this method on nicer clothing and workout clothes!
Must-Have Laundry Products
These laundry products are tried and true and I make sure to never run out of them! You might notice that I don’t use laundry softener, and that is for a couple of reasons. 1. I believe that when you wash your clothes on the correct temperature and separate by fabric weight, you don’t need it! 2. I have sensitive skin and prefer to stay away from heavy fragrances.
OxiClean Stick | Borax | Fels-Naptha | Vinegar | Wool Dryer Balls | OxiClean White Revive | Molly’s Suds Laundry Powder
I hope you enjoyed this post all about laundry tips!
