Laundry Tips: Campus Edition Packing up the car to head back for another semester? Or maybe it’s your first year of college? Regardless of how much campus life experience you’ve had, there’s no escaping the endless duty of keeping your clothes fresh and clean. It may not be your favorite activity, but it’s a necessary part of “adulting.” Luckily, WASH is here to help college students with some Laundry 101 tips. Perhaps you’ve had some experience with laundry at home, or maybe this is your first time attempting to take on the task. Either way, as a student there’s always more to learn, right? So, let’s assume this is your first rodeo. We’ll take it step by step: Separate Colors Designate which clothes are going in together beforehand. Separate your light-colored clothes from your brights and make a separate pile for your dark-colored clothing. While you’re at it, check to make sure you haven’t left anything in your pockets. Choose a Temperature Use hot water for whites, sheets and towels. Dark colors and knits demand cold water. Light colors can use warm or cold water, but more on this later. Don’t mix your colors and whites unless you want a fully dyed set of undies and socks. Add Detergent Most front-load washers (like you’d find in your laundry room) work best with liquid HE detergent. If using pods, toss one in the drum before you load your clothes. Follow the directions on the packaging for usage guidelines. Load Clothes Load clothes loosely — don’t overpack! If there’s not enough room for the clothes to move around, they won’t get clean. Ideally, the machine would be loosely filled three-quarters full for best results. Start Your Engines! Just close the door, add payment and start the machine. That wasn’t so hard, right? Drying Generally, most clothing is dryer friendly unless stated on the tag. Start by cleaning the dryer’s lint trap. Don’t overload the machine and you’ll want to remove your laundry as soon as your clothes as the cycle is done to avoid wrinkling. Finishing Touches Unless you’re a big fan of the “I Slept in This” look, you’re going to want to fold your clothes to avoid wrinkles. Consider hanging items that show wrinkles easily, like dress clothing. That’s it… you’re done! So, you’ve completed your first load of laundry and you’re ready for a more advanced course? Remember these helpful tips during your next laundry session and you’ll be a pro in no time. Be sure to secure buttons, zippers and anything else that can snag. A snag at high speed can shred through soft materials and ruin your favorite stuff in a blink of an eye. If you’re laundry room accepts mobile payments, be sure to download the app to pay with your phone, monitor machine cycles, request refunds and even get exclusive discounts! Consider purchasing a cold-water detergent for a truly powerful but gentle clean. Speaking of a powerful clean, laundry pods offer a lightweight, easy-to-travel-with option. They’re formulated to be an all-in-one solution for the laundry-doer on the go, while still providing a superior clean. Use the WASH Stain Removal Library to reference how to clean tough stains. Never apply heat to a stain — it will set it! We’re grateful to be your partner in cleanliness for college and beyond. Be sure to check out our app, social media, videos and website for more helpful tips and guides! This is WASH, saying Happy School Year to all of you college students out there!
How to Extend the Life of Your Clothes If your clothes came with an expiration date, how past-due would the items in your closets and drawers be? When do you finally convert those old undershirts into rags? According to the experts, undershirts should usually be replaced every six to 12 months. But what if they could last twice as long with proper care? As your laundry ally, we’ve assembled some tips to help you keep your clothes looking like new, for longer: Brightest Whites – To brighten whites, wash with ½ cup lemon juice, dry in the sun. A Cold Wash – Washing fabrics in hot water degrades material more quickly and dulls color. Save hot water for heavily soiled loads that require sanitizing. In fact, most modern detergents are actually formulated to work best in cold water. Denim and Dyed – To extend the lifetime of your favorite denim jeans or high-vibrancy dyed tees, flip the article inside out to help prevent fading. Stain Treatment – If you’ve stained a favorite clothing item, treat it immediately and with a proper regimen. The sooner you treat the stain, the better. Do not dry the garment until the stain is removed, or you risk setting it. Pack Away Clean – If you’re packing away out-of-season clothes, be sure they’re clean first! Body oils, sweat and many other ‘invisible’ stains can take hold after they’ve had time to oxidize while packed away. Delicately! – For delicate items, wash them inside of a mesh bag. If the material stretches or sags, consider air drying the item flat for best results. Zip It – Be sure to zip up zippers and button-up jeans to help deter damage due to snagging. With a little help from WASH, you can easily preserve the look and durability of your favorite clothes for years to come. Technique makes all the difference!
Laundry Tips to Help Fight the Cold & Flu With cold and flu season in full swing, we’re providing some laundry guidelines to help minimize the risk of the bug going household-wide. But laundry detergent will take care of that, right? Not quite. Use more detergent? Definitely no. You could bleach everything to death, but color safe bleaches aren’t always strong enough to eliminate illness causing germs. So where does that leave you? Turns out, your best ally in destroying germs is your dryer’s high heat cycle. According to Kelly Reynolds, a germ researcher at University of Arizona, 28 minutes of high heat drying is the magic number to ensure you’ve killed all pathogens on your laundry. To help you combat illness in your household, here are some other quick tips to prevent the spread of germs through the wash: High Heat is the Key — Have the ill person(s) sleep on bedding and wear clothes you don’t mind drying on high to be sure you can vaporize any illness causing germs that might be lurking. Go Natural — In the event you can’t dry on high, or have delicate items, nature has the answer. Simply line-dry your clothes and take advantage of the ultraviolet rays of the sun. Separate Loads — According to a TIME article it only takes a single pair of worn underwear from a sick individual to infect 90% of a load of laundry with germs and microorganisms. So, be sure to launder all infected linens, towels, and clothes in a separate load. Clean Sweep — Consider cleaning all linens, towels, and clothes that could have been exposed, not just the ones immediately interacted with by the sick individual(s). Be Speedy — The sooner the infected linens and clothes are laundered after being used, the better. Bleach First — Always run a bleach cycle before using a washing machine during cold & flu season to eliminate any germs and potential illness left behind by the previous user’s laundry. We hope these guidelines help you and your family stay healthy this season!
Wash Before You Wear Yes, You Should Always Wash New Clothes Before You Wear Them That bright new dress or crisp white button-down shirt looks so perfect right off the rack, It’s safe to put it on as soon as you leave the store, right? Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Studies have shown that new clothes are actually dirtier than they look, and you absolutely need to run them through the washing machine at least once before wearing them. New York University microbiology professor Philip Tierno conducted studies in which he tested clothing from popular chain stores – including blouses, pants, dresses, swimsuits and underwear – that was tried on and put back. In his research, he found clothing that contained norovirus, bacteria including strep and staph, and even fecal germs. Tierno told the Huffington Post there are three main ways we spread germs: from our skin, respiratory tree (think mouth and nose) and anus. If you touch clothing that has germs on it (after all, you have no idea how many people have tried it on before you!) and then touch your mouth, eyes or nose, you’re putting yourself at risk. Another study conducted by Dr. Donald Belsito of Columbia University Medical Center and cited in The Wall Street Journal found scabies, lice or fungus on garments. What’s more, clothes are sometimes processed with detergents, chemical additives, dyes, resins, or tanning agents – like formaldehyde for wrinkle-free material – that can cause skin irritation or severe reactions such as dermatitis or eczema. And clothes that are bought online and shipped are typically kept with some preservatives so that mold won’t grow on them during the shipping process. While this news may be daunting, the good news is washing your clothes before wearing them can help remove these potentially harmful germs and chemicals, and washing and drying also will remove unwanted bugs like lice from clothing. Here are some tips for keeping your new clothes looking new: Always read the label carefully so you don’t accidentally shrink or damage the garment! Be sure to read the instructions on your laundry detergent, too. If you use too much, the rinse cycle may not get all the residue out of your clothing. Wash in cold water, as hot water wears out fabrics more quickly. Even if a garment says wash in hot water, washing in cold won’t hurt it and will still get it just as clean. Protect the outside of the garment by simply turning it inside out before you toss it in the washing machine – especially clothes with embellishments, beading or embroidery. Don’t use bleach, as it can wear out the fibers of your clothing. You may want to try vinegar, as it’s a natural brightener. Use the lowest heat setting on your dryer and remove promptly to avoid shrinkage or color fading in new clothes. Although Tierno does admit that the risk of a person actually getting a significant infection or disease from new clothes is “very low,” it is possible – especially if you happen to have an uncovered cut or scrape on your skin. We’re guessing that’s probably enough to convince you to never skip a wash again.
Laundry Chemistry Dirt and stains typically consist of particles such as minerals from soil, protein and other organic matter from living things, or bits of black carbon. The particles are trapped on cloth fibers by grease and oil, which cannot be dissolved in water. By understanding the chemistry of stain removal, you can solve almost all stain problems. Don’t procrastinate. The sooner you attend to a stain, the better. Think twice before just throwing stained clothing in the laundry. The heat of the water and dryer can set in many stains. To remove the stain, start by scraping, blotting, vacuuming or otherwise removing as much of the stain as you can. Never rub in the stain. Identify the stain. Treating a chocolate stain, for example, is different than what you’d do if you spilled coffee on your favorite shirt. If you know what caused the stain, you can find the right treatment. Visit our stain removal section for chemistry-based solutions to common stains. Pretest on the fabric to make sure the fabric won’t be harmed by the treatment. Warm or cool water is the safest for stain removal because hot water and heat can set in stains. When fabric is very dirty, such as after floods or with clay and ground-in dirt, you may want to choose a powdered laundry detergent. If the laundry isn’t full of soil and dirt, liquid laundry detergent is the better choice — it’s less likely to leave mineral residue on the clothes if you have hard water. When washing really dirty clothes, wash whites separately (even if they’re dirty, too) because they will turn gray in dirty water. Be patient. You may have to try a couple of things before you find the one that works on your stain. Although you may need to try several different methods for stain removal, you should not combine different stain removers in an attempt to treat the stain. This can cause adverse chemical reactions, such as the formation of a toxic gas when you combine bleach and ammonia. To avoid this, thoroughly rinse and remove one stain removal treatment product before trying another one. Check for colorfastness. Some harsher treatments for removing stains may change the color of the fabric you are trying to treat. There is nothing worse than a bright white spot on a red t-shirt where the stain remover removed the stain, but also the red dye in the shirt. Test for colorfastness in an inconspicuous area of clothing first. Always check to make sure the stain is removed before you place it in the dryer. Nothing sets a stain worse than drying it in a dryer. If your stain removal method did not completely remove the stain after going through the wash, try something else. At the least, let it air dry instead of placing it in the dryer so you will have a better shot at removing the stain with another method.