While it seems so simple, doing laundry is a skill that you're going to need for the rest of your life. It's really shocking how many people go off to school and don't know how to do their own laundry (me included).
About the second week of school the laundry room was pack and it was pure chaos. The most often thing you'll hear is "Is this a light or a dark?!" I also got asked a few times but some guys how bad your laundry will be if you don't use a fabric softener...
Anyways, the point is, YOU NEED TO KNOW HOW TO DO YOUR OWN LAUNDRY.
Here are some steps and tips on how to make doing laundry as painless as possible.
Step 1. Have Soap and Fabric Softener
It doesn't really matter which brand you use, just go with whatever your parents use at home! Personally, I use Tide Pods because it's a lot easier to carry a few little pods down to the laundry room in comparison to a huge jug of detergent. Make sure you also have some kind of fabric softener! Whether you use the liquid kind or the sheet kind, either works. Just keep in mind that if you use the liquid kind, you're going to have to watch for when the dryer gets to the rinse cycle, and then pour it in before the end of the load.
Step 2. Sort Your Laundry
Lights, darks, colours, delicates, towels, bedding... There are so many different ways that you can sort your laundry. For me, usually I can get mine down to 2 or 3 loads, depending if I need to wash my towels. Lights and darks are the two you need to be careful with... I'm sure we've all mistakenly thrown in that dark/colourful item into our lights and being sure that it wont bleed... and then being completely wrong about the whole thing. (In my case, I turned all my while face cloths a light purple by washing them with my dark purple towels... oops)
Step 3. Know What Water Temperature You Want
Cold water has gotten a lot more popular in the past few years, but it all depends on what you want. When in doubt, I go for cold, but you can just ask your parents what they use!
Step 4. Put the Clothes In
When putting the clothes in, make sure your load isn't too big for the washer - that's not good! Also, make sure they're evenly spread around the middle.
Step 5. Put It In The Dryer
Next all you have to do is transfer your clothes from the washer to the dryer! Make sure you don't have anything in there that can't go in there, and if you do make sure to take it out. Put the clothes in the dryer, add some dryer sheets if you want, and then all you have to do is wait for about an hour.
Step 6. Fold or Hang the Clothes
If you fold or hang your clothes right after they come out of the dryer, then they're less likely to get wrinkled.
Tips:
- Check to see if the laundry room is busy. It's usually pretty packed Sunday nights, so try to go at odd hours if you need lots of machines (my whole building only has 8 of each, so it gets really busy!)
- Get a basket or bag. I started out with using a really big re-usuable bag to lug my laundry, and actually ended up breaking it - so now I'm using a laundry hamper. You want something that is going to be easy to carry and strong enough to hold your laundry
- Bring work to the laundry room. I know a lot of people put their stuff in and leave, but I personally like to stay in the laundry room while it's washing and drying. I'm not worried about people stealing my stuff, but the laundry room is a great place to get work done without distractions!
- Do laundry with a friend. Most things are for fun when you have company, laundry included! I usually end up doing laundry with a friend that way we both get something done that's necessary and we don't have to go alone.
- Wear something cool. Not cool as in like, lookin' good, because lets be honest, if you're doing laundry then you're probably down to your last pair of sweats, so you probably aren't runway worth. What I mean is that wear something that you're not going to get really hot in. If all of the dryers are going, then the room is probably going to get really hot.
- Check the lint catcher. You'd be surprised at how much lint one load can generate... So make sure to scoop it out and throw it out!
Good luck, and I hope your favourite white t-shirt doesn't turn pink!
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