Sort Laundry by Colors
Sorting your laundry isn't that difficult. You just need to have three baskets or bags, depending on what you put your dirty clothes in. That way you won't have to worry about having a dark blue t-shirt in with whites!
Steps
- Start by putting out all of your clothes onto the ground or on your bed.
- Get 3 laundry bags.
- Whites will go in the whites bag.
- Light colors will go with light colors in another bag.
- Dark colors will be in with a dark load bag.
- Tie or zip the bag up, depending on what type of bag you have.
- Set out to the laundromat. Don't forget to bring your detergent, stain treater, and/or bleach. If you are lucky enough to have a washing machine at home, you can use that.
- Try to find three-four washers that are free and are right beside each other if you do have or don't wish to use your own. If you go go the laundromat or laundrette and you pick adjacent machines, you won't have to worry about walking all around the entire laundromat just to put your clothes in.
- Load your clothes into separate washing machines. Put whites in one washing machine, lights in another washer, and dark colors in another washer. If you are at home, wash each load separately.
- Treat stains before you put the item in the washer with Spray n' Wash, Shout or similar.
- Add detergents.
- Whites will need to be washed in hot water with detergent and bleach (optional).
- Light colors should be washed in either cold or warm water. Check the label in the garment to find the correct temperature.
- Dark colors should be washed in cold water because dark colors may bleed.
- Whites will need to be washed in hot water with detergent and bleach (optional).
- Put in your money depending on what the machines will accept. Usually laundromats close to college, or in the dorm rooms take quarters in the US.
- Check if stains that you treated are gone, when all of your loads are done. If not, you will need to rewash it. If you have both whites and colors but fairly small amounts, you can put them all in the same machine. Just remember to set on COLD.
- Put the clean laundry in a dryer.
- Dry your dark colors on a medium temp or high temp.
- For light colors, a warm setting or high heat setting will be good.
- Whites should be dried at a high temperature.
- Dry your dark colors on a medium temp or high temp.
- Take all the clothes out immediately after drying to prevent wrinkling. Especially if you have nice dress shirts, or nice shirts that you want to wear. Otherwise you will have to iron or steam the shirt.
- Don't forget about your other clothes that were washed again! If you don't want to use more money on drying the clothes, you can take them with you and dry them on a rack or hangers.
- Fold or hang your clothes and put them where they belong.
Tips
- Don't use dryer sheets too often because the dryer sheets aren't very good for clothes especially towels. Since the dryer sheets will not let the towel absorb a lot of the water when you dry yourself after taking a nice long shower.
- Don't leave your clothes in the washer or dryer unattended because obviously people will want to steal your clothes especially if they like the shirt or jeans, pants etc.
- Don't go ahead and throw all of your clothes (whites, dark colors and light colors) together because dark colors may "bleed" onto your whites.
- If you leave clothes unattended in the dryer... people will probably change the temp. Like if you leave the temperature on a low setting, someone might change it to high temp setting and then you will be stuck wearing tight clothes. Or you will have to throw them out.
Warnings
- DO NOT leave your laundry unattended because someone might see a nice shirt or t-shirt and they would steal it after the load is done and you didn't come and pick it up.
- Also, DON'T OVER LOAD THE WASHERS!
- If the dryer has some burnt smell, DON'T USE IT! just find another dryer and use that instead.
- Only use bleach on WHITES. Chlorine bleach is for WHITES only, and Oxygen Bleach is safe for Colors.
Things You'll Need
- Dirty clothes
- Bag
- Washer/Dryer
- Stain treaters
- Detergent
- Dryer sheets (optional)
