Is there art in laundry?
Gathering, tossing, sorting, soaking, pre washing, soaking, rinsing,
lifting, tossing, drying...
Smoothing, folding, creasing, flattening, piling...
Keeping the Fabric of our Home
Thread: Cotton, organic cotton, polyester, hemp, satin, silk, nylon, rayon, spandex, cashmere, wool, felt, angora, weave, twill weave, jersey, rib, cable, tricot, yarn. Each take residence somewhere in all our homes. Usually hanging in our closets or folded keeping in our linen drawers.
Unless you are a bachelor consisting of little to no knowledge of proper washing assortments, the care for your laundry as it is labeled is crucial. You can't simply throw your favorite wool argyle sweater in the wash along with all your cottons and mixed fabric. Then once the cycles are complete simply toss into the dryer for the sixty minutes of turning and pulling. When once a well fitted sweater will end in a sad state of affairs resulting into a teeny tiny sweater perfect for your daughters American girl doll.
"We should all do what, in the long run, gives us joy, even if it is only picking grapes or sorting laundry." E.B. White
I must confess that laundry gives me joy. I think it's because I have fond memories of opening the linen closet door to grandma's bath towels with the smell of bleach mixed with fabric softener. Or my mother's meticulously fussy folded bed skirts, flat sheets, fitted sheets, slip covers, pillow cases and pillow shams perfectly ironed and creased lining her hall shelves. If you don't exactly look forward to laundry day, maybe these tips will lighten your work load.
First, let's begin with a clean washing machine. Ever notice built up grime around the top ring of your machine? That too gets mixed with your clothes you are attempting to clean.
Clean washing machine: Beginning with an empty machine, check inside and wipe out lint, thread or grime left behind. Wipe around the rim of the bucket where soil builds up. Wiping down with a cloth or paper towel moistened with vinegar will keep mildew and odor from gaining hold. Use a soap residue made of a quart of vinegar to a running empty cycle of hot water in your machine.
The proper care: To keep black clothes from fading, turn inside out and choose the coolest temperature setting.
If a garment bleeds onto other fabric in the load, don't allow the stained items to dry. Instead, wash again immediately with detergent and a color safe bleach.
When washing heavy items such as demim and towels, run them through an extra spin cylce before taking them out. This reduces the time spent in the dryer.
Don't overfill your washer, not only will your machine get off track and leak water onto your floor, but it causes your garments to become tangled, twisted and sometimes torn.
Fill your machine with water and add the detergent before you add the load of clothes. IF you put in the clothes first and then fill the machine with water and add detergent, the detergent may not fully dissolve or be thoroughly mixed and you may get uneven cleaning.
Hand wash your delicates. There's good reason why your label inside the sweater says "hand wash" "delicate fabric". The care for your delicates should entail careful hand washing. You usually hand wash because the fabric is so delicate, so weak, or so weakened when wet that it could not take agitation or spinning without damage. Sometimes hand washing is prescribed because fabric loses dye so quickly that only the briefest immersion in water can be tolerated without serious fading.
To hand wash delicate items, usually you should immerse them for a few minutes in a basin of cool to lukewarm water in which some mild detergent designed for delicate fabric (I like woolite) has been mixed. Keep dye-bleeding garments soaking for the shortest possible time.
The gentlest hand washing, which should be used for panty hose, tights, loose knits, and other delicate items, consists of carefully patting the garment until wet with soapy water. Then squeezeit, forcin gthe water through the fabric in the process, until soil has been lifted. Silks, woolens and rayons may be gently dipped up and down. Especially delicate items are simply immersed in sudsy water, soaked, and perhaps patted briefly.
Rinse with clear cold water, using the same technique as washing. Serveral rinse baths may be necessary.
7. Line drying also cools you down.
8. No need to schedule your day around the laundry.
Why should we line dry our laundry? Between the energy dryers take and the real damage they do to our clothes, line drying is a huge money-saver. Just two caveats: First, if you has asthma excema or allergies, line drying usually isn't a good idea because pollen drifts. Also, some communities have banned clotheslines as unsightly. So before implementing lines in your backyard, check with your community standards.
Dry your garmnets on days that are sunny and breezy. The breeze prevents clothes from stiffening.
The key to less ironing is good hanging, so it's worth taking the time to do it riht. First shake each garment gently. Give heavier items a good shake thatmakes them snanp. Then smooth and straighten each garment as you hang it.
Make us of every inch of your line. If you have the space, leave a foot or two between garments. They'll dry faster.
Hang sheets and whites in the sunlight early in the morning to get the full bleaching effect of the sun's rays. Hang colors and brights in partial shade or in the afternoon, after the sun has passed its zenith, to prevent fading.
Prevent clothes from fading by turning them inside out.
Hang your shirts and blouses on hangers with the top buttoned to prevent clothespin marks on the shoulders.
Once a month, use a rag to go over your outdoor clothesline with warm water and pine oil cleaner. Dirty clotheslines will get your clothes dirty as well.
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If a garment bleeds onto other fabric in the load, don't allow the stained items to dry. Instead, wash again immediately with detergent and a color safe bleach.
When washing heavy items such as demim and towels, run them through an extra spin cylce before taking them out. This reduces the time spent in the dryer.
Don't overfill your washer, not only will your machine get off track and leak water onto your floor, but it causes your garments to become tangled, twisted and sometimes torn.
Fill your machine with water and add the detergent before you add the load of clothes. IF you put in the clothes first and then fill the machine with water and add detergent, the detergent may not fully dissolve or be thoroughly mixed and you may get uneven cleaning.
Rinse with clear cold water, using the same technique as washing. Serveral rinse baths may be necessary.
Line Drying a lost art
The benefits of Line Drying our clothes:
1. Conserving energy save YOU money.
2. Clothes last longer
3. Say goodbye to shrinking and set in stains
4. Sunlight has a gentile, natural bleaching effect.
5. Save on anti-static sheets.
6. Line drying cools the yard down.7. Line drying also cools you down.
8. No need to schedule your day around the laundry.
9. Line-dried items especially sheets are much easier to fold than the tangled mass that comes out of the dryer.
10. It's good fo ryour body.
11. Usually, you can multi-task while hanging your laundry outside and use the time to accomplish some other vital task-
12. And finally, the best reason of all-have you ever slept on sheets in the sun? Pure Heaven!
Why should we line dry our laundry? Between the energy dryers take and the real damage they do to our clothes, line drying is a huge money-saver. Just two caveats: First, if you has asthma excema or allergies, line drying usually isn't a good idea because pollen drifts. Also, some communities have banned clotheslines as unsightly. So before implementing lines in your backyard, check with your community standards.
Dry your garmnets on days that are sunny and breezy. The breeze prevents clothes from stiffening.
The key to less ironing is good hanging, so it's worth taking the time to do it riht. First shake each garment gently. Give heavier items a good shake thatmakes them snanp. Then smooth and straighten each garment as you hang it.
Make us of every inch of your line. If you have the space, leave a foot or two between garments. They'll dry faster.
Hang sheets and whites in the sunlight early in the morning to get the full bleaching effect of the sun's rays. Hang colors and brights in partial shade or in the afternoon, after the sun has passed its zenith, to prevent fading.
Prevent clothes from fading by turning them inside out.
Hang your shirts and blouses on hangers with the top buttoned to prevent clothespin marks on the shoulders.
Once a month, use a rag to go over your outdoor clothesline with warm water and pine oil cleaner. Dirty clotheslines will get your clothes dirty as well.
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| The Love of Keeping Home Linens that need ironing (such as dishtowels, tablecloths and pillowcases) will be easier to work with if you roll them rather than fold them when you take them in. The hanger method should also be used for lightweight knits to help them keep their shape. Heavy knits like sweaters should not be line dried.
Sheets will dry smoother if you follow this procedure. First fold the sheet horizontally, hem to hem.
Don't hang bath towels by the corners~their relatively heavy will pull the corners out of shape and leave a permanent indents that spoil their look.
Is your laundry stiff when you take it off the line? The most likely cause is that you used too much soap in the wash. Heavy items like jeans and bath towels will stiffen a bit even if you used the right amount of soap. To soften them, tumble in the dryer on cool for a few minutes.
Okay well does this get you excited for Laundry Day?
Sometimes the mundane can become well...mundane. Over the years I have had to become creative in my daily tasks to keep the mundane out of it.
~Happy Laundry Day~
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