Putting clothes in the washing machine too often can actually lessen the lifespan of your clothes — all that agitation breaks down the fibers and wears things out. But if excessive washing can ruin your clothes, then exactly how often should you wash bras, jeans, towels and other household items? Kidspot has put together this laundry guide to when you should wash it and when you should save yourself a little laundry time.

Laundry tip #1: Bras

When to wash them: After 3 to 4 wears

As bras don’t come into direct contact with your underarms, they can withstand a few wears and need only be washed after every third or fourth wear. TOP TIP: Bras ideally should be washed by hand. Hand wash your bras when you shower to save time. If you choose to machine wash them though, make sure the clips are fastened together so they can’t get caught in the lace or shred up the rest of your washing.

Laundry tip #2: Bath towels

When to wash them: Once or twice a week

There is a school of thought that says bath towels should be washed after every use because they harbor bacteria – but who has time for that amount of washing? Bath towels should ALWAYS be hung up to dry after every use as a damp towel is a breeding ground for bacteria and that dank, musty smell. Ideally, towels should make it into the washing machine at least once, if not twice a week. Use your nose to determine if they could do with a wash. Hand towels and face washers that are often left damp should be washed more regularly than bath towels – at least every couple of days. TOP TIP: If your bathroom is prone to mold, don’t store your dry clean towels in the vanity where they will also develop mold. Also, to sanitize your towels and make them smell fresh, add a little eucalyptus oil (just half a teaspoon) to the wash cycle.

Laundry tip #3: Jeans

When to wash them: After 4 to 5 wears

Washing your jeans too often can cause them to prematurely fade and fray (and not in the store-bought intended way). As denim is a great dirt concealer, you can get away with four to five wears before it’s time to toss your jeans in the wash. Kids jeans are another thing though – especially if they’ve been playing outside in the grass or mud!  Dirty jeans need prompt washing. TOP TIP: To keep your jeans looking like you just bought them, wash them in cold water and hang them inside out on the clothes line to dry so that they don’t fade.

Laundry tip #4: Pajamas

When to wash them: After 3 to 4 wears 

Icky fact: Our skin sheds thousands of skin cells all the time, so the PJs that you wear to bed are best washed after three or four wears — less if the pajamas belong to a sweaty bloke!  TOP TIP:  Shower before bedtime and you can get away with less laundry.

Laundry tip #5: Dress pants

When to wash them: After 4 to 5 wears

Dress pants that you wear to work are often made of stain-repelling synthetic blends so you can get away with washing them a bit less than you think. Modern synthetics can be washed after four or five wears, but check the care labels carefully as some fabrics stipulate dry-clean only, which usually means a rough machine wash can damage the fabric. TOP TIP: If the dress pants are part of suit, avoid one fading more than the other by dry-cleaning both pieces together.

Laundry tip #6: Bed sheets

When to wash them: Once a week or fortnight

Unless you have a bed-wetter in the house, bed-sheets can be washed once a week or even once a fortnight. The dead skin cells we all shed become dust mite food (yes, the average bed has anywhere between 100,000 to 10 million dust mites), so washing sheets is definitely a key laundry task to be tended to. TOP TIP: Washing your pillow every month is also important to disinfect and wash away dust mites. You can purchase dust mite proof covers for your mattress and pillows from department stores which will help to keep dust mites at bay.

Laundry tip #7: T-Shirts, camies and singlets

When to wash them: After every wear

Life is messy when you’re a mum and chances are your t-shirt is as filthy as your toddler’s at the end of the day! Wash everyday tops after each wear. Likewise, figure-hugging items like camies and singlets that absorb body sweat should be tossed in the dirty clothes basket at the end of the day too. TOP TIP : If you only wore these items for a few hours, then you can get away with a second wear.

Laundry tip #8: Swimwear

When to wash them: After every wear

Salt and chlorine will eat away at a swimsuit and cause it to lose shape, unless it is washed out properly after every wear. Hand wash your suit after swimming at the beach or in a pool and leave it to line-dry in the breeze. TOP TIP: To get longer life out of your swimsuit, wash it in cold water using a gentle detergent.

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We have gadgets for all manner of domestic chores – imagine life without a vacuum cleaner, dishwasher or washing machine? But while labour-saving gizmos have made our lives invariably easier, there is one chore that is still worth doing the old-fashioned way – hanging out the washing. Here’s 5 great reasons to ditch the clothes dryer, take advantage of the sunshine and line dry your laundry instead.

1) It saves money

Everyone knows that tumble dryers are notorious energy sappers, but did you know that they are the second biggest user of household electricity after the refrigerator? With the cost of electricity on the rise – the average family is spending around $200 extra a year – it’s worth pulling the plug on this energy-draining appliance.

2) It’s better for your clothes

Line drying your threads will not only make them smell fresher and be cleaner too – the sun’s ultraviolet rays are an antiseptic which kills bacteria – but also last longer. Fabric that is tumble-dried wears more from the action of being spun. Tumble-dried clothes also produce lint, which means your clothes will not only be thinner but pillier too.

3) It’s better for the environment

An average tumble dry cycle uses just over 4kWh of energy and produces around 1.8kg CO2. If all households with a tumble dryer hung up one load of washing outside each week, we would save over a million tonnes of CO2 in a year.

4) It’s better for you

There’s something therapeutic about hanging your clothes out on the line… you breath the fresh air, get a little exercise, have time to yourself and absorb a healthy dose of vitamin D – without spending enough time in the sun to get burnt. Even the rich and famous agree, “There is nothing that I love more than to take time to clear my head and hang the washing out on the line on a beautiful day,” Olivia Newton-John tells LineDryIt. “It makes your clothes and linens smell so good and it is very eco-friendly,” she says.

5) It just feels better

Lastly, there is something lovely about watching your clothes flap about in the breeze, knowing you’re doing your bit for the planet and saving money – it just makes you feel virtuous!

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Grass stains will come out with prompt laundering and stain treatment. Some other techniques to remove grass stains include:

• Rubbing alcohol – or methylated spirits or white spirits – can be a quick no-wash treatment for a grass stain, though such stain treatments can “bleed” the colours of the fabric, so it’s worth trying using a 50:50 alcohol and water solution first before moving on to straight alcohol.
• If the clothing is white and can be bleached, using a chlorine bleach solution on the stain will work. Just be sure not to use too much bleach or you’ll damage the garment.
• Soaking the stain in a solution of water and detergent is great – then wash the garment as usual, but don’t put the item in the clothes dryer until you’ve checked the stain has definitely gone.
• When trying to eliminate grass stains, don’t use ammonia, degreaser or alkaline detergents because they may permanently set the stain.

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There are ways to make trips to the laundromat or public laundry room easier and even less costly.

1. Sort Your Laundry At Home

If you sort your laundry at home, you’ll save time and have more work space than at the laundromat. Use pillowcases or different colored laundry bags for whites and dark clothes.

2. Take Your Own Detergent

Single-use detergent packs are expensive so take your own detergent and other products with you. Powdered detergents can be measured into small plastic bags and liquid products can go in a small plastic container with a tight lid. Or, you can opt for single load products like a gel-pac. They are bit more expensive but you’ll save by bringing them from home rather than purchasing at the laundromat.

3. Check the Washer and Dryer Before Using

Before you set something on top of the washer or dryer make sure the surface is clean. At best, you’ll get sticky detergent residue. At worst, you’ll find bleach that will ruin your clothes. Look inside, too. You never know what the last person had in the washer or dryer. Some one could leave a tube of lipstick in their pocket and then it gets left in the dryer or washer. Or, you may find leftover clothing. Just look before you load. If the appliance is stained, be a good Samaritan and clean it up or at least report the problem to the manager.

4. Use the Dryers Wisely

Before you start the dryer make sure the lint trap is clean. You’ll prevent fires and your clothes will dry faster. As you load the clothes into the dryer, fluff each piece of clothing by giving it a quick shake. They will dry more quickly and with less wrinkles. Be sure you get everything in the dryer before you start it up. Opening and closing the door loses heat and time.

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It’s hard not to sweat the second you step out in California’s hot heat. If your shirts are marked with sweat stains that won’t disappear after a regular machine wash then put these tricks to the test.

Baking soda

Create a stain-removing paste by mixing ¼ cups of warm water with four tablespoons of baking soda. Generously apply the paste to the stained area and lightly agitate the shirt with a soft white washcloth. Leave the paste to absorb for 30 minutes before rinsing and machine washing.

Aspirin

This aspirin concoction can help remove yellow stains from a white shirt. Crush two aspirin tablets and dissolve it in half a cup of warm water in a shallow bucket. Soak the shirt for two hours.

Salt

Also great for targeting yellow stains, add four tablespoons of salt to one litre of hot water. Rather than soaking the whole shirt, use a sponge to dab the solution onto the stained areas until they disappear.

Lemons

Thanks to their bleaching qualities, lemons work wonders on stained white shirts. Make a solution of equal parts lemon juice and water and gently scrub the affected area. Put the shirt into the washing machine for a final wash.

Vinegar

Vinegar will not only get rid of sweat stains, it will help remove the smell of them too. Pour a splash of white undistilled vinegar directly onto the underarm area and rub it into the shirt with a gentle white washcloth. Follow with a machine wash.

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Who would have thought that the humble hand sanitize and a spritz of hairspray would be kryptonite to ink stains. Apply hand sanitize and hairspray to the stained area and leave it for 10 minutes. The ink will bleed out; wash as normal.

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Dryer sheets do a pretty good job of reducing static cling on items in the dryer, plus they can add a bit of freshness to the smell of clothes and other articles.

Still, the cost of these sheets adds up. For “name brand” sheets, you’re going to be paying about five cents per sheet. For generic sheets, the cost goes down to about three cents. If you’re using a dryer sheet in each load and you average a load a day, that’s $11 to $18 a year in dryer sheet costs.

That’s an unnecessary expenditure, especially since dryer sheets have at least two uses in them and you can cut them in half and use each half separately. That creates four uses out of each dryer sheet, cutting the cost down to $2 to $4 per year, which saves you $9 to $14 over the year depending on your brand.

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Good Housekeeping took 74 formulas — 49 liquids, 19 powders, and six single-use tabs — for a spin to see how well they removed 20 common stains (oil, coffee, mascara…) from polyester and cotton to decided which are the best laundry detergents. Surprise: Powders packed the most power. For even better results on laundry day, be sure to check out our top washers.

– Unless noted, package size for powders is 48 to 56 ounces; for liquids, 50 to 64 ounces. Cost per load is based on our large, heavily soiled test load.

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To speed up your laundry’s drying time, place a dry towel along with your wet clothing in the dryer. The towel will help absorb water. Just pull it out after about 15 minutes so it doesn’t continue to contribute to the water in the machine.

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The sun and wind are very effective at drying clothes throughout the year (it even works in the winter, unless we hit long periods of below-freezing temperatures or snow and rain), and when drying clothes outside wasn’t an option, we used clothes racks to dry them inside. We didn’t ever buy or build a clothes wringer, as we lived in a dry sunny region, but that could be an effective method of speeding up the drying process, especially in more humid locations. Depending on the climate where you live, using an outside clothes line may not always be the best choice, but either a homemade or a purpose-built clothes rack can do the trick.

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Add about 1/4 cup white distilled vinegar to the last rinse. The acid in white distilled vinegar is too mild to harm fabrics, yet strong enough to dissolve the alkalies in soaps and detergents. Besides removing soap, white distilled vinegar prevents yellowing, acts as a fabric softener and static cling reducer, and attacks mold and mildew.

Consumer Reports has found in its tests that liquid detergent caps are often impossible to read, leading to overdosing of detergents, which itself can leave detergent residues that make your clothes look dingy. They suggest marking the fill line with a permanent marker so it’s easy to see. And when it comes to actual amounts, follow your machine manufacturer’s recommendations, not the detergent manufacturer’s. “The manufacturer wants you to use as much detergent as possible,” he says, but they don’t know what kind of washing machine you have. Also, the softness or hardness of your water affects how much detergent you need to use. Soft water usually requires less detergent, Green says, while hard water usually requires the full amount. If you have hard water, Green also suggests adding a water softener, such as baking soda, to help your soap dissolve. Start with equal parts detergent and baking soda, and then experiment from there.

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You thought it was just about whites, darks, and delicates, but your clothes will wind up much cleaner if you separate them not just by color, but also by fabric type and water temperature. Green recommends you make five separate piles for colors: whites (entirely white), light colors that include striped whites, darks (blacks, blues, and browns), brights (reds, yellows, and oranges), and delicates. Then, to prevent lint from spreading, separate linty fabrics like towels, flannels, and sweatshirts from corduroys, permanent press, and other smooth fabrics that can pill.

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