When I got married, even if I had a degree in computer science, I chose to stay at home for six years after my second baby was born. I wanted to personally take care of my husband and my children. In those six years, I realized that taking care of your home and the loved ones you live with is not an easy task. But with the love that I feel for my family and with the helpful tips I got from my mother and more experienced friends, I felt I did not just survive the ordeal but I learned to love it.
In the early months of my housekeeping years, washing clothes was one of the most challenging chores for me next to cooking. I started washing my clothes when I was in college and I found it not to be very difficult because I was using a washing machine and I always avoided stains on my clothes. It is different when you are washing clothes of someone else who do not give much attention to how they use their clothes, just like my husband.
In this article, I will share with you useful laundry tips that made my life easier. I got most of it from my mother, friends and relatives. I hope you enjoy reading and I hope that you find it helpful as I did.
What Are The Laundry Tips You Should Not Miss?
- Schedule your laundry. Decide on when and how often you will wash clothes. If you are using a washing machine, its capacity is the number one factor to consider. How many kilograms of clothes can it wash? It will be good if you can maximize the capacity of your washing machine to save time, water and electricity. If you are washing by hands or doing it manually, estimate how many clothes you can wash in one sitting.
- Avoid stains as much as possible. If your clothes got stains while you are not home, probably in a party or attending an event, you can lessen impact of the stains by dipping your finger in a glass of water and rubbing the stains with it. Wipe it by a hanky or a tissue paper to dry. If there is a hand soap available you can apply it to the stains as well then wipe it after.
- Treat the stains before washing whether you are doing it manually or using the washing machine. Separate light colored clothes from the dark colored ones. Inspect the clothes for stains. Below are my tips on treating different kinds of stains.
- Blood – Bloodstains can be removed by soaking the stained part in a bath soap solution. Any bath soap will do but not detergent bar or powder. Soak it for at least 15 mins. Afterwards rub it with your hands or scrub it with a soft brush or washing net roll. Continue soaking until bloodstain is removed
- Fruit Juice, coffee and tea- Get a pitcher of cold water from the refrigerator, pour it in a basin and soak the stained part for 5 minutes, stretch the cloth and pour a hot water on the stained part to remove the stains. Soak longer depending on the stubbornness of the stains.
- Chocolate – Try to wash the stained part first with detergent. If the chocolate stain is not removed, put drops of calamansi juice or lemon juice.
- Rust – Wet the stained part. Pour calamansi juice then rub some salt. Let it sit for at least 3 minutes. Put some detergent and rub the stained part with your hands.
- Chewing gum – Put the fabric in a plastic bag and put it in your freezer. Once the bubble gum gets frozen, you can scrape it with a bread knife.
- Ink Stains- Wet the stained part. Get rid of ink stains by applying acetone using a piece of cotton on the stained area. Pour calamansi extracts. Put some detergent and rub using your hands or scrub with soft brush or washing net roll.
- Oil – Pour hot water and add detergent to the stained area and rub with your hands or brush with soft laundry brush or washing net roll.
- Paint – Apply turpentine or pain thinner using cotton. Rub with your hands then wash. Repeat until paint stain is removed.
For white fabric you can try putting drops of bleach and see if the stain is removed before following any of my tips. That is if you want to use bleach. As for me, because of some reasons, I seldom use bleach. Please remember that you should never use bleach on colored fabric as it may discolor it.
- Before using the washing machine be sure that you have read its manual. Follow the instructions properly. This is to ensure proper washing of your clothes and prolonging the life of your washing machine.
- Put detergent to your washing machine. Follow the instructions in the package of the detergent. If there is no instruction you can follow mine. What I do is that I put 3 scoops first then observe if it is giving the bubble or the lather I desire. If not, I add 1 scoop more, observe and repeat it until I am satisfied.
- Wash the light -colored fabric first. If you are using a semi-automatic washing machine, you can remove the light colored fabrics from the washing machine after it is washed and wash the colored ones next. This is to reuse the detergent and the water. It is a little gesture in loving our mother earth.
- In semi-automatic machines. You have to change water yourself to rinse the clothes. Rinse the light colored first then the colored ones. Change the water after the colored ones and rinse again. I rinse our laundry twice as I don’t usually use fabric cologne or conditioner.
- Spin-dry the clothes. As for my case. When it is sunny, I hang our laundry under the sun. This gives natural fresh smell to the clothes.
In those years that I did housekeeping by myself. There is one thing I learned. It is that housekeeping requires smartness to have a happy and fulfilling life as a housewife or as a “house band”. I hope you learn something from this article.
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in washing a colored stripe with white combination what is your technique to avoid backstaining
We use natural way of removing stains. For Example, For blood, use bath soap , for rust use calamansi juice and salt. You can also use bleach but We suggest that you use cotton in applying it. Be careful not to touch the colored stripes as it may be discolored. We hope we answered your question. Thank you for the visit.