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AS HOUSEHOLD TASKS go, the washing is definitely up there with the least favourites in our books. Not only that, it’s relentless, no matter how much you stay on top of it, those washing baskets fill up. For our taskmaster feature this week we wanted to share some washing hacks that will free up your time to focus on what’s important; like not doing the washing.
Chances are, you have a bottle of vinegar in your kitchen cupboard, well it’s time to put it to good use. Distilled white vinegar is a game-changer when it comes to getting your washing looking and feeling clean for longer. By adding a cup of vinegar to the final rinse of the cycle, you’ll remove any detergent residue that can leave coloureds and white washing feeling scratchy and looking dull. The vinegar also helps with removing any body odours from the fabric and it works best for your whites.
A handy hack that will help ‘future you’ time and again. Once you’ve washed and dried your bedding, simply fold a full set together (as best you can) and pop them in one of the remaining pillowcases of that set. The final result will not only protect your set from any discolouration in storage, but you have the matching bedding stored together, saving you time and frustration in the future when you’re trying to find the correct fitted sheet.
We’ve all seen the magical laundry chutes that exist in some (dream) homes, and as magical as they seem, we’ve yet to spot a reverse shoot that brings your newly washed and dried washing to its final destination. It can sometimes feel like any spare moment we have in the home is spent lugging our washing from one room to another or up the stairs. A handy hack to save time on this monotonous task is to hang your washing upstairs to dry, if you have the space. Clothes airer that hang above stairs or from the ceiling in the spare room are becoming a key way to utilise unused space but also save you lugging the washing up the stairs to put them away, once dried it will definitely feel like you’re saving time as the clothes are geographically closer to their putaway destination.
We will happily die on the hill that advocates for a steamer on clothes rather than an iron. Not only is steaming quicker than ironing as you’re simply letting the steam do its job, it’s much safer as there are no hot surfaces to burn. It’s also gentler on the fabric as there is no direct contact, so your garments are lasting longer, colour isn’t affected, and the item of clothing absorbs the steam which can cause the fabrics to swell slightly which, not only gets rid of the pesky wrinkles, but also helps with the health of the fabric and it can last longer as a result. In general, we feel that ironing is on the way out, and we couldn’t be happier.
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