Laundry Tips for College Students

If you are in college, chances are good that you have taken care of a few preliminary tasks. These include, but are not limited to registering for classes, buying books, selecting and decorating your dorm or apartment. But if you intend to have a social life, minimize your chances of being the brunt of a lot of jokes, not to mention having a lot more confidence in yourself, you will need to have clean laundry. And if you are like most students, your mother is not at home waiting with baited breath for you to bring home your dirties for her to clean. As a result, you will need to either hire a cleaning lady–not usually a viable option–or clean your laundry yourself. By following these few tips, you will never look so good.

* Sort. Not all fabrics are the same, neither should they be washed the same. You should separate lights from darks, finer fabrics from those that are more durable. After you have done this, and if you have any doubt, wash everything in cold water. This will prevent a lot of problems involving shrinking, fading, and bleeding of dyes. Using cold water is also easier on the environment. If you have clothes that are heavily soiled or are light colored or white, warm or hot water might be best.

* Pretreat. The earlier you treat a stain in your clothes the better. Regardless, you should treat a stain differently than your regular wash. There are many stain removers on the market, but all of them work generally the same. Try to spray or dab the product on the stain before it sets, then wash the item with the rest of your clothes. If the stain doesn’t come out on the first try, wash it again. Don’t put a remaining stain in the dryer, or it might be there forever.

* Get ready to tumble. Don’t make the same mistake that a lot of newbs do: just throwing the newly washed clothes in the dryer. This might cause a lot of problems. Instead, close zippers, unbutton clothes, empty pockets and turn them inside out. Anything you want to dry that could be considered “delicate” should be enclosed in a mesh bag.

* Add detergent and go. There are a lot of competing detergents to select from. It only takes one trip to a market to learn that. Try to use one that is easy to use and has guidelines that match what you are trying to wash.

Try to establish a cycle of cleaning your clothes, and not only when you run out of clean ones. This ensure that the task won’t be monotonous, and it might even give you time to study.