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Patric Richardson would like you to rethink how you wash your clothes.
Host of the TV show The Laundry Guy on Discovery+ and HGTV and author of the upcoming book House Love: A Joyful Guide to Cleaning, Organizing and Loving the Home You’re In, the household cleaning pro offers advice on how to get rid of stains, extend the life of your garments and spend less time in the laundry room.
Patric Richardson is host of the TV show “The Laundry Guy” on Discovery+ and author of the upcoming book House Love: A Joyful Guide to Cleaning, Organizing and Loving the Home You’re In.
Darin Kamnetz
The key, he says, is to stop following generations-old laundry rules. Over the past few decades, washing machines and dryers have become more efficient. And the dyes in our clothes today aren’t as prone to bleeding. So some of the guidance from our parents on how to do laundry — like washing dark-colored garments in cold water or using a super-long cycle to get your clothes clean — may not be necessary.
Before Richardson became a self-described “laundry evangelist,” he worked in fashion. That career, he writes on his website, taught him that “all clothing, regardless of price, can be cared for at home.” He shares some of his insight with Life Kit.
1. Wash clothes in warm water
Richardson prefers washing clothes in warm water. It activates laundry soap and detergent faster, he says.
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You may have grown up being told to wash dark clothing with cold water to prevent bleeding and light clothing in warm water to remove stains.
But Richardson says warm water is a safe – and perhaps better – bet than cold. Warm water activates laundry soap and detergent faster, which allows for express cycles that are shorter to still clean clothes effectively.
You can be less worried about your colored garments fading, leaching dye and staining your other clothes because most modern clothing dyes stay set for longer, he says.
However, if you are still concerned about fabric dye, particularly in new clothes that haven’t been washed before, Richardson says to throw a color catcher in with your load. Color catchers are sheets treated with sodium carbonate that absorb excess dye so it won’t resettle in your other clothes.
While you may still prefer to wash in cold water to reduce the energy required to heat water, Richardson says selecting a shorter cycle can achieve this too.
2. Embrace the express cycle
If your washing machine has an express cycle or speed wash setting, take advantage of it. Anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes in warm water will sufficiently cleanse most clothes, says Richardson.
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You might think that the longer you wash your clothes, the cleaner they’ll get. But that’s not always the case, says Richardson.
The technology behind washing machines has improved over the last three decades and includes more custom settings, like an express cycle. This option offers a shorter wash cycle and a high-speed spin cycle, which helps quicken drying time.
If your washing machine has this setting, take advantage of it. Anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes in warm water will sufficiently cleanse most clothes, says Richardson. However, you should probably use a longer cycle if you have a big pile of clothes that’s particularly grimy.
That shorter cycle can also reduce abrasion that occurs when fabric rubs against other fabric in the washer, he adds. You can tell if your clothes are abraded if your clothes pill — develop small balls of thread or lint on the surface of the fabric — or come out of the wash with small rips or holes. In the dryer, you can see the effect of this in the lint trap, which collects the fibers that wear off of your clothing.
“Abrasion is the No. 1 enemy of laundry,” says Richardson. “Letting those clothes tumble in the machine is the worst thing you can do. So if we can get that time way down, our clothes are clean and they last so much longer.”
3. Buy simple detergents and soap, and use less of it
Be conservative with your laundry detergent and soap. If you use more than necessary, it doesn’t get fully rinsed out of your clothes and resettles into the fabric, says Richardson.
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“Look for laundry detergent like you look for food,” says Richardson. Use detergents with natural ingredients and ingredients that you can recognize, such as cornstarch, sodium bicarbonate and essential oils. “Generally, natural materials break down into the Earth easier,” he adds.
Richardson prefers laundry soap over detergent, which can come in the form of liquid, powder, flakes or bars. Soap is a simpler product – primarily made of animal fats, vegetable oils, water and lye.
In contrast, detergent is made of synthetic chemical compounds, including surfactants, which help detergents dissolve in water and lift dirt from clothes. Many detergents are formulated to activate well with cold water, so they might be a better option if you want to wash your clothes at that temperature.
If you decide to use detergent, forget the measuring caps that get stickier with every use. “With almost every commercial detergent, you can use two tablespoons for a very large load of laundry and that’s plenty,” says Richardson.
When you use more detergent and soap than is necessary, it doesn’t get fully rinsed out of your clothes and resettles into the fabric, says Richardson. The result is fabric that can feel sticky or has “resistance or drag” when you run your hands over it or rub it between your fingers. The goal is to return the fabric of your clothes to their original texture.
4. Yes, you can throw ‘dry clean only’ clothes in the washer
Putting unique fabrics and delicate garments into mesh bags can help them from degrading in the washing machine, says Richardson.
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When clothing care tags read “dry clean only,” it can feel like a mandate. However, Richardson says “everything can go in the washer” as long as you know the fabric your clothes are made of and how to care for it accordingly. You can do that by using mesh bags, which help keep unique fabrics and delicate garments from degrading.
If you are washing a wool, silk or lined garment that comes with instructions that say “dry cleaning only,” pack it into the smallest mesh laundry bag the item can fit in so that it’s “tight like a little sausage,” he says.
“If you put it in a bag so tight that it can’t rub against itself, the water still moves through it, so it still becomes clean. And you won’t have the problem of it abrading,” he adds.
Not only do these bags help protect fabric, but they can keep things like socks together so you never have one missing from a pair. They can also keep bra straps from tangling around other clothes and stretching out.
5. Use the dryer sparingly
Richardson recommends relying on air drying when possible. It minimizes clothing abrasion.
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Wool, silk and other clothing recommended for hand washing or dry cleaning should not go into the dryer, says Richardson. When it comes to delicate clothing items, you want to reduce the time they spend tumbling around other clothes as much as possible. So, air drying is best for those items.
The same goes for clothing made with Lycra, spandex or elastane, which includes many athleisure items like yoga pants. Heat, when applied to this material, can dry out the fabric and reduce the stretch in those clothes.
“If you love your yoga pants because of how they fit and you start throwing them in the dryer, it breaks down the Lycra pretty quickly and they will lose the ability to maintain that shape,” says Richardson.
Everything else can go into the dryer, Richardson says, but he recommends using it only as much as you need to get items dry and relying on air drying when possible.
Air drying is better for your clothes because it minimizes abrasion. Plus, it cuts down on energy costs. Richardson recommends hanging clothes off a drying rack in a shower or bathtub to catch any dripping water.
6. Use simple home remedies to pre-treat stains and remove odors
To make your washing loads more effective, pre-treat your stains, says Richardson. He recommends spritzing the stain with a 50-50 mix of white vinegar and water.
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To make your washing loads more effective, pre-treat your stains. You can do this by spritzing the stain with a 50-50 mix of white vinegar and water. If the stain has residue, like a smear of chocolate or a chunk of tomato, spray it, then lightly brush it off with a horsehair brush. Richardson says horsehair bristles become softer when wet and are therefore less abrasive.
If something you’ve worn has a bit of an odor to it, like perfume or cigarette smoke, Richardson recommends spraying it with vodka. “Vodka will remove the odor from anything, and when it dries it’s odorless and colorless,” he says.
The tip is well known in the theater community for deodorizing costumes and maximizing the number of wears actors get out of them.
If your worn clothing isn’t visibly dirty and has no odor? That’s easy, Richardson says, don’t wash and simply wear it again.
This episode of Life Kit was produced by Clare Marie Schneider and edited by Sylvie Douglis. The digital story was edited by Malaka Gharib. The visual producer is Kaz Fantone.
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