ARE YOU MAKING THESE LAUNDRY MISTAKES?

　How hard can it be to do laundry, right? You dump your clothes in, put in the detergent, then the softener, and then turn on the machine. It does your work for you, and you return after 45 minutes or so and collect your clean clothes. What could go wrong?
　As it turns out, a lot can, and does. Shrunken wools and dwindled dresses that a squirrel would be lucky to squeeze into, colour that has run rampant, grey or lavender-looking whites, suds that have frothed out of the machine and soaked the floor – many of us learn the hard way about washing.
　But it doesn’t have to be that way. Here are the most common laundry mistakes that you may (or may not) be making.
Too much detergent
Is there such a thing? Intuitively, one would think that more detergent would make clothes cleaner. But in reality, using more detergent will give rise to more soap residue, which will make your clothes grainier and prone to gathering dirt. It can also result in more bacteria build-up in the machine, and also in those areas of clothes are known for being hard to clean: such as pleats and collars. So the answer is just the right amount of detergent, not too much or too little. Your detergent box will have instructions on how much to use. Read them.
Washing ‘dry clean only’ clothes
Let’s face it. We’ve all done this. We may be too lazy to go to the drycleaners. Or it’s just too much of a hassle. After all, what could go wrong, right? As a rule of thumb, never wash leather, suede, anything with embellishments or structured pieces (like jackets). Other fabrics, including natural fibres, such as linen and most silks, can be gently hand-washed and air dried. Before you do, check that the piece is colourfast by dabbing part of the garment that can’t be seen with a wet cotton bud or ball.
Leaving wet clothes in the machine
This is also another common favourite. How easy is it to forget that you have put the clothes to wash, only to remember late in the evening that you’re ‘forgetting something’? First of all, this leads to a smelly load and stinky machine. Second, it allows mildew to form on your clothes, which can easily lead to allergy and asthma. While you will have to leave the clothes in the machine for longer than 24 hours for mildew to start forming, at least to get rid of the smells, please make sure you take the clothes out of the machine as quickly as possible and leave them out in a ventilated area.
Overloading the machine
It’s tempting to put all the clothes that need to be washed in one load and press that ‘Start’ button, but in general, the heavier the load, the poorer the washing job. If you’re regularly seeing that your washing bucket is filling up, maybe you just need to double your washing cycle. Do two small loads a week rather than one big one, and your clothes will thank you for the diligence.