Ok, so you've moved out of your parents' place and now you need to do your own laundry. How often should you do it??? Do you wait until you run out of underwear??? Should you separate the colors????
Before you call your chosen emotional-support adult-with-more-practice (which is a completely valid response, tbh) here are some guidelines I tend to follow that may be useful.
Quick summary:
- Wash clothes ~1x per week, separate into lights & darks
- Sheets & towels should also be washed once a week
- Wash with cold water to be safe
- Stinky towel with moist smell = didn't dry properly, put it in the sun and try again
- don't ball up your towel!!!!!!
- Wrinkled clothes but no iron
- hang them up in the bathroom while you shower
- sit on them????
- air dry rather than use the dryer
- buy an iron :)
How often should I wash my clothes?
Yeah, you can wait until you run out of underwear, but that's probably not great (and it's not great for your clothes either... bacteria like your sweat and oils, yum yum) - instead, it's probably good to do a load of laundry about once a week, or two, depending on how much clothing you have and use and the climate of where you live.
How often should I wash my sheets and towels?
Again, once a week. Once every 10 days is also okay, but personally I find it easier to be consistent when I do it weekly.
Why is my towel stinky?!??!
Probably because it didn't dry properly. Try leaving it out in the sun to kill some of the bacteria, and/or washing it, and make sure it's hanging properly (not scrunched up in a ball) so that it dries!!
Should I separate the colors?
Yes!!!!!!!! You can find special laundry sheet things that absorb the colors if you want, which removes the need for this step. I've never used them but I know they exist. You should separate it into light & dark colors to avoid ending up with questionably colored light clothing (see: white shirt turned pink)
At what temperature should I wash things?
I honestly haven't figured this one out (lol) but a safe bet is to wash things with cold water if you want to prevent them from being damaged.
What about using the dryer?
I'm not a fan of dryers, to be honest. They're useful for things that can get wrinkled without it being an issue (sheets and towels, for example) or for things that you need quickly (like underwear or socks). If you can, I'd suggest air-drying your clothes. It makes them much less wrinkled and means you might not have to iron them later.
My clothes are wrinkled and I don't have an iron!!!!!!
Bestie, I don't even own an iron because I know realistically I'm never going to use it. This won't be perfect but you can try:
- Hanging your clothes in the bathroom when you take a hot shower (the steam helps)
- Carefully folding then sitting on your clothes for a while (untested by me, but some swear by it)
- Air drying your clothes!!!!!
