7 Outdated Laundry Habits That Are Ruining Your Clothes (and Washing Machine!)

You Make Monday "Laundry Day"

"Wash on Monday, iron on Tuesday, mend on Wednesday, churn on Thursday, clean on Friday, and bake on Saturday" was a mantra every young woman learned years ago. Forget this schedule and get rid of the old-fashioned notion of leaving all of the laundry to do on one day because it can be overwhelming.

Invest in multiple hampers and teach household members to separate dirty laundry by color and fabric type. Toss a load in the laundry before work and transfer it to the dryer later in the day. Add another load to wash before bedtime and dry it the next morning. Fold and put away each load of clean laundry so the mountain doesn't grow!

You Use Hot Water for Cleaner Clothes

Once upon a time, clothes were boiled in a big pot of hot water over a fire to get them clean. Those clothes were either heavy cotton or linen that could withstand the high temperatures. Today's synthetic fabrics and finely woven natural silks and cottons won't survive repeated cleanings with hot water. With the advancements in the cleaning efficacy of heavy-duty laundry detergents, cold or warm water is all you need to remove most stains and soil.

You Add More Detergent for Cleaner Clothes

Adding more detergent to every load may seem like the answer to cleaner clothes but it can actually make matters worse. Overdosing detergent leaves a residue in fabrics that traps soil and odors and makes the clothes feel stiff and scratchy. One of the worst laundry habits is loading the washer and pouring liquid detergent over the dirty clothes or tossing in a handful of detergent pods. High-efficiency front-loading and top-loading washers need only one pod or about two teaspoons of liquid laundry detergent per full load of laundry.

You Think Fragrance-Filled Clothes Are Clean

While you may love the detergent fragrance left in your clothes after washing, it doesn't mean the fabric is clean. Clean laundry has an absence of oily, sweaty, or food odors. Heavily scented detergents often mask those odors but they come back as our body heat releases them from the fabric. Try washing clothes with an unscented detergent to see if you are getting clothes clean.

You Set the Washer and Dryer Dials and Never Change Them

You'll save money and have better laundry results if you take the time to reset the load size, washer cycle, water temperature, and dryer settings for every load of laundry. Consider the size of the load, the level of soil, and what type of fabric you are cleaning each time you load the washer or dryer.

You Think You Don't Need to Read Clothing Care Labels

Have you ever had a garment shrink or bleed dye over the entire load or a microfiber jacket come out of the washer covered in fuzzy lint? These issues could probably have been prevented if you had taken the time to read the care labels. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission mandates care labels on clothes and textiles sold in this country. The labels identify the fiber content and provide cleaning instructions. While most manufacturers will recommend the most conservative cleaning method to keep the garment looking new, with some laundry experience, you can decide whether to machine wash, hand wash, or dry clean an item.

You Believe a Washer Flushes and Cleans Itself After Every Load

Even with all the water that flows through a complete wash and rinse, every washer traps body soil, hair, lint, and soil. Cleaning your washer at least once a month will give you cleaner laundry and prevent expensive-to-repair clogs in the water lines.