Hi everyone,
As I said last week, I’ll try to post a tip each week while reminding you to bring your dry cleanable items to the meeting. So here is this weeks tip to help your Bottom Line and helps impact the environment in a positive way.
THE TIP:
Sorting your laundry.
Sorting is the easiest part of washing clothes, right? Wrong. Sorting is the most difficult and time consuming part of laundry. If done incorrectly sorting ruins clothes and can damage machines. When done properly sorting saves invaluable time, energy, and money. There are 6 main things to look for when sorting laundry. Actually placing the clothing in the proper pile is only one of them.
1. Check clothing tags.
Read the garment tags to determine how the clothes should be washed dried and ironed. Most items will have mainly normal washing instructions. You might be surprised though that you have items that are meant to be hand washed or not dried in the drier. Set these items aside in their own “Special Care” pile.
2. Turn clothing right side out.
Make sure none of the legs of your pants, or arms of your shirts are stuck in the garment improperly. If you are washing overalls, take the time now to clasp the latches of the overalls to their proper buttons, keeping them from getting broken, stretched or ripped. If you had any clothing tags that instructed you to wash the clothing inside out, make sure you remembered to do so.
3. Check all pockets.
It’s best to have a bowl nearby to hold the contents of your pockets. Failing to check pockets can leave some nasty surprises like cell phones, chap sticks, and lip sticks. Not to mention pens! My advice is to keep what you find. Family members will soon start cleaning out their own pockets.
4. Check for sewing repairs.
Make sure there aren’t any loose threads, rips, button repairs, or other sewing repairs. If you find any, repair them before you wash the clothes. Washing them with problems will only make the problems bigger.
5. Check for stains.
They will need to be pretreated or soaked before washing and drying. If you dry a stain, you’ll most likely have a stain for life.
6. Sort the clothing.
There are many different methods to sorting. Some people sort by color. Others sort by fabric type. There are some adventurous souls who actually never sort clothing. Your sorting method will likely be determined by the size of your family and contents of your wardrobes. Here are some of the sorting categories that may demand special attention.
Whites- Whites go separate because we want them to stay white. One red sock that isn’t colorfast can turn an entire white load pink. More often than not whites need a warmer water temperature than other clothing to ensure proper cleaning.
Reds and or Bright Colors- Colorfast pinks, purples, reds, and oranges can be mixed together to make a full load. Warning, red clothing is notorious for losing its color and bleeding onto other fabrics. When in doubt wash reds separately. Some new garments will bleed access dyes in the initial washes. Other bright colors can fade or lose their color onto other lighter clothing.
Towels- Towels are lint producers. The lint they give off sticks to other types of clothing. You can wash towels with blankets, sheets, and robes as long as everything is colorfast.
Specialty Items- These are things that have to be washed separately, are not colorfast, can’t be dried, or have otherwise special instructions that keep them separate.
This is also your weekly reminder to bring your dry cleaning items to the LeTip meeting. I send these reminder because some members has requested to be reminded. However, if you wish not to receive these emails, please feel free to reply this email and I will make sure you are taken off my weekly reminder list. See you all at the meeting.
Ashwin Patel
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Eco Dry Cleaners
281 Central Ave
Metuchen, NJ 08840
(732)494-0301
(609)456-1750
