1) Sort Laundry by Color and by Weight. Separate laundry by three colors: whites, regulars and darks. To preserve dark color, use Woolite Dark Laundry Fabric Wash®.  Remember do not put denims in with towels. This will add too much weight and cause possible damage to your washer. Denims should be sorted separately so that the weight will be distributed evenly. 

2)      Test Clothing before Treating with Stain Removers. When using stain removers like Tide®, Shout®, and OxiClean®, be sure to test an inconspicuous area on your clothing. Remember the longer you let the stain remover sit, the greater the chance that it will lighten and possible bleach your clothing. From personal experience, allow stain remover to sit for no more than 2 hours.

3)      Soak New Clothes and Delicates Prior to Cleaning in the Washer. Delicates should be pre-treated with Woolite® or OxiClean Baby® so the detergent as ample time to penetrate the stain. When delicates are placed in the washing machine, make sure the cycle is on gentle. New clothes tend to shrink during their first washing. To limit shrinking, treat new clothes as you would delicates and hang to dry. If you wish to add more life to your new clothes, dry them during the final stages in the dryer under air fluff to low heat.

4)      Wash Dark Clothing First and Whites Last. Why? Some washers, like agitators, do not completely rinse the tank clean of cleaning products used in the previous cycle. So bleach from your whites will not be completely cleared from your washer and other clothing, such as darks, are subject to color removal. Instead wash your dark clothing first and the whites last. After washing whites, run an empty cycle to ensure that the bleach is out of the tank.

5)      After Washing Underwear Run an Empty Cycle with Bleach. It is uncouth to think of everything your dirty underwear leaves behind. However, Dr. Philip Tierno, a world renowned microbiologist at New York University, advises that everyone should run an empty cycle with bleach after washing their underwear to kill off unwanted bacteria such as E. coli. Just think about all the bacteria that could possible be transferred from your underwear onto your towels and consequently onto your face. Gross! Remember heat from the dryer does not reach temperatures high enough to kill off bacteria and viruses. If your underwear is your last cycle, let the empty cycle with bleach dry if not, run another empty cycle to make sure all the bleach is removed. 

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