Laundry has always been one of my least favorite home chores. I’m guessing I’m not alone and because of this, people came up with tips and tricks to make the process easier and more efficient. Although the tips might seem out of date, they just aren't as obvious as they used to be. Instead of tossing everything into the washer and dryer and hoping for the best, it’s worth it to be reminded and remember some of those old school tricks and experiment yourself. You'll be surprised at how much better your clothes last and how much cleaner they come out.
We have pretty full laundry baskets in the Sorensen household. Between two teens, a husband, myself, a goldendoodle who rolls in gross things, the laundry never stops. The old-fashioned tips on this list have made the process more effective and I’ve noticed that when I use them, our clothes last longer, which is the whole point. The teens still leave their laundry on the floor right next to the hamper, but that is a different problem.
1. Sort Every Load — Every Time
Many “vintage” homemakers sorted laundry into piles based on clothing type — whites, lights, darks and delicates. Sorting provides protection against color bleeding, ensures delicates are safe, and proper washing temperatures can be used for different types of fabric. This process takes approximately two minutes, but can significantly prolong the lifespan of clothing compared to washing everything together.
Until a red sock turns everything pink, sorting laundry feels like more work than it really is. The consequences of not sorting take a lot longer than the sorting step. I have learned this countless times. The teens have not learned it yet, which is why they have separate laundry.
2. Treat Stains Before Washing, Not After
Before doing laundry, check for stains and treat them with soap, vinegar, or a baking soda paste to wash away as pre-treating aids the process. The stain on fabric can be harder to remove if the stain goes through a wash cycle without being pre-treated. It can be even harder to remove if the stain goes through the dryer. Old-fashioned homemakers would treat a stain before washing, never after.
A simple thirty seconds can save a lifetime of aggravation. Check your clothes for stains before loading them into the washer. Otherwise, you risk washing, drying, and discovering a stain burned into the fabric. You can avoid this. Just check before you load.
3. Use Less Detergent Than the Label Suggests
The measurements on packaging are set to trick people into thinking they need to use a lot more detergent than is necessary per load. Unlike modern detergents, vintage laundry detergents were not as concentrated and were therefore very expensive meaning that vintage homemakers used small precise amounts to save money. When at all possible, use 1/2 to 3/4 of suggested amount of detergent for a normal load of laundry. Skin irritations can be caused by laundry detergent and fabric softener residue left in the fabric and detergents attract more dirt and debris to fabrics.
When detergent builds up in fabric, it can cause the fabric to feel stiffer than normal and the color on the clothes can begin to look stained or dull. It may feel strange to use less detergent than recommended by the manufacturer, but after a couple of washes you will notice a difference in the condition of your clothes. This is one of those instances where using less detergent reaps the most economical rewards.
4. Wash in Cold Water for Most Loads
Unless items are soiled or are towels and bedding, cold water cleans clothing just as well as hot, and even helps the fabric last longer by causing less wear and tear. Hot water breaks down elastic, causes shrinkage, fades colors, and degrades fabric. Vintage homemakers did not use hot water for everything, it was used strategically for items needing to be sanitized.
When washing clothes, many people prefer to feel the sense of using hot/warm water rather than feel washing clothes in cold water, yet this is a common habit that damages clothing quickly without providing an actual better clean. Most loads of clothing, using cold water and a good detergent will do the job. The energy bill will also be lower, something grandma would have noticed right away.
5. Soak Heavily Soiled Items First
Soaking laundry was the first step for washing work clothes, muddy clothes, and clothes that have heavy stains. You would fill a tub or washing machine with water and detergent (or even baking soda), and submerge the clothes to soak for 30 minutes or 1 hour. This loosened the dirt so the washing machine's cycle didn't have to work as hard.
If you wash a heavily soiled item without soaking it first, washing it will only result in something that is cleaner, but still not clean. It's the soaking process that causes the washing to be more effective, resulting in the item being clean after being washed. When dealing with something that is genuinely filthy, the soak process is not optional.
6. Add White Vinegar Instead of Fabric Softener
When put in the fabric softener compartment, half a cup of white vinegar softens clothes, eliminates static, removes detergent build-up on fabric, and leaves clothes clean with no added scent. Your clothes will NOT smell like vinegar since the smell will be gone by the end of the wash cycle. Commercial fabric softeners silicone coat fibers and make towels less absorbent, so washing towels without fabric softener will make them more absorbent.
Using a commercial fabric softener means the fibers of your clothing will feel soft because they will be coated with a substance that will eventually make the fabric less absorbent and breathable. In contrast, white vinegar removes residue instead of adding to it which allows softening and will have your fabrics and towels performing as they should. These towels have been washed with vinegar for a year and now work a lot better than they used to.
7. Add Baking Soda to Every Load
Combined with detergent, 1/2 a cup of baking soda poured into the washing machine will help to soften the water, boost the effectiveness of the detergent, and neutralize odors trapped in the fabrics. This is great for workout clothes, towels, and anything else that can hold odor between washing. Before commercial additives became a thing, this was a standard laundry booster and it works just as great today as it did back then.
Adding baking soda in each load may make a difference in how clothes smell and feel right out of the wash, and it only costs you about two cents per load! Even the smelliest workout clothes come out fresh. Give it a try for a whole month, and see for yourself!
8. Line Dry When Possible
Compared to clothes dried in a hot dryer, clothes dried outside on a line or drying rack will last significantly longer. The dryer breaks down fibers, degrades elastic, and causes shrinkage. Also, the lint trap collects pieces of your clothes. However, line drying naturally brightens whites due to UV and removes odors without a fragrance.
Nothing can beat the smell of bed sheets and towels that have been line dried. It is far superior than anything you'd find at the store, not even dryer sheets compare. Line drying definitely takes more time, and it requires a allergy pollen check to see if you will get allergy symptoms from doing it, but dry sheets and towels will last longer, and your linen closet will smell better from it. I specifically do this with sheets and towels, and I can promise you, there is a big difference.
9. Use the Gentle Cycle More Often
Everyday clothing is not going to need the agitation that accompanies a regular or heavy cycle. Over time, the gentle cycle is less damaging to your clothing as it uses reduced mechanical force. Delicates once were hand washed, so now that would be the equivalent to using gentle cycle. Regular cycles should only be used for towels, bedding, and actual dirty work clothes, not clothing that only needs to be freshened.
Default settings on washers have people washing their clothes incorrectly. Lumens recommends a gentle cycle wash as each setting will extend the life of the garment by years as they will avoid the common wear and tear from washing like fraying seams and collars. It's as easy as making one additional setting change on your washer. This is no extra work and you'll get to enjoy your clothes for longer.
10. Turn Dark Clothes Inside Out
By washing clothes with darker colors inside-out, it helps to reduce the pilling and fading of the fabric on the outside. The external surface of the clothing experiences less friction because the inside of the clothing is experiencing all the wear and tear from the washing and drying cycles. This practice keeps dark denim, dark shirts, and dark sweaters more visible for longer and all it takes is the effort of flipping them before washing.
Turning dark jeans inside out helps them fade less quickly because they dark dye fades quickly and washing twice as often as wearing is going to cause them to fade more quickly. This is such a small effort to make that results in a large difference. It takes practically no time to do and I'd be willing to bet it would make a visible difference after a year. My guess is "the teenagers" don't do it but, me, I do.
11. Hang Shirts to Dry on Hangers
To air dry dress shirts, blouses, and knit tops, hang them on hangers to keep their shape and prevent wrinkles. It also reduces the risk of shrinkage from heat drying. While damp, pull your garments into shape and hang them directly in the closet. Most won't need ironing if they are hung properly while still damp.
After years of repeated drying cycles, shirts might appear shorter and wider. Instead of tossing your shirt in the dryer, you could develop a habit of hanging it up to dry. Plus, a bonus of this method is that you won't have to iron your shirt since most shirts will be wrinkle-free after drying.
12. Iron Clothes While Slightly Damp
In the past, vintage homemakers used to iron clothes when the fabric was slightly damp from washing. This requires way less heat and effort than ironing dry clothing. If the clothes were dry, they would use a spray bottle of water and lightly dampen the fabric to make ironing easier. For sure ironing dry clothes will require some heat, so starting with a lower temperature would be best.
It takes way longer to iron a dry wrinkled shirt than a damp one. This is because the fabric melts at a lower temperature than the metal of the iron, so it responds instantly. This is the difference between thirty seconds versus one hundred and thirty seconds of ironing a shirt. Grandma ironed everything, and that is because that is how it was done, and her system is still the best one.
13. Never Overload the Washer
To get clothes clean, they need space to move in the washing machine. When washing machines are overloaded, the cleaning process will be less effective. It will be harder for the items to move through the water and detergent. Vintage homemakers did smaller loads more frequently instead of cramming everything in once and overloading the machine. A washer filled to about 3/4 capacity is more effective than one fully packed washer.
It may be tempting to overload the washer and may feel like an efficient thing to do, but washing your clothes in an overloaded washer will not result in clean clothes. Each of the pieces of clothing in the center of an overloaded washer drum do not get a chance to move through the water and get cleaned. They might still come out of the washer wet, but they won't be clean. You'll find that smaller loads will actually take the same amount of time to wash, but they will result in cleaner clothes than an overloaded washer will produce.
14. Check Every Pocket Before Loading
This habit has been around longer than washing machines and for good reason. If a tissue is left in the pocket, it ruins the entire load. A pen can ruin several items and possibly the drum. Chapstick causes permanent grease stains. Coins can damage the drum. Checking pockets takes 30 seconds per load, but saves you from having a laundry category that requires a 2nd wash cycle, a special stain treatment, or having to throw items away if you can no longer wear them.
Because of the pocket tissue incident, we now have a family rule for doing laundry. Tissue shreds are annoying and removing them from all the clothes is an even bigger hassle. Pockets. Every single time. Before anything goes in, check your pockets.
15. Dry Heavy Items Inside Out
If you want to keep your dark sweatshirts and heavy denim items looking new, try drying them inside out. This helps prevent fading caused by the heat of the dryer. And, just like when you wash dark items, drying them inside out is a great idea. This way the wear happens on the inside and not on the outside where everyone can see. This is an extra step that can extend the life and keep the look of your heavier items for a lot longer.
When jeans are consistently washed and dried inside out, they will appear new for a longer time than jeans that are washed and dried right-side out. The fading on jeans is real. The good news is that fading is gradual and preventable. This process takes seconds, and the payoff is worth the time spent. Jeans will look normal, as opposed to worn out, for years.
16. Shake Out Clothes Before the Dryer
Shaking laundry items reduces wrinkles and prevents clothes from clumping together. It also causes clothes to dry faster. Our vintage collection includes laundry items designed to reduce the time needed to dry clothes and to decrease the amount of clothes that need to be ironed afterwards. Shaking your laundry as vintage homemakers used to do will also reduce the amount of time your items need to be in the dryer.
Clothes can take longer to dry due to being twisted and bunched in the dryer. This prevents proper air circulation and leaves the clothes wrinkled. Almost each item can be separated in 3 seconds. This is one of those habits that doesn’t seem important until you see the impact.
17. Add a Dry Towel to Speed Up Drying
Put a dry towel in the dryer with your load of wet laundry. The towel absorbs moisture from your wet items and relaly reduces dry time — about 15 to 20 minutes It is also an example of dryer balls, so you are using something you already have. If you want to keep your towel dry, you can remove it before the time is up.
This is the trick that allows a full load of laundry to dry in one cycle instead of having to run the dryer multiple times because things were still damp in the middle. Shorter drying times are also easier on the fabric and use less energy. The dry towel is already in the house, and the method requires no more supplies.
18. Never Put a Stained Item in the Dryer
Heat permanently sets stains. This is the most broken laundry rule, and the most important. Do not dry the item. If you wash an item and the stain is still there, you need to air dry it, and treat the stain before you wash it again. Once the item goes through the dryer, the heat bonds the stain to the fabric, and makes stain removal much more difficult, or even impossible.
Always always check your items before putting them in the dryer! This only takes about thirty seconds for a full load, and this step will eliminate the problem of taking a dryer item out with a stain permanently "baked" in! This is definitely the easiest way to catch the problem the first time and it's skipped the most in the complicated laundry process.
19. Use Lemon Juice on Whites
Lemon juice was previously used to brighten whites before optical brighteners were used in laundry detergents. You can add about half a cup of lemon juice during the wash cycle if your whites are in a separate load. For lemon juice on just one or two spots, apply the juice directly to the yellowing area and then set the item in the sun to dry. Lemon juice will help remove yellowing caused by sweat stains and brighten the fabric without the harsh chemicals that weaken the fabric over time.
Over time, white fabrics become yellow from washing, wearing, and storing them. Lemon juice, unlike bleach, can reverse a good amount of yellowing. This works well on discolored white t-shirts and yellowed pillowcases. The sun does the most work, just like how it has always been.
20. Wash Towels and Bedding Separately
Most everyday clothes don't need a full wash cycle and hot water, but towels and bedding do in order to get thoroughly cleaned and sanitized. Washing them separately lets them get the direct wash and full agitation they need while protecting more delicate items from damaging conditions. They also won't pick up towel lint on dark clothes.
If you want to avoid getting towel fuzz on your dark clothes, you can wash them separately! Don't wash in hot water, because this can shrink your clothes or destroy the elastic in your clothes if they have some. When you do laundry, this is a good example of the type of washing right that separates towels and bedding from the rest of the laundry.
21. Store Seasonal Clothing in Breathable Bags
Vintage homemakers would have stashed their off-season garments in breathable cotton or muslin bags, not plastic bins. Plastic traps moisture and can cause mildew and musty odors on clothes stored for months at a time. Breathable storage means no moisture accumulation. All items should be washed before being put away for the season. Storing dirty clothes attracts moths and ruins clothes by setting stains.
Clothes stored away for the season that smell musty have been packed away in ways that don’t allow air circulation. Breathable bags, along with fresh, clean items used for packing, solve both of these issues. You can take them out in the spring and they will be ready to wear, rather than having to wash everything again before use.
22. Use Cedar Instead of Mothballs
Cedar blocks and cedar balls or cedar lined storage repels moths naturally and without the chemical smells of moth balls that get on everything stored near them. As the natural oils in cedar dissipate, they become less effective and therefore need to be resurfaced by being sanded lightly each season. Cedar blocks also need to be replaced every few years. Lavender sachets are pleasant smelling chemical-free moth deterrents as well.
Everything stored near mothballs smells like mothballs, and that smell lingers far longer than expected. Cedar does the same job as mothballs without leaving a smell that requires airing everything out before you can wear it. This old-fashioned option is better than the modern alternative in every way that matters.
23. Fold Laundry Immediately When Dry
The time it takes to move your laundry from the dryer to the basket creates the opportunity for your clothes to need ironing instead of just folding. Vintage homemakers knew that to avoid this from happening they needed to fold the laundry while it was still warm. This is because warm fabric is smooth and cool fabric is wrinkled. If you leave laundry in the dryer, or the basket for even just a few minutes, it is going to create hours worth of work just to fix those wrinkles.
I know the warm laundry folds easily and goes away quickly but the cold laundry is a project. I am used to the laundry that is run through the dyer to unwrinkle the clothes, and sadly, I guess that's how I started doing my clothes when I was little. I realize when I do the laundry and put it away and fold it right away, it seems like it takes less time, but I forget that I end up taking more steps just doing it the other way.
24. Wash Delicates in a Mesh Bag
You should place lingerie, thin fabrics, embellishments, and items with straps and lace in a laundry mesh bag before putting them in the washer. The mesh bag allows water and detergent to circulate freely, but protects your items from the drum’s mechanical action. This helps to avoid snagging, stretching, and tangling that occurs when lighter items wash with heavier items.
While it’s unlikely a mesh bag will stop your straps from twisting or getting stretched in the wash, it is a very easy, very cheap way to keep your items separate, and it’s reusable for all the washing days to come. This is one of those very minimal effort habits that stops your items from getting destroyed, and gone are the days of needing to do individual hand washes for each delicate item.
25. Clean the Washing Machine Monthly
To clean and remove odors from the interior of your washing machine, run an empty hot water cycle once a month and pour 2 cups of white vinegar directly into the drum. If you have a front-loading machine, wipe the rubber door gasket with a cloth soaked in vinegar, as this is where mildew first develops and can transfer odors to your laundry. A washing machine that smells like mildew will make your clean laundry smell like mildew.
If you have never cleaned your washing machine, it is bound to develop a smell, which then is transferred to your freshly washed laundry and it will cause you to wonder why all your clothes smell bad after you wash them. The answer is your washing machine. To prevent this, do a vinegar cycle every month and if you have a front loader wipe the gasket.
26. Use the Extra Rinse Cycle for Towels
Over time, towels can build up detergent residue in the fabric fibers which can be removed by running them through an extra rinse cycle. Detergent residue causes towels to smell, lose their absorbency and feel rough to the touch. An extra rinse cycle takes a few minutes more, but it keeps towels performing like they should.
Towels can smell musty even after they have been washed. This is due to not enough rinsing and detergent buildup. To fix towels, try using less detergent, add a cup of white vinegar in the fabric softener compartment (do not use fabric softener) and try the extra rinse option on the washing machine. This may be an easy to overlook problem with a simple solution!
27. Hang Sweaters Flat to Dry
Knit sweaters and other stretchy items must be dried flat, not hung or put in the dryer. When a wet sweater is hung, the moisture weight pulls the fabric and stretches it out of shape. The dryer will shrink your clothes and damage the knit structure over time. Instead, Lay the sweater flat on a clean towel and reshape it to its original dimensions while damp before allowing it to completely air dry.
Over a season, a sweater dried multiple times in the dryer will become a shorter, wider version of itself. Sweaters will last one season versus years based on how often they are laid flat to dry. This is one of those things where the good habit is just as easy as the bad habit.
28. Dry Wool and Natural Fibers on Low or Not at All
Your standard dryer heat cycle causes damage to garments made from wool, cashmere, and linen, as well as blends containing natural fibers. Wool will felt with repeated high-heat drying — the fibers bind together permanently — while linen will become stiff and brittle. When you can, air dry natural fibers. If you must use the dryer, use the lowest setting for the shortest time possible. High heat is only appropriate for cotton towels and synthetic workout clothes, and never for garments made from natural fibers.
When a wool sweater gets dried on the wrong setting, it comes out fitting a much smaller person. Natural fibers require less aggressive treatment than the default settings on most dryers. Though reading care labels can be boring, it can be the difference between a garment lasting multiple years, or a garment just surviving one winter.
29. Make Peace With Doing Smaller Loads More Often
Doing laundry once a week might seem efficient, but it’s really not. Clothes don't get clean, the machine has to work harder, and the folding and putting away is a huge project. Your vintage homemaker would have done smaller laundry loads more frequently to avoid it becoming a weekend-consuming task. Completing one or two loads every couple of days helps to keep laundry from becoming an event.
One day a week is a long interval between washing clothes; it's consistent with how everyone's schedule is set up, but it's not the most efficient rationalization of the time spent doing it. By doing the more time-consuming, and liquid- washing stage, time and energy will be used more efficiently- as this liquid stage will be over quicker, as the solids stage of the washing process is now present, and the mountain of clothes that is built from the solids stage will never be built. It is likely that more cages will be used as greater intervals will be needed between washing solids again.
To do your laundry, you need the same supplies as always: water, a good detergent, white vinegar, baking soda, and sun (when available). The difference in using these products comes with knowing how to properly use them. Your clothes will last longer, come out cleaner, and you will work less compared to the modern default way of washing your clothes.
We kicked off this series with the post, 33 Vintage Cleaning Tips That Beat Modern Shortcuts. It covers all the tips, but we will expand on the cleaner recipes and old-fashioned methods as we go. For more detail on stain tips, check out the post, 27 Old-School Stain Removal Tricks That Actually Work. Looking for info on what vinegar and baking soda can each handle on their own? Those are at 33 Things You Can Clean With Vinegar and 31 Things You Can Clean With Baking Soda, respectively.