The Eight Biggest Laundry Mistakes

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

06 Jan 2009 06:44 AM

You have to approach laundry as a diligent task. Otherwise you may wind up with clothes that need to be rewashed, or worse, replaced. Bad laundry habits can also lead to your clothing wearing out sooner than it should. At one time or another I've made all of the following laundry mistakes. And hey, sometimes when I am in a rush to get "Mount Washmore" done, I still do make these mistakes, as you will see. But I wanted to share them with you in the hopes that you can avoid these mistakes whenever possible.

Yesterday morning, my eldest was off to school, and my two younger ones were happily playing with their toys. I started folding some laundry, which contained brand new underwear for my daughter, as well as other light colored clothes. To my frustration, there were brown spots on some of the clothes, including the new ones. What could have caused the spots? My guess is that a chocolate wrapper must have been left in a pocket. The wrapper contained just enough chocolate crumb to cause the staining. Sigh. I made two mistakes in my laundry which caused the spots: not checking the pockets before I washed everything, and not checking the clothes after the washer and before they went into the dryer.

By not checking the pockets of your clothing first, there are all sorts of things that can get washed that shouldn't from crayons to money. My friend recently wrote on her blog that she accidentally washed her husband's paycheck.

Here are some other laundry mistakes.

Not separating the clothes first. Just piling a big lump of clothes in the washer without separating by color or level of care means that you may machine wash a hand wash item causing it to stretch or shrink, or have pink underwear. The possible damage can be reduced by washing items in cold all of the time.

Check back tomorrow when I continue with the biggest laundry mistakes and see if you recognize any that you do yourself!

Mary Ann Romans writes about everything related to saving money in the Frugal Blog, creating a home in the Home Blog, caring for little ones in the Baby Blog and now relationships in the Marriage Blog. You can read more of her articles by clicking here or subscribe to the blog using the subscription box on the right.

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Guide to Six Laundry Bleaching Agents

Luxury Laundry: Built-in Washer and Dryer

Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat.

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Samual (11722) 06 Jan 2009 07:25 AM

I hate it when you think the load is all good, then you realise, there has been a tissue in the washing machine!

Mary Ann Romans (26791) 06 Jan 2009 08:59 AM

Oh, that is a bad one! I've fished tissues out of the dryer on many an occasion--very linty.

Starrlight (5255) 06 Jan 2009 09:36 AM

Have you guys been watching my DH do his laundry? He's notorious for all of them - not seperating, washing $ (once $200 I found in the dryer), not checking the pockets (yep, tissues have made a mess here also). He is now not allowed to touch anyone else's clothes but his own. At least he always washes in cold water and is great at everything else (well almost, getting the dishes fully clean still gives him trouble, which is why I try to do them all myself).

gracet (63) 06 Jan 2009 11:38 AM

A friend of mine had a service call on her washing machine because it wasn't working right. The repairman found a foreign piece of wire in the machine to be the problem and held it up to show her. He asked her if she was missing anything... and it turned out to be the underwire from one of her bras!

Mary Ann Romans (26791) 07 Jan 2009 06:48 AM

Oh Gracet that is too funny. It is almost as bad as when I had to call the plumber in my first house and he pulled out a tampon! Yikes.

Mary Ann Romans (26791) 07 Jan 2009 06:49 AM

Starrlight (love the name), in my house my husband gets the dishwasher loaded better than I do--at least that is what he tells me ;)