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When I was in fifth grade I remember begging my mom to learn how to do laundry. Boy, was that a mistake! After I was taught, I pretty much took over. Thankfully looking back now I see how much it helped my mom, but if I could do it over I would have done a better job and saved her a ton of money!
You see, I thought it was necessary to fill the soap to the brim because after all, the more soap the better. Right? Wrong.
So, to save money on laundry, I find myself doing some of the following:
Use Less Detergent than Recommended
Some of you may think this is strange, but really it’s not necessary to use the full amount. Because really, how dirty are the clothes you’re washing. Now, when my husband comes in with grimy work clothes after tinkering in the garage, you betcha I’m adding the recommended amount! Most of the time I use about half to three-fourths the recommended amount.
Wash In Cold Water
Over the past few years I’ve been washing almost all of our clothes(except certain dress clothes, towels, and sheets) in cold water. I haven’t noticed a difference in our clothes. Most of the energy used for the wash cycle is in heating the water.
Line Dry
I will admit, I don’t do this nearly as often as I should. One of my future purchases will be a nice drying rack. How I miss our clothes line when I was growing up. Now, that is one area I helped save money since I always hung the clothes on the line in the summer. It saves energy, but also is so much easier on your clothing. In fact, you’ll extend the life of your clothes by line drying.
Cut Your Dryer Sheets In Half
After I open a box of dryer sheets, I cut all of them in half. It does the job just as well and you just doubled your box!
Use Your Dryer Back to Back
This makes since because if your dryer is already warm when you put the clothes in, it doesn’t have to heat up again. Now here’s the trick, keeping on top of the laundry and remembering to take one load out and get the other one in right away! Anyone else guilty of leaving a load in the washer overnight a time or two?!
Wear It Twice
You can bet I’m wearing my jeans more than one time before I toss them in the laundry basket. In fact even my husband does this with his dress pants. Sometimes I’m annoyed that they don’t fit quite as well the second(or third) time, but they’re usually not dirty enough after wearing them just once to justify washing them.
[email protected] says
How much does it cost to make your own laundry soap? I have been tempted to do it but I was wondering if it is cost effective. I mean I can get laundry soap pretty cheap. Also, how does it work on stains?
Emily says
What about hanging clothes up to dry?
I find in Denver that that clothes dry almost as fast outside on the clothesline as they do in the dryer.
I also make my own laundry soap.
Ang says
Oh, one more! If you have a baby in the mustard-colored yucky blow-out stage and find yourself dousing the clothes with stain remover, do the sun trick instead. Wash the clothes first, but then set them in the sun with the stained area in direct sunlight. And hour or two later, it's gone! Chemical free, cheap, good as new. And as long as you don't leave them out there for days at a time, it's color safe too.
Ang says
I read a "green" posting once on laundry and it recommended not only doing your laundry back to back, but do towels, jeans and other heavy gear on the second/third/fourth whatever load to take advantage of the warmed up drum. Need to kick-start more with the heavy items than the light. Also, if you like the economy of line drying with the softness of the dryer, dry most of the way on the line and throw them in the dryer to finish out.
BeeBelle says
I also stopped using dryer sheets and fabric softener all together. I stopped using dryer sheets because they would spot some of my clothes, then stopped using fabric softener because it irritated my skin. I do notice some static in the winter, so I keep some Downy free and clear on hand and only use it on my clingy things (like polar fleece). And remember – no fabric softener on towels as it interferes with absorbency!
Lorie says
I stopped using drying sheets all together about two years ago and haven't noticed a difference. I tried cutting them in half, but then got lazy and ditched them all together.
Alicia says
Wow, those are some great ideas that I'm going to start doing: cutting the dryer sheets in half and not using as much soap. I never thought of those before.