Let’s face it: doing laundry isn’t the most exciting thing. It’s relatively easy, but most people don’t necessarily find it fun.
But those people probably haven’t met Patric Richardson or Karin B. Miller. Richardson, a Kentucky native, has loved textiles and has been obsessed with clothes for a long time. He worked at different department stores after studying fashion merchandising, apparel and textiles, and eventually opened his own boutique, Mona Williams, in the Mall of America.
Richardson regularly holds “Laundry Camps,” which is essentially a lesson in doing laundry. He teaches people how to “wash the unwashable” and how to properly take care of clothes and textiles. After attending some laundry camps, Miller, an award-winning writer and editor, and Richardson collaborated to write a book, “Laundry Love: Finding Joy in a Common Chore” about laundry methods and sharing his love of laundry.
Linda Voss-Plummer, a fiber artist in Galeton, typically organizes a Knit in Public event in Galeton during June. But because of COVID-19, KIP was canceled. To keep the fiber spirit alive, Richardson agreed to host a Zoom call on Tuesday, Aug. 4, where fiber artists near and far joined. Laundry tips and tricks were shared while giving everyone confidence in their own laundry.
To do laundry, start with the sorting. Richardson suggested sorting everything into five piles: whites, blacks, cool colors (blues, greens and purples), warm colors (reds, oranges and yellows) and, finally, activewear. Have a white shirt with red stripes? It goes in the white load.
The white, black, cool and warm colored loads are washed the same way: with warm water, a cold rinse, fast spin, on the express cycle. If the washing machine doesn’t have an express cycle, Richardson said a permanent press with an eight minute wash cycle is about the same.
Many people freak out about warm water while doing laundry, Richardson said, because they think warm water causes things, like sweaters, to shrink and colors to fade. But really, sweaters don’t shrink, they felt after rubbing against other things in the wash, making it tighter before locking in place. To avoid this, he suggested putting sweaters tightly into a mesh bag so it can’t rub against anything else.
Colors will fade in warm water, but it takes about an hour to do so, Richardson said.
For a very full load, Richardson said to use about two and a half tablespoons of commercial detergent.
“Less detergent means more clean because you don’t have so much to rinse out,” he said. Using less detergent will also result in softer towels, because the junk is actually getting washed out. Avoid Tide Pods, as one pod has enough detergent to do five loads. Richardson is a fan of Shout’s color catcher sheets, as it captures all the dyes, but also the liquid stains, so those don’t get released into the water and make the other clothes dingy.
The activewear load will be similar, but it will take oxygen bleach — not chlorine bleach — rather than detergent. This will restore the elasticity and will remove any odors.
To dry clothes, Richardson, for the most part, avoids using the dryer. To dry all the way through, he only uses the dryer for sheets, towels, underwear, socks and kids clothes. Avoiding the dryer will more than double the life of a garment.
He uses wool balls in the dryer, sometimes adding some drops of peppermint essential oil to it in place of a dryer sheet. He said he hates dryer sheets and fabric softener for several reasons, including they coat fabric with silicone or saturated fat. Then, stains can get trapped between the fabric and the coating, making it much harder for the stains to be removed.
Everything else, he hangs up to dry. Anything woven, like shirts, jeans, overcoats and suits, he puts on a hanger. Anything knit, like sweaters, T- shirts and sweatshirts, he puts across a drying rack. Clothes won’t stretch when hanging to dry if the spin cycle is fast, spinning out as much water as possible, and if they’re drying in a place with a lot of air flow.
Richardson can also get out all the stains. There are three types: oily, inorganic and organic stains. For oily stains (like olive oil or motor oil), he says to spray a mixture of 50% vinegar and 50% water, and toss it in the wash. Inorganic stains, like Kool-Aid or eyebrow pencil, can be removed with soap and a brush, like a horsehair brush. Finally, organic stains, like red wine or blood, can be removed with oxygen bleach. Put a bowl of hot water and a scoop of oxygen bleach, and dip the garment in.
Their book, “Laundry Love: Finding Joy in a Common Chore,” is available for preorder on Amazon; its release date is March 30, 2021. Follow Richardson on Twitter and Instagram, @laundrypatric, for more laundry tips.
August 20, 2020 at 03:35AM
http://www.tiogapublishing.com/free_press_courier/news/local/you-re-probably-doing-your-laundry-wrong/article_2fc31e6a-9e6b-5dfb-b565-cecf1a70b4de.html
You're probably doing your laundry wrong - The Wellsboro Gazette
https://news.google.com/search?q=Laundry&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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