Laundry

Laundry for Dummies Doing laundry may seem like an easy task, just dump your dirty clothes in with detergent then wash and dry, right' Wrong! Laundry has many intricate steps that need to be followed to ensure proper care of your clothing if you don’t want your clothes to all be the same color, shrink or get holes in them. Every college student needs to learn how to do his or her laundry before leaving home so they can become more independent and responsible. Laundry can no longer be a hassle with these easy steps! The first step in doing your laundry isn’t directly related to laundry; it is buying detergent, fabric softener and dryer sheets from your local supermarket. There are many different types of detergents such as detergents for dark colored clothing to prevent fading and detergent for colors with bleach to brighten whites on shirts that have colors on them as well. There are many types of detergent, fabric softener and dryer sheet fragrances, so it is up to you to decide what you want your clothes to smell like. If you are a female, you should consider investing in a bra bag; it protects your clothing from your bras. I will go into more detail about bra bags later in this essay. Now that you have bought your ingredients for clean clothes let’s start preparing them for the washing machine! This step is the most important step: sort out your dark, colored and white fabrics in your dirty laundry. Remember to sort out every item of clothing into the right category. You do not want to accidently have a red sock in with a load of white clothing because your white clothes will develop a pink tint to them. This is what happened to me when I first started out doing my laundry on my own. Keep in mind that you should turn your jeans inside out to prevent the dye in the jeans from fading. If you are a female who owns bras and invested in buying a bra bag, this is when it comes in handy. Put your bras in the bra bag to prevent your clothes from getting holes caused by the bra hooks. Bra bags are also useful because they don’t get your bras tangled up with the rest of your clothing. Several of my favorite shirts have small holes in them because I had forgotten to use the bra bag. Remember to put money on your laundry card. At San Jose State University it is a dollar and twenty-five cents to wash and a dollar to dry your clothes. Then, put your clothes in the washer and put in the amount of detergent and softener as listed on the containers. I like to use cold water to wash my clothes because it prevents my clothes from shrinking and it saves energy. It takes thirty-seven minutes to wash your clothes. When your clothes are done washing, put all your clothes in the dryer but take out your bra bag and lay your bras flat to air dry. You are not supposed to tumble dry your bras because it can mess up the padding and the shape of your bra. Keep in mind that you need to clean the lint trap of the dryer before drying your clothes. Put in two dryer sheets and tumble dry low for an hour. However, take your jeans out of the dryer after ten minutes and hang them up to air dry; if you dry your jeans for the full cycle in the dryer then your jeans will shrink. I had just bought a pair of new jeans and when I washed and dried them I forgot to take my jeans out of the dryer after ten minutes; this resulted in the jeans being too short and I ended up giving them to my cousin. Finally, when your clothes are finished drying promptly remove them from the dryer, so they will not wrinkle. Fold your clothes and put them away in the appropriate places. I hang up my fancy shirts, dresses, sweaters and jackets and I fold the rest of my clothes. Some mishaps that could occur are missing socks and buttons. If you happen to lose a sock, you could use the other sock as a camera case until you find the other sock or lose another sock to make it a pair again. If you are missing a button hopefully the shirt came with extra buttons or you found the button. Sew the button back onto its rightful place. If you do not know how to sew, ask a family member or a friend to sew the button back on for you. Now that you have read this essay, you are an expert at doing your own laundry. Remember that mistakes happen when it comes to doing laundry but it does not mean you should give up! If you are still having troubles with doing laundry don’t be shy to ask for help from a family member or friend. Your clothes are at stake!