Saving Money While Doing Your Laundry

Here are some tips that should help you save some money while doing your laundry. They may also help you to save when purchasing new laundry equipment.

Using the Washer.

When you are washing your clothes in your washer, you should try to full loads. Doing partial loads may save water. But the washer still uses the same amount of electricity wether its on a large load or a small load. Doing large loads will reduce the amount of loads you have to do. If you must do a small load, such as towels, rugs or anything else that may not fill the washer, use the lowest water setting possible you can always add more water if its not enough. Thats why most washers have the reset feature. It starts the water to add a little more of it and restarts the cycle. Also use the shortest cycle possible. Most washers have a "heavy soil", "Medium Soil', and a "light soil" setting on them. Use the light soil setting when ever possible. This will reduce the amount of time the washer has to run saving you money on your electric bill. If your washer has an extended spin option, use it. The washer uses less energy to spin out as much water from you clothes than your dryer does to dry excessivly wet clothes. When you go to take your clothes out for the dryer, if they feel excessively wet, run the washer through the spin cycle again to allow the washer to wring out as much water as possible. The dryer the laundry is when it comes out of your washer means the dryer won't have to run as long. If the laundry is constantly coming out excessivly damp, have a technician come in and check your washer out because something is probably wrong. A washer that spins properly should be able to wring out almost 85-90% or the water in the clothes. Also, Some washers have a 2nd rinse option. Turn it off unless you put in too much soap. This will reduce the amount of water the washer uses, and will also save you electricity. Also, when you do a load of wash, try to use the cold water setting as much as possible. Unless your laundry is oily or greasy, the cold water setting usually cleans the clothes just as well as the warm water setting does.

When using laundry detergent, fabric softener, or some other cleaning agent, use as little as possible. Look inside the cap if you use liquid, or look inside the scoop if you use granulated. You will see 2 or 3 lines. Use the 1st line. Most laundry gets cleaned well enough with this line. Even when doing a full load. Only use more if the laundry is excessively dirty. The number of loads a bottle will handle, for example, I use powered Tide. I buy the biggest the biggest box they have. It says it can do up to 120 loads. That number is how many loads the detergent will do when using the 1st line in the scoop. When buying laundry detergent, fabric softener, or any other cleaning agent you use, buy the largest you can get. This stuff isn't like food and does not go bad. I'm a family of six. I can get about 3 to 6 months out of my Tide doing laundry every other week. I find the 1st line works just as well as the 3rd line. Smaller families will probably be able to go longer. If you are worried about about moisture runing the powder, same those silica gel packets you find in your medication or what ever else you get it in. Put a couple of these in the powder to keep it from getting damp. If you use fabric softener, use either dryer sheets or liquid. You don't really need to use both. Use one or the other. Heres something even better and these work. They make these little balls with little knobs all over them. They go in your dryer. They help the soften you laundry in the dryer and also help to reduce the drying time. They work without chemicles and last for years. They usually come with 2 in a pack. This will help you save because you won't have to buy fabric softener.

Using the Dryer.

When using your dryer, dry full loads. The dryer may run a little longer with more clothes. But it will reduce the amount of times you have to run it. Also, clean out the lint trap between loads. Clean it out half way through the drying cycle when doing things such as sweaters and other items that cause an excessive amount of line. When drying you clothes, use the automatic options. These options turn on a moisture sensor which allows the dryer to sense when the load is almost dry. Also, a lost of dryers have an optimum setting on the timer dial. Use it. This is the best place to start the drying cycle and helps to prevent the dryer from over drying the clothes. One other thing you should do to help reduce the drying time is to clean out the duct work between your dryer and the outside vent. Removing the lint from the duct work will reduce the amount of time it takes to dry your laundry. Another thing to do to reduce the amount of time it takes to dry your laundry is to try to use the shortest possible path between your dryer and the outside dryer vent and to use as few bends and turns as possible. Use the smooth aluminum piping instead of the flexible hose. Use as much aluminum piping and run it to as close to your dryer as possible. Then connect a short piece of flexible hose to allow you to move the dryer when you need to. Using the smooth pipe can reduce your drying time by as much as 5 minutes. Insted of the vent hood that blows the air down, use the air vent that allows the air to come straight out. This can reduce your drying by another 5 minutes. The fewer turns you have, the faster the laundry will get dry. And using the smooth pipe instead of the flexible hoses allows the air to pass through more efficiently and helps prevent excessive amounts of lint to build up in the hose. Also, that flexible hose slows the air down because of all the little ridges which also catches the lint. When using your dryer in the winter time, remove the hose from the vent to the ouside and block the vent to the outside up. You can use the heat from the dryer while drying your clothes to heat your home. This will also allow some moisture to circulate through the house. Most of us complain about the air in our homes being too dry anyhow. Even if it only blows into your basement, its better than loosing all that heat to the outside air. If you are worried about lint getting bloen into your home, they make a lint trap to go on the end of the hose or pipe to catch the lint and keep it out of your house. Just don't forget to clean it out after each load.

When ever possible, instead of using the dryer, hang your laundry outside on the clothes line. You can even put a clothes line across your laundry room. This is a free way to dry your clothes. They also have wooden racks that stand on the floor for drying clothes and things that can't be placed in a dryer. If you use hangers to hang your clothes on to dry your clothes, use the plastic ones. The metal ones may rust and discolor your clothes.

When purchasing a washer and/or dryer, buy the largest ones you can get. Usually a super capacity, or king size are the largest. Even the new Front Loaders are good. The bigger the washer and dryer is, the longer you will be able go between wash cycles. I use King Size machines and can usually go for almost a month between wash cycles.

Also, when purchasing a washer and/or dryer, make sure you purchase one with the energy star label. These machines use the least amount of energy to operate. You may also want to purchase a washer with a water temperature sensor. When using the warm setting, the washer only adds hot water when it needs it. The rest of the time, it adds cold. My washer has this sensor. In the summer time when the water from the street is warmer, a lot of times my wahser doesn't even cycle any hot water in because the water is warm enough. This saves you money because your water heater doesn't have to work as hard or as often.

I hope this helps you save money.