Here are 15 things you should avoid doing with your laundry to keep your clothes looking newer, lasting longer, and your washing machine functioning properly:
1. Overload the Washing Machine
Stuffing the drum to the brim prevents clothes from moving freely. This restricts water and detergent from circulating properly, meaning your clothes won’t get fully clean and will come out excessively wrinkled.
2. Ignore the Care Labels
Those tags aren’t just suggestions. Ignoring symbols for temperature, cycle type, or dry cleaning can lead to irreversible shrinkage, fading, or fabric damage.
3. Use Too Much Detergent
More suds don’t mean cleaner clothes. Excess detergent traps dirt and bacteria, which can redeposit onto fabrics, leaving them stiff, dull, and potentially causing residue buildup inside your machine that leads to odors.
4. Leave Zippers Unzipped and Buttons Undone
Open zippers can snag and tear delicate fabrics like knits and silk during the wash. Buttons should be left undone to reduce stress on the threads, but zippers should always be zipped up.
5. Pretreat Stains with Hot Water
While hot water is great for general washing, it can actually “cook” protein-based stains (like blood, egg, or sweat) into the fabric, making them impossible to remove. Always rinse or pretreat these with cold water.
6. Forget to Empty Pockets
A forgotten tissue can create a snowstorm on all your dark clothes. Worse, a pen can explode ink over an entire load, and loose change can damage the inside of your machine or clog the drain pump.
7. Overload the Dryer
Just like the washer, a crowded dryer prevents hot air from circulating. This leads to longer drying times, uneven drying, and excessive wrinkles (meaning more ironing for you).
8. Use Fabric Softener on Everything
Fabric softener coats fibers to make them feel soft. However, you should avoid using it on towels (it reduces absorbency), microfiber (it ruins the static cling that picks up dust), and athletic wear (it traps odor-causing bacteria in the sweat-wicking fabric).
9. Leave Wet Clothes in the Washer
This is a prime invitation for bacteria and mildew. If you leave a load in the machine for more than a few hours after the cycle ends, it will develop a musty smell that often requires multiple washes to eliminate.
10. Wash Jeans Too Often
Denim doesn’t need to be washed after every wear. Over-washing breaks down the indigo dye and the fibers, causing jeans to lose their shape and color faster. Spot clean when possible and wash only when truly dirty.
11. Dry Clean “Dry Clean Only” Items at Home
While some “dry clean” items can be hand-washed carefully, attempting to machine wash delicate fabrics like viscose, rayon, or structured blazers can result in catastrophic shrinkage or warping.
12. Ignore Lint Filter Maintenance
Failing to clean the lint screen after every single dryer load reduces airflow, making the dryer work harder (costing you money) and creates a major fire hazard.
13. Button Up Shirts for Washing
While you should unbutton them for washing to prevent stress on the threads, buttoning them up for drying (especially if you hang them) helps them maintain their shape. For washing, keep them unbuttoned.
14. Wash Delicates on the Wrong Cycle
Using a regular cycle with a high-speed spin for bras or lingerie can twist the underwires and stretch out the elastic. Always use a mesh bag and a delicate cycle to protect them.
15. Put Stained Clothes in the Dryer
Heat sets stains. If you put a garment with a visible stain into a hot dryer, that stain is likely there forever. Always inspect clothes after washing and repeat the stain treatment before drying if the spot remains.