Top tips for soft laundry
WHEN it comes to washing our clothes, many of us simply follow the directions on our boxes of detergent.
However, it turns out this isn’t always for the best for our laundry items.
Australian cleaning guru Shannon Lush says it’s important to realise that more soap doesn’t mean your clothes will be cleaner.
“That’s not how it works because soap is fat based,” she said.
“If you impact the fibres with too much fat it attracts dirt — you know what it’s like when you put a cake of soap on the window sill?
“It gets dirty really quickly and that’s because it contains fat.”
Shannon even went on to say that using too much soap can even mean clothes become dirtier quicker.
“You know how your towels go all prickly and nasty?” she said.
“That’s because there’s too much soap left behind and because it’s fat-based.
“For example, if you put butter in a frying pan it melts and then when it goes cold it gets hard again.
“When you put your towel in the dryer you are melting the fat so the towels come out all nice and fluffy but a day later they are all dry and hard again.”
Shannon added that when using a front-loading washing machine, people should use just one-eighth of the recommended amount of powder or liquid.
For a top-loading washing machine, it is recommended to use one-quarter of the recommended quantity on the packaging.