For many people, especially men, running their own household for the first time is a major challenge. For the first time, they have to wash and dry their own laundry.
Fortunately, there are a few tips that will make it easier for you to separate your laundry and wash it according to sorting. We'll show you what you should look out for so that your laundry survives the wash cycle undamaged.
Separate laundry: The most important requirement for doing laundry
To get the laundry really clean, you should not wash all items together. The temperatures and detergents required can differ considerably from one another.
In principle, there are two types of sorting that overlap and complement each other. On the one hand, you can separate the laundry according to sensitivity. You can also select the laundry according to colour to prevent staining as far as possible.
Laundry separation according to sensitivity
Here you will find the most important types of laundry and their treatment:
- Underwear: Ideally, this should be washed at 60 degrees for hygiene reasons. However, fine briefs and bras are often made of materials that do not allow this and can therefore only be washed at 30 degrees with a mild detergent. Always use a laundry bag for briefs with lace and bras. Cotton boxer shorts, on the other hand, tend to be less sensitive.
- T-shirts, jumpers and trousers: A temperature of 30 to 40 degrees is recommended for most items of clothing. A colour detergent is also recommended.
- Blouses, shirts and dresses: rather delicate garments should only be washed at 30 degrees with a mild detergent. They should also have more space in the washing machine. This will prevent intensive creasing and shorten the time you have to plan for ironing afterwards. Clothes are best secured in a laundry bag.
- Towels and bed linen: For hygienic cleaning, you should wash towels and bed linen at 60 degrees. These always come into direct contact with the skin and absorb a lot of skin flakes and sweat.
- Functional clothing: Sportswear can often only be washed at 30 degrees. A sports detergent is recommended here.
Tip: Buy a divided laundry basket so that you can separate your laundry more easily and don't have to sort it before the wash cycle.
Sort laundry by colour
New garments in particular tend to discolour. Therefore, always read the manufacturer's label before removing it from your garments. It often makes sense to wash them separately, at least for the first wash cycle, as this is when the risk of discolouration is highest.
The following colours are generally suitable for washing laundry:
- White and light-coloured laundry
- Yellow and orange laundry
- Red and purple underwear
- Blue, green, grey, brown and black laundry
For mixed colours, it is best to use the largest colour component as a guide.
Please note: Some garments lose colour with every wash due to the dyeing process. These can only ever be washed separately.
Differences between individual detergents: What do I need?
We have compiled the most important detergents for washing your laundry for you in the following list:
- Heavy-duty detergent: It is only suitable for white laundry as it contains bleaching agents. It is also very strong and designed for higher temperatures of up to 95 degrees.
- Colour detergent: A colour detergent is usually designed for temperatures of 20 to 60 degrees. It is suitable for normal coloured items of laundry that are not particularly delicate.
- Delicate detergent: In principle, this is a special colour detergent. However, the cleaning effect is somewhat less effective as it is gentler. It is therefore often used for blouses and fine shirts, but is also suitable for washing clothes.
- Detergents for wool and silk: These two materials are very sensitive and do not tolerate strong detergents or high temperatures.
- Sports detergent: Ideally, you should wash functional underwear with a sports detergent. This has a fairly intense fragrance and ensures intensive cleaning at low temperatures.
Loading the washing machine: How full can the drum be?
When doing laundry, you can follow the principle that delicate items of clothing require more space than delicate items.
This means you can fill the drum completely for a wash cycle with towels and bed linen. However, you should never squeeze the laundry.
The same applies to a load of T-shirts, trousers and jumpers. For shirts and blouses, which belong to the easy-care or delicates category, the drum should be about half full. Sportswear also needs a little more space.
If you wash wool and silk in the washing machine and not by hand, fill the drum to about a quarter or a third of its capacity to protect the delicate fabrics.
Programme settings: Is only the temperature decisive?
In addition to the temperature, the duration, the amount of water and the spin speed play an important role. Boil wash and coloured wash cycles use little water, high temperatures and high speeds.
Setting the easy-care laundry function leads to a reduction in the temperature and speed and an increase in the amount of water. The same applies to the delicate wash and hand wash programme functions, whereby the values continue to decrease and the amount of water increases.
Tip: You can save energy with an ECO programme. However, the washing time will be longer.
It is best to hire a professional cleaning lady to do your laundry
Sorting clothes every week, then washing them properly and finally ironing them can be exhausting and very time-consuming. One professional cleaning lady not only would you wash your clothes properly, but you would also have much more free time. Find your favourite clothes quickly and easily at suuber.ch. Ideal cleaner at top conditions.
