There is a number of popular methods used by people through generations in order to wash clothes better. Unfortunately, not all of them effective, whereas some of them are even more harmful not only for your clothes but also for a washing machine.
Read this article and think whether you are doing one of these things.
Dark colours of clothes can be renewed with the help of black coffee
Certainly, black coffee has ingredients capable of making rather nasty stains on your clothes which might require special attention if you want to get rid of them. This facts makes many people believe that this dying capacity of coffee can be used in a adverse way with the clothes of dark colours in order to get the colour of clothes back.
For that purpose, many inventive people are adding coffee to their washing machines while washing dark clothes. In the reality, such practice is counter-effective. On the one hand, the amount of pigments in the popular drink is definitely not enough for dying your clothes. In order to get such an effect while using coffee, you will need to fill the entire washing machine with it. On the other hand, any residuals of coffee beans in the drink are not desirable as they can damage the filters of the water pipes in the washing machine.
It is better to use special pigments for textiles which are available for sale.
The more washing powder is added, the better is the effect
May be the previous myth about washing clothes is not thus popular among people, however, most of people do really believe that a large amount of washing powder in the washing machine will increase the effectiveness of washing.
It is not obvious to many people that a washing machine cannot have too much washing powder or liquid.
The first reason for it is that the cleaning process is achieved with friction which occurs between the layers of textiles inside a washing machine. An excessive amount of a washing product creates a large amount of foam which decrease the friction. As a result, the washing process becomes less effective.
Another reason is that excessive foam makes it more difficult for clothes to get rinsed with water. As a result, the dirt which was supposed to get washed with clean water is stuck in the clothes. As a result, it might look even dirtier after washing than it was before.
In order to understand the optimal amount of a washing substance, you should experiment a bit. For instance, you can use a twice smaller amount of the product during the next washing cycle. Sometimes the result of washing is better even if you use less of the product than it is recommended by a manufacturer.
In order to make white clothes whiter, a whitening product should be added during washing
It is obvious to many people that adding a whitening product into a washing machine will make clothes whiter. It turns out that it does not necessarily work this way all the time.
In practice, whitening products based on chlorine compounds can neutralise the activity of enzymes added to washing powder and liquids. At the same time, washing powder can neutralise such types of whitening products as well.
As you can imagine this means that your clothes will not only not be whitened, but in all likelihood it will not even be washed properly.
Still, it is possible to combine both types of products together, however, you should do it in a certain way. According to experts, you should wait for at least five minutes after the start of a washing cycle and add a whitening product only afterwards. In such a way, you will allow the washing the enzymes of your washing product to get activated.
Note that if the instruction of the use of a whitening product tells you need to dilute the product before using it, you should not ignore this information.
In order to avoid shrinking of clothes, you should wash it with colder water
One of the most unpleasant things which can happen to your favourite clothes while washing it is shrinking of the material. Unfortunately, natural textiles are particularly prone to changing their size during washing.
The general belief is that this happens to clothes because of hot water. Thus, it is logical that you just need to decrease the temperature during a washing cycle in order to avoid shrinking of your clothes.
High temperature is indeed not good for many types of textiles and it can certainly cause shrinking. Yet, decreasing temperature of water during a washing cycle is not enough for protecting your clothes from shrinking.
First of all, you should understand that shrinking can happen not only with the temperature of 90 degrees. For many textiles the temperature slightly exceeding 30 degrees is already harmful, especially when it comes to such delicate materials as wool.
Another thing you should realise is that making your clothes wet itself can cause shrinking as this is the way many materials are reacting to humidity.
Finally, one of the major factors causing shrinking of textiles is the mechanical impact on it which happens during washing.
Taking into consideration all of these facts, you should be very careful about the washing mode you are using. Refer to the washing instructions for each of your pieces of clothes to understand how it should be washed properly.