Lisa Eclesworth is a notable and influential lifestyle writer. She is a mom of two and a successful homemaker. She loves to cook and create beautiful projects with her family. She writes informative and fun articles that her readers love and enjoy. You can directly connect with her by email – lisa@lisaeclesworth.com or visit her website www.lisaeclesworth.com. In this blog, you will be Understanding Laundry Cycle Management.
When we think about doing our laundry, we will usually not feel like it is a tremendous task to take on. Many people throw all the dirty laundry in one large load and let it go. They are taking a chance on colors fading on other garments and shrinking them because they have not read the care tags. Not to mention, never taking into consideration if they are stained or have invisible germs on them.
In our world today, Laundry cycle management has become a critical duty whether at home or working in a laundry facility at a hospital or hotel. Let us go through some steps to help establish the correct way to clean the materials in your washing machine.
Laundry Needs to be Sorted Correctly
Appropriately, this should be the first step. If you are tackling laundry at home, you probably wait and sort your clothes when you get ready to do your wash. However, if you work in the laundry department of a hospital or hotel, pre-sorting is a must. The process will be simple as almost everything will be white and cotton. However, when it comes to your families clothing, you should separate in categories:
Darks – any black, brown, or gray laundry will be your primary dark color.
Tip: Towels usually will not fall into a specific category, but no matter what color they are dark, bright, or white, they should be washed by themselves and not with a typical laundry load. The lint that they carry is very hard to get off other garments.
Whites – whites are whites. They are not hard to pick out of the pile and separate.
Tip: Depending on the size of load you have, measure some bleach and use it for your whites. You can pour oxygenated bleach straight in with your whites. It works wonders to brighten them back up. It also helps disinfect the clothes and the machine while they wash.
Colors – any laundry item that consists of bright colors like orange and yellow.
Tip: You should always wash new red clothes separate from all others. When they have been washed a few times by themselves, you may start cleaning them with the other bright colors.
Durables – Laundry pieces such as jeans or heavily soiled clothes.
Tip: You will want to make sure that there is a heavy-duty cycle on your machine that pre-soaks and spins your clothes twice.
Delicate – Undergarments or specific materials such as silk, satin, lace, or chiffon.
Tip: Remember to read the fabric care tags on all your fragile clothing. They may have special instructions.
Picking the Correct Temperature and Load Size
We have now gone through the ways to sort. It is time to discuss what temperature to set and how to select the size of the load. The primary temperature and sizes that will be on your washing machine control panel are:
- Hot for durable whites
- Warm for durable colors
- Cold for delicates and colors
Tip: It is best for the environment to always use cold water to wash and rinse when you can. Hot and warm water are not highly recommended and can fade your colors. Even so, they are sometimes necessary for heavily soiled clothing that needs to be extra disinfected. Furthermore, the size of the load will determine what cycle you will use.
Large loads – Heavy Duty cycle
Medium loads – Normal cycle
Small loads or Delicate loads – Normal or Delicate cycle
An Effective Way of Managing Our Laundry
Sanitization is the leading standard in laundry management. Maybe in years past, we didn’t think much about wiping down or sanitizing our clothes and machines at home as much as we do today. Places like hospitals always followed a protocol to rid their linens and scrubs of bacteria and bloodborne pathogens. Still, ordinary folks never had to think about that—until now. The past is no more. We have ventured into an unknown future of airborne diseases. One in particular-COVID-19. This illness has rapidly been teaching us all how to effectively disinfect our lives. Knowing how to do this while doing laundry is a crucial safety precaution for everyday living.
How do hospitals and healthcare facilities use proper sanitization methods? Which parts of their process can a regular family household use at home in this era of COVID? The healthcare field uses a strict numbered to-do list and uses the correct temperature for a cycle. We have established the proper way to do laundry in our homes, and it is like how laundry facility workers do laundry. However, there are a few differences. What extra chores do they do that we could implement into our laundry duties?
- Promptly dry your loads after they wash
- Promptly iron and fold
- Do not waste time in putting them away.
- Put them away on metal or plastic shelving
Doing all the above along with the typical routine is how healthcare workers keep from cross-contaminating. When we are at home, we tend to take our time. But in understanding our current situation in the world, we need to pick up our pace when we do our laundry at home.
In conclusion, no matter if we are working in a laundry facility or doing our laundry in the comfort of our own home, the practice of thoroughly cleaning our clothes is essential. Keep in mind to wipe down your machines regularly with disinfectant wipes and run an empty bleach cycle occasionally
