Laundry. There is absolutely no household chore that I hate more than doing laundry. And the bad part about it? It’s never ending. It just keeps piling up and piling up. There’s no bright side to laundry. But I can lighten the load a bit by giving you tips on ways to save money in the laundry room.
I’m not going to tell you to run out and purchase a High Efficiency (HE) washing machine, though that is one way to save money. I’m going to share some easy tips that you can use that will save you money – and your laundry will still come out looking as great as ever!
Clean Your Machine
“What?!” you might be thinking. The washing machine gets clean everytime you wash it right? Wrong! You need to keep your washing machine clean just as you have to keep your dishwasher clean. What’s the point in washing dirty clothes in a dirty washing machine?
If you want to know how to clean yours, you can purchase products that will “wash” your washing machine: I’ve tried Tide Washing Machine Cleaner and it works without any effort on my part. The Ask Anna blog has a great post on cleaning your washing machine.
Full Loads Only
Make sure you are washing full loads of laundry instead of just a few articles of clothing. Think about it: smaller loads use less water but they still use the same amount of electricity. The only time you could run a smaller load is if you were washing lightly soiled clothing on a shorter wash cycle (see the next tip for more details).
Sort Your Clothes. Or Don’t.
This is one of those things that, depending on who you listen to, you really don’t know what to do with. Some people say you must sort while others say there’s no reason to sort. I have lots of friends who don’t sort before they wash – I happen to be a sorter.
If  you do lots of laundry like I do, you will want to first sort your laundry by color (white, darks, and colors), and then by how dirty the clothes are. My clothes don’t get nearly as dirty as my four year old’s play clothes do. For lightly soiled clothing, you can use a shorter wash cycle setting (to save you money!) You will want to wash heavily soiled clothing in a longer cycle.
Wash Everything In Cold Water
I’m sure you’ve heard that it doesn’t make a difference whether you use hot or cold water. And it doesn’t. You will not notice a difference!
The only time I use hot water is if I’m using bleach in with a load of whites; I don’t even know if it’s actually necessary then, but I do it. Everything else gets cold water.
How do you save money in the laundry room?
