Hopefully you haven’t thrown in a red robe with a load of white t-shirts…and if you did, I hope you like pink.

Here is the main tip. ALWAYS READ THE LABEL.

That being said, here are some general guidelines:

• Wash white items (t-shirts, socks etc) in warm to hot water….be care of shrinkage though.
• Wash really colorful items in “like” loads. (All the red together, all the green together and so on.) that way, if they “share” colors, it is not a horrid disaster.

I have found that you can cheat on most items by washing them all in warm. But again, READ THE LABEL FIRST.  Shrinking that lovely wool sweater and dying it a mottled shade of puce is not a good idea.

As for drying, not everything has to come out of the dryer bone dry. If it is a little damp, it can air dry on a hanger (or flat, if hanging it will stretch it out).

Purchase a “bra bag” or “sock bag” to keep all the little things together.

Proper washing can stretch out the life of a garment by years.

Also, make sure that it really needs to be washed before doing so. For example, Jeans are generally good for a several uses before needing to be washed.

Now, about labels. Once you know the “code” these are easy to read.  (and of course, most of them have written instructions in addition to the codes.)

Here is a Laundry Cheat Sheet to understanding those codes.

Laundry Tag Cheat Sheet