Unwashed new jeans can lead to blue dye on your hands and shirt. When dye is transferred by friction, it’s called crocking, and the indigo dye in blue jeans is a notorious crocker. Before you leave blue everywhere, your washing machine is the first stop. Do a first wash with cold water, before the rinse…

After a shower or bath, there’s nothing as refreshing as a big, clean terrycloth towel. Home laundry fabric softener can prevent a towel from soaking up water, incompletely rinsed detergent can harden the fibers. If towels aren’t smelling so fresh, add a cup of baking soda to the wash. White vinegar freshens mildewy staleness. Nothing…

Beer stains should be blotted as dry as possible. As soon as possible, rinse the stain with cold water from the back of the stain. Mix liquid laundry detergent (or dish soap) with cold water and soak the stain at least ten minutes. Rinse thoroughly and launder in warm water. Yellow mustard can be tough to…

When your favorite fitness gear loses its fresh smell, a few tips from Valetmight help.  First, turn everything inside out before washing to expose what’s the dirtiest. Add a quarter cup of white vinegar to your washer to kill odor-causing bacteria. Special detergents like Win or HEX are formulated to deep clean performance fabrics. And…

After each use, rinse swimwear in cool tap water to remove sunscreen, sand, sweat and chlorine. To wash after a few wearings, turn the swimsuit inside out and hand wash in the sink, using a few drops liquid detergent in warm water. Gently squeeze the suds through the garment, don’t wring or twist. Rinse well and…

Every cycle through the laundry removes more black dye and roughs up the surface, creating a fuzzy fade effect. Consumer Reports says, when you absolutely must wash, turn black garments inside out to protect the surface, sort items by color and weight, and wash in cold water in the shortest cycle possible. Avoid detergent with…

According to the experts at Consumer Reports, greying white clothes are picking up soil from other garments in a crowded washer without enough detergent. Wash white separately, don’t pack the washer and measure the detergent. If more whitening is needed, try a detergent with bleaching components, an oxidizer like OxiClean or hang clothing in the…

If you’re lucky enough to enjoy an outdoor clothesline, there are a few tricks to drying laundry outdoors. Shake damp laundry to smooth out wrinkles before hanging. Dry shirts on hangers for crease-free results, ready for touchup ironing. Hang pants by the bottom hem. That’s the way to hang t-shirts and polos, too. Hang “departments”…

To refresh linen, cotton or synthetic fabric that’s been preshrunk and colorfast, you can machine-wash slipcovers.  Launder separate from other articles on gentle in color water with an all-purpose detergent. Air dry or tumble on low, then reposition on the furniture while slightly damp to minimize wrinkles and help with fit if there’s any shrinkage.…

Soap-like fabric softeners coat laundry with a waxy lubricant that lets the fibers slide past each other, reducing wrinkling and smoothing scratchiness. They also make napped fibers stand on end for fluffiness and reduce static cling caused by tumbling in the dryer.  Over time, the waxy coating can create a dingy look and reduce absorbency…