Last Updated on September 2, 2021 by The Tampa Maid

6 Awesome Laundry tips when house cleaning

Last week, I began a series of articles based on my experience owning and operating a house cleaning service in Tampa. Through that experience, I, along with a handful of other Tampa house cleaners, tackled everything from basic home cleaning services, including dusting, scrubbing, laundry, and occasional meal prep, to full-on comprehensive, top-to-bottom residential spring cleaning.

While I thought I knew plenty when I first got involved in professional home cleaning services, I picked up hundreds of tips and tricks over the following years that I love to share with others! Last time, I wrote about bathroom upkeep. Today, I am addressing the household chore that most of my residential cleaning clients agreed was the most overwhelming and universally disliked – Laundry!

Why Laundry Poses a Challenge

When you think about it, laundry seems simple enough. After all, with modern machines, the bulk of the work is done for us, yet nearly all of my clients listed laundry as their least favorite task. In fact, a large percentage of my clients who received regular maid service agreed that their favorite house cleaning services were those who included laundry on their list of client offerings. Laundry is a commitment. It takes time – lots of it; and let’s face it, in terms of general house cleaning tasks, it is pretty tedious.

However, as an expert in residential house cleaning, there are tips and tricks that my staff and I have shared with clients to help washing clothing less time-consuming and easier all-around. Whether or not you use professional home cleaning services, these tips will help make wash day much easier.

Tips on Efficiency – Laundry

Tip # 1 – Invest in divided hampers. These days, many manufacturers create clothes hampers that provide divided sections that will allow homeowners to separate laundry items right in the hamper. Here is a great example of an inexpensive divided hamper on Amazon. Divided Hamper. This set-up allows family members to divide lights, brights, and dark clothing right in the hamper. This saves plenty of time on laundry day!

Tip # 2 – Don’t let laundry pile up. One of the best things about hiring a maid service or a residential cleaning service is the regular visits. Utilizing a professional cleaning service once or twice a week ensures that laundry and other tasks are completed on a regular basis. Homeowners should apply the same schedule to their own laundry. Staying caught up makes the task much less daunting on wash day.

Tip # 3 – Use a lingerie bag for socks and small items. Nothing is more frustrating than searching through tons of loose socks searching for a matching pair. To ensure that pairs of socks stay together, assign each family member a single lingerie bag. Keep worn socks in individual bags for quick and easy washing and matching. Simply throw each lingerie bag into the washer and dryer, keeping each pair of socks together throughout the washing and drying process.

Tip # 4 – Don’t procrastinate on folding. Folding clothes directly out of the dryer keeps them wrinkle-free and organized, and helps to keep homeowners on track in terms of laundry. One of the common mistakes I saw from my residential cleaning clients was a tendency to let unfolded clean clothes pile up, creating a disorganized and unsightly mess. After some time, it becomes hard to tell which items are clean, and which require washing, often resulting in homeowners re-washing clean clothes unnecessarily.

Keep Clothes Looking Their Best

After speaking with employees from several house cleaning services in Tampa, I found that we all saw the same common laundry errors from our clients. If you want to maintain your laundry like a professional, avoid these common mistakes.

Not sorting clothes properly, or sorting only by color: While sorting by color is important, clothes that are heavily soiled should be washed separately, and clothing made of dramatically different materials, such as jeans and dress shirts, should be washed in different loads. Not using the correct water temperature: When running my domestic cleaning service, I found that many clients washed their clothes in hot water almost exclusively, which is a huge no-no, as it can be damaging to some fabrics, or cause color bleeding. Hot water should be reserved mainly for cotton white and bedding. Brights and darks should always be washed in warm and cold water respectively Using way too much soap: A common mistake many people make is using too much laundry soap. In actuality, using too much soap can cause improper or incomplete rinsing, and can actually cause dirt and detergent film to redeposit on the clothes, leaving them less than clean. I always advised my residential house cleaning clients to use half of the recommended amount of soap for each load. Pouring soap directly onto clothes: For top-loading machines where the soap is added directly to the laundry, start the water after adding the clothes, but add the soap to the water directly. This ensures that the soap is evenly distributed throughout the load. Washing dark items right-side out: Dark items should always be washed inside out. This helps to prevent fading, and also helps to keep lint and other materials off the dark materials. Keeping clothes in the dryer too long: Another common mistake I saw regularly when working with my clients was faded or shrunken clothes. These issues typically occur when drying clothing at too high a temperature, overdrying, or overstuffing the dryer.

Remove Stains Like a Pro

When training my team for our Tampa maids, one of the areas I focused on was stain removal. Not all stains respond to the same treatment, so it is important to understand how to treat individual stains.

Blood – Blood-stained clothing should be soaked in cold water, never hot; and treated with a 3% hydrogen peroxide solution directly on the stain.
Candlewax – For candlewax on clothing or tablecloths, simply place the item on an ironing board with a brown paper bag from the grocery store on top. Use an iron at the highest heat safe for the fabric and run it along the length of the stain, keeping the paper bag between the clothes and the iron. As the wax melts, it will be soaked up by the paper.
Oil-based stains – For oily stains on clothes, I advised my clients to treat the area with baking soda. Place baking soda directly on the stain and let sit for 24 hours. After 24 hours, brush away the baking soda, and spray the stain with a 1:1 ratio vinegar to water solution. Lightly scrub the area and rinse with warm water.
Ink Stains – Using a small cloth, treat the stain with rubbing alcohol. Keep a paper towel directly under the stain, so the ink doesn’t soak through to other areas on the shirt once treated with rubbing alcohol. Use an old toothbrush to work out the stain.
Sweat Stains – Treat sweat stains with a baking soda paste. Mix two tablespoons of baking soda with just enough water to create a paste. Apply the paste to the affected area. Let the paste dry, then wash the item as usual.

So, for anyone looking for professional results at home, follow the good advice from professionals in the house cleaning service industry above and you will find that keeping up with laundry, removing stains, and maintaining the integrity of your clothing, isn’t difficult with the right knowledge and the right tools!