WILL IT ALL COME OUT IN THE WASH?

Quick & Clean Laundry Centre’s Alex Grigoroff offers tips about cleaning clothes.

Can drying your clothes shrink them?

“Not drying them, but overdrying them. Don’t dry thick clothes with thin clothes, because that thick sweater will take longer to dry, and the thin shirt that doesn’t need all that heat may shrink if it’s in the same load.”

How should we treat front-loading and top-loading washers differently?

“What some people don’t realize is the whole idea behind front-load machines is that they’re supposed to be energy efficient. They’re not using as much water, but they’re taking in more clothes, so people automatically think they’ve got to put in more soap. Whereas the front-loader doesn’t require much soap at all. A front-loader uses around 12 gallons of water, while a top-loader uses around 30.”

What should we do about stains?

“For water-soluble stains — whether it’s coffee, wine, dirt or blood — you have to soak it right away, scrub it, and put the item in the washing machine right away. Thing is, once a stain, like sweat, gets ingrained in the fabric, it’s extremely hard to get clean.”