Laundry

And other renter-friendly laundry tips.

Here are some of the best ways to turn this small, often neglected room into its very best self.

We’ve rounded up a few projects that anyone can do to keep their laundry room organized and beautiful, and maybe even ease a little bit of the dread that goes along with the never-ending chore.

Ok, yes, strong claim—but wait until you see it.

For hundreds of Amazon's 5-star reviewers, there’s one stain treatment that stands out from the rest.

This tip will not only save you money on dry cleaning, but it’ll also help you save money on buying clothes. It’s an all-around life hack, really.

Even if your jeans don’t look all that faded, a black dye bath helps fill in worn areas around the seams and pockets, making them look new again in just 30 minutes.

Here's how to get your witchy wardrobe through the laundry without bringing harm to everything else in the process.

We talked to a laundry and fabric care expert to get some insight on how exactly we should be washing our favorite cold weather staples.

Plus, they'll save you tons of money!

If you’ve ever heard (or believed) that you shouldn’t mix bleach with hot water, then we have news for you. It's nothing more than modern-day housekeeping folklore.

Days and weeks go by while the flowery blouse and the flowy dress hang unworn... because you pulled them out of the dryer wrinkled and you just do. not. want. to iron.

This homeowner's laundry room had also become her storage room. So she wanted to give the space some love—but, like, budgeted love.

I hate shopping for socks. There’s no fun in the process and every sock shopping trip (or, in my case, Amazon purchase) is a reminder that, once again, you’ve lost all your socks.

You remember the time that dollop of meat sauce landed on your white shirt and you started rubbing it vigorously with seltzer to try to get the stain out? That might not have been your best move.

It doesn't matter if you're doing laundry for two or seven, there's one nagging thing that turns the task into a chore and something that takes longer than it needs to: inside-out clothes.

Cleaning routines are great, but when you're operating on autopilot, you can miss things that are plainly visible to anyone in a more present state of mind.

The thing that will make the biggest difference in your swimwear's longevity is how you clean and care for your suit—and especially how it's dried.

It turns out you really never think of clothing hangers as important until you don’t have any to use at all.

What does it mean to modernize laundry? First, create an environmentally and health-friendly way to wash. And, second, make it fashion.

Why is it that the best things about warmer weather—backyard grill-outs, picnics at the park, sunscreen-slathered beach days—also come with the toughest-to-remove stains?

While we can't come do your laundry for you, we can try to make it easier by rounding up a big list of our very favorite hacks, tricks, and techniques for making laundry day go a little bit easier.

There's nothing I dread more than seeing a hand-wash tag on my new favorite shirt. Until now.

The process of making your very own, super-powered lint roller is simple.

Laundry can be the most exhausting and tedious chore, or it can be your favorite excuse to unwind.

You should choose whatever method seems to fit your lifestyle and your wardrobe.

I don't get stuck in re-entry inertia with a suitcase clogging up our bedroom for a week or more

For as nice as fabric softener can make your clothes smell, it turns out that sometimes, they're not so great for the environment, or your skin.

If your parents used dryer sheets in the laundry, chances are you do, too. But have you ever thought about why you're using them? Do you know how they work?

Welcome to Clean IQ, where we uncover the chemistry of common life and explore the science behind your favorite cleaning solutions. When I was young, I believed the dry cleaner represented the height of sophistication. There was a sort of starched romance to the way my father’s shirts would dance down the conveyor, a gossamer flutter of pinstripes and plaids. It was a Narnia-like window into plastic-wrapped adulthood, all glamour and ease.

For as often as we use laundry detergent to keep our washables clean, we might be making silly mistakes.

With Spring Cleaning for Your Mood, we’re helping you get your housekeeping done no matter what state of mind you’re in. For 20 weekdays in April, we’ll focus on cleaning a new area of your space, with three different ways to get it done—so it’s easy to stay on track even when you’re busy, tired, or away from home. Sign up with your email now and enjoy a better space by the end of the month.

Move over, Tide Pod challenge, there’s a new laundry-related caution in town—but this time, it has to do with storage. Displaying laundry packets in jars may look pretty, but according to the American Cleaning Institute, decanting the pods can be dangerous with small children or elderly people in the home. In time for both spring cleaning and National Poison Prevention Week (March 17-24, 2019), the ACI launched its sixth annual Packets Up!

It's time to take a break from all that close-knit nightly snuggling and give your throw pillows a wash.

Whether it happens at the laundromat, the laundry room, or just a tiny corner of your apartment where you stash the washer/dryer, Tide wants to take laundry day off your plate. This week, the detergent giant launched Tide Cleaners, an on-demand laundry and dry cleaning service “aimed at giving people the option to spend more time on life and less time doing laundry.” Although cleaning the bathroom is America’s most hated chore, doing laundry isn’t exactly loved.

Hello, better efficiency!

And you probably already have everything you need in your kitchen.

Why is it that laundry detergent always seems to run out just when you need it the most? (Or is this just me?) Unlike other chores that require some elbow grease, laundry is one those tasks that is fairly mindless, which is maybe why it’s so easy to forget to stock up on detergent and stain remover.

It seems straightforward, but laundry comes comes with a learning curve.

Unless you are an alien who is fascinated by the fact that humans secrete unsavory odors and deposit them onto their clothing, you probably don’t enjoy doing laundry. If you need motivation to get through all those whites and darks, we’ve got nine very affordable ways to spruce up your laundry room and make it an inspiring place you actually want to be in. Laundry rooms rival doctors offices in terms of sterility.

This laundry room was pretty nice—lovely daylight, pleasant neutrals, plenty of storage, and a few beautiful accessories. But after a dozen years of basically ignoring it, the room’s owners were more than ready for a makeover. Here’s the scoop on the issues with the laundry room: Our laundry room is central to our house, situated off of our living room and right next to our bedroom.

Laundry is the most avoided chore in our home. We don’t have a good spot to keep dirty clothes, which leads to chasing down little piles on laundry day, then scrambling to find a place to put the clean batches as each load comes out. Some very organized people have figured this out though. With their DIY sorting systems, household worths of laundry are neatly sorted before, during, and after each cycle.

Like most laundry/mudrooms in existence, this one was overwhelmed. Serving as a catchall space, it held “swim gear, laundry, and other junk… tons of shoes, the vacuum cleaner, and extra pantry items (since we don’t have a pantry).” That’s enough to overwhelm any space, but one intrepid DIYer spent six weeks turning this one into a lovely, multi-purpose room. While a cheerful pup improves any room by 1200 percent, some other major upgrades are at play as well.

You know how weightlifters and gymnasts use chalk powder to keep their sweaty hands dry? The same principle carries over with all kinds of grease (dry shampoo, anyone?). Next time you find yourself with an oil splatter or greasy stain on your favorite top, trade in your stain stick and try pre-treating with a little chalk instead. Like baby powder, chalk is ultra-absorbent, making it a must-have to keep on hand for bacon grease splatters and lipstick marks alike.

If you’re anything like me, then you love cuddling up with plush throw blankets when you’re in bed (and on the sofa). But with all that close-knit nightly snuggling, it can be hard to figure out the right time to let go of your favorite throw and toss it in the wash. Luckily, we have laundry experts John Mahdessian, founder of Madame Paulette, and Kim Duk Won, owner of Manhattan’s Nordic Cleaners to call upon for help.

We’ve all been there. After several loads of laundry, the measuring-cap-slash-lid on your detergent can get pretty grimy with gunky buildup. But thanks to a clever tip from Redditor bluechris11, we now know a solid way to quickly clean your gross detergent caps. Believe it or not, you can simply toss your dirty detergent cap in with your next load of laundry to give it a good wash.

Fabric softener can be beneficial—but here are a few ways NOT to use it.

We all know there's nothing like a set of crisp, white sheets—and our guess is, you want to keep yours that way.

It doesn't take a gym rat to know that workout clothes—even if you don't wear them to workout—require special cleaning care.

You can devote part of your chaotic morning to lint-rolling yourself to perfection, but it helps to have other ideas on deck to get all that cottony debris off you quickly.

Let’s face it: Finding effective ways to remove tough stains in a pinch is never easy. So we have to pause and celebrate each and every cleaning hack as soon as we discover it. And shockingly, we found a cheap (and widely available) tiny stain fighter that you probably already have in your bathroom. Shaving cream, folks, yes shaving cream! Believe it or not, in addition to minimizing razor burn and rashes, turns out shaving cream is also a powerful stain remover.

Empty tissue boxes: Can’t live with them, but can’t figure out anything to do with them once they’re empty (other than just tossing them). Luckily, we discovered an awesome reason to save your used tissue boxes from the recycling bin, and upcycle them into something more purposeful for your home. Use your empty tissue boxes to collect dryer lint, folks. Dryer lint! You know, that unsightly stuff you peel off the filter before you do a load of laundry?

Even if you know all about sorting lights and darks, how to wash and dry different fabric types, and you remember to use the mysterious but very useful permanent press setting, there’s still an easily overlooked laundry mistake that could ruin your clothes and, in rare instances, your washer. Here’s the quick task you need to add to your laundry routine: Make sure your zippers are zipped before you do laundry.

There are two kinds of people in the world: people who think changing sheets is NBD and the rest of us, a.k.a. those who wind up grabbing the wrong size from our linen closets on the regular. The truth is, changing your sheets can be a real chore if your sheets aren’t organized in the first place. But fret not my friends, there’s a product out there designed to make switching out your bed sheets a bit more of a breeze.

We found stylish and effective options.

Laundry rooms have the tendency to become one of those rooms that we just forget about when it comes to remodeling or redecorating. After a while your mind just stops registering that it’s a space that still rocks ’80s linoleum flooring and dingy white paint, and you get accustomed to closing the door and practicing “out of sight, out of mind.” But when you have a beautifully decorated laundry room, the space quickly becomes an area you don’t mind being in.

Welcome to Apartment Therapy’s Chore-Free Summer. Every weekday until July 20, we’re arming you with time-saving shortcuts and hacks that’ll help you work smarter, not harder, when it comes to homekeeping this summer. Because cleaning doesn’t have to be a chore. Whether your nearest laundry machines are 10 blocks or 10 steps away, doing laundry is a drag.

What is it about laundry? For some reason, a well-designed and organized laundry area can inspire deep wells of envy. That’s certainly how I felt when I saw IKEA’s gallery of gorgeous laundry rooms—maybe it’s because my washer and dryer unhappily occupy a wall in my kitchen, a wall where style and organization is certainly less of a priority. Here are some of IKEA’s ingenious ideas you can steal for your own laundry space.

Laundry isn’t just about washing dirty clothes so you have clean ones to wear. It’s about cleaning and maintaining your wearables and textiles so that they always look their best, whether that means making jewelry sparkle, getting stains out of the lining of a purse, or keeping shoes looking their sharpest. And there’s a simple way to have all those things: A tube of non-gel toothpaste.

Keeping socks paired up through the laundry cycle is pretty simple if you toss them in a mesh bag beforehand, but that step doesn’t make its way into everyone’s routine. If you’re more likely to toss dirty socks in the general direction of the hamper—well, you’re probably hoarding a pretty large “orphan sock” collection.

On National Laundry Day (April 15, if you’re curious), GE conducted a poll about the public’s laundry habits. Pertaining to bath towels, “50% of those polled live by the philosophy that ‘I’m clean when I use it’ because they all admit to using their bath towel at least five times before throwing it in the washer. An additional 14 percent use their bath towels more than eight times before it hits the laundry basket.

We may not know what tomorrow brings, but that doesn’t stop us from worrying about it. Because let’s face it: There’s a lot going on in the world and in life. We need to carve out as many happy-making moments as we can. One really good place to start? Your underwear drawer. As sexy as the things within it might be, the drawer itself is a pretty unsexy idea.

Nothing compares to the smell of fresh laundry that’s been hanging outside to dry. Not only is it a fresh and efficient way to do laundry, it’s also oft-touted as a way to brighten whites without having to use special detergents or harsh chemicals. All you need is plenty of time and sunshine. First, wash your clothing as usual, adding up to ½ cup of lemon juice to the wash for an extra boost. (You can also add lemon juice to a spray bottle and spray directly on tough stains.

More nights than I care to admit, I work into the wee hours of the morning, slinging words so I can pay for important things like Netflix and magnetic eyelashes. When I finally drag my tired body toward the bedroom, I have just enough energy left to brush my teeth before crashing. But as I fall asleep to the symphonic range of my husband’s snoring, I often wonder just how bad it is for me to skip washing my face. Is the good skincare fairy going to come down and bop me on the head?

Not all laundry is created equal. Those leggings you wore to a super-sweaty hot yoga sesh? Toss those in the washer post haste. But things like a sweater you threw on for the late half of a chilly night? A dry-clean only blouse you wore to work on a half-day summer Friday? Literally any pair of jeans that’s not ripping at the seams (and even then…)? You can totally wear that again before you wash.

Amidst vociferous feelings on both sides of the debate, many millennials are famously abandoning top sheets. But along with traditionalists and Xennials like me (I’d never do it), the bedding industry mostly hasn’t caught up with this probably-here-to-stay trend, because top sheets do serve an important purpose as part of a sheet set.

People, let’s talk undergarments. We’re all on the same page when it comes to underwear—and that page most certainly says they should be washed after each use. But have you ever stopped for a minute to consider how often you should wash your bra? If your answer is no, well, you’re definitely not doing it enough. And if your answer is yes, you’re probably still not doing it enough.

Preparation is the key to success. The next time your favorite sweater shrinks or you smear sauce on your sleeve at dinner, instead of furiously Googling for a solution, you’ll remain cool, calm and collected because you committed these five in-a-pinch laundry hacks to memory. No garment steamer? No problem. If your clothes are just a bit more wrinkled than you’d like them to be, don’t break out the iron, just use your dryer (if you’re lucky enough to have one at home).

Oh yes, there is a wrong and a right way to wash laundry, and you're probably doing it wrong. No more lazy laundering, y'all.

There are a few conversation topics that remain off limits today. Polite company (if they want to remain polite) might not touch politics. Coworkers often avoid talking about their salaries. And unless you’re very close friends, you probably don’t ever feel brave enough to reveal how truly filthy you actually are at home. Thankfully you don’t have to.

A proper laundry room is a fabulous thing to have, but this one had a few issues: indoor vinyl siding, various holes, and so much brown, brown, brown. Laundry is tedious enough already — if you have a chance to make the experience more pleasant, take it.

I grew up being taught that bed sheets were supposed to be washed once a week. Now, with five beds that have people sleeping in them every night, I admit that I don’t get this chore done every single week. But it nags at me; that one-week timeline is etched into my sense of responsibility. I wanted to find out if washing, say, every other week is really that horrible and what I’m chancing if I stretch the prescribed weekly routine a bit.