Doing Laundry

Requirements

Minimize effort
Minimize number of times to do laundry
Reduce dark color fading
Whites as white as possible
No ironing

Materials

All fragrant free liquid detergent
Oxiclean powder
Oxiclean spot spray
Woolrich Dark detergent
generic bleach
top-loading washer
front-loading dryer

Storing Dirty Clothes in 4 baskets

Basket 1 – dress clothes – pants & dress shirts
Basket 2 – totally white clothes – tshirts, socks, dress shirts
Basket 3 – blacks / very dark clothes including socks
Basket 4 – everything elses – jeans, colored tshirts, etc.

Don’t do laundry for the basket until it is full (full meaning enough to fully load the washer)

Washing

Basket 1 – dress wear – if collars of shirts look dirty, pre-treat with Oxiclean spray – let soak for 10 minutes while loading.   Add 1/2 the recommended amount of detergent. Run the washer on cold, normal or delicate (if you worry about those things).
Basket 2 – whites –  load the washer with both bleach using the bleach cup and put 1-2 scoops of Oxiclean powder.   Add recommended amount of detergent. Set water to hot, soak, and extra rinse.      Once the washer fills and agitates for maybe 5 minutes, open the lid to stop the cycle.   Let soak for 2-6 hours depending on how yellow the shirts are.
Basket 3 – load the washer, set on cold, and use Woolrich dark detergent.
Basket 4 – Load and set for normal, cold, and with 1/2 recommended amount of detergent.

Drying

Basket 1 – dress wear – This is the one that takes all of the time.   Put only 3 shirts OR 3 pants in the dryer at one time.   Option 1 – best/cheapest – run for 10 minutes only, remove and immediately hang shirts on hangers or pants on pants hangers to dry.   Option 2 – Run for full cycle using automatic setting but not the highest temperature.

Basket 3 – For dark dress wear (i.e. things you don’t want wrinkled),  use the technique in Basket 1.  For the rest, dry normally.

Basket 2 & 4 – use the dryer on automatic

Folding & Storage

Fold and put away as soon as dry.   Often laundry can pile up at this stage and it is best to simply get it over with.    Hang dress shirts.    Rest can be folded with limited wrinkling.