Lint. The single most annoying factor affecting laundry day. Materials used for woolen sweaters and towels shed when run through your washing machine resulting in a lovely spread of tiny pieces of their fabric to all of your other clothes. Cleaning your other clothes of the fabric shed from a sweatshirt can be an incredibly frustrating task, one we’re willing to be you’d rather avoid. So what can you do to minimise the effects of shedding on laundry day?
The first action you should be taking is the proper maintenance of your lint trap on your machines. Your machine should have a lint trap equipped as standard and you need to be certain that you’re cleaning out your lint trap every single time your machine is used. If you’re not, then the lint won’t get, well… trapped and will be free to stick to any other pieces of your clothing. An unclean lint trap can also decrease the effectiveness of your machine, poses a fire hazard and can drastically shorten the appliance lifespan.
Before your clothes get to the dryer you’ve got to wash them. You probably already separate your colours from your whites, but leave items with high lint quantities with the rest of your wash. This single item is going to cover the rest of your clothes in lint and have you looking like a bargain store cookie monster outfit.
If you have a towel that is prone to shedding, put it through the machine on its own. It’s still going to shed, but those little bits of fabric won’t have the opportunity to stick to every other garment you own.
We know that washing a lot of items individually is going to do no favours to your bills or the environment. Don’t worry, there are still measures you can take if you prefer to pile everything in the washer together. When running your laundry through the dryer, be sure to include a dryer sheet. Dryer sheets basically reduce the build up of static in your dryer resulting in woolly jumpers that don’t stick together and lint that doesn’t stick to everything. They can also act as fabric softeners and add extra scent as well, so it’s a win-win all around! If you’ve got a really heavy wash, you might want to pop two sheets in.
One of the simplest steps you can take in reducing the lint build-up is to simply turn the offending item inside out. This obviously isn’t going to work for towels but with certain sweatshirts, this can work to help contain the spread of lint.
Powdery Residue
There’s the potential for you to see a powder-like buildup on some of your clothes. Many simply see small specs on their clothes after they’ve come out of the wash and immediately assume that it’s a lint buildup. Fortunately, in the case of the white powder, this isn’t the case. It’s something else that has an extremely quick and easy fix. More often than not, this white powdery build-up is caused by using too much detergent. Cut down on your detergent and you eliminate the problem.
We hope these tips have been useful in helping you with washing your fabrics of high lint quantities. We’d love to hear if you have any secret remedies for lint reduction. If there’s something you’d like to add to the article get in touch with the comments below.
Image – Amy