For clothing, like your husband's sweaty work clothes and dirty diapers,
use 1/2 cup of baking soda, (along with your normal soap), to get the smell
out. Its less expensive than laundry additives, and it gets rid of the
order instead of trying to cover it up.
Take 1/2 cup of baking soda and run your washer thru an empty load once
a month. This will keep away build up and the repairman.
Buy a sister brand appliance. Maytag makes makes a few, ask the
salesperson which ones they carry. Or look for a scratch and dent sale, as
the washer and dryer are not appliances visitors will see anyway.
Use hairspray to get ink stains out of regular clothing, ie jeans,
shirts, etc.
Use liquid softener and dilute with water, half and half. Spray it
inside your dryer, about 5 squirts. This lasts months and is better than
dryer sheets.
Make your own laundry soap! Saves lots of money.
Use 1/4 cup for small loads and 1/2 cup for large loads of white
vinegar in your fabric softener dispenser to cut down on dryer time, it
really works.
Wash and dry at off peak times. Even if your a SAHM, do all your
laundry at night or on weekends. I do one load an evening. It spreads out
the work and cost about half the price in electricity.
Don't buy expensive color brighteners! Dissolve a little salt with your
detergent in the water first.
Besides washing and drying full loads, (there is always something in my
house that can be added to a load to make it full), try washing everything
you can in cold water. It saves wear and tear on the material and usually
gets clothes just as clean.
