6 tips for hanging up the laundry correctly and 5 tips for different types of clothes
The key to making our clothing last a long time is to make sure they are of good quality in the first place. But certainly, the way we wash and dry them is also important. While doing the laundry can be an annoying chore, if we do it right, it will be one of the main determining factors in extending the life of our clothes.
Drying, in particular, deserves special attention: even if your dryer is efficient and fast, it nevertheless has a number of disadvantages compared to air drying. In fact, heat can shrink garments made from natural fibers such as cotton and discolour them prematurely; it also fixes in any stains (if they have not been completely removed beforehand).
Air drying also avoids the problem of static electricity building up in synthetic fabrics, prevents and eliminates bad odors and helps keep garments whiter. But what is the right way to do this? Check out the tips below:
6 tips for hanging out your laundry
Here are some useful tips for the correct way to hang out/up your laundry:
- Equipment: choose clotheslines and clotheshorses that won't rust and staining the clothes, and make sure you have enough space to deploy them. The choice of pegs is also of fundamental importance: in fact, some types can rust or leave colored stains on the fabrics. The best choice still remains classic, wooden pegs.
- Orderly: as with washing, drying must also be done by dividing the garments by type. Most fabrics can be hung up normally, but sweaters and stretch fabrics should be dried laying flat.
- Size: it is best to hang garments in size order, starting with the largest and heaviest and ending with the smallest and lightest; in this way, it will be possible to optimize the space available, avoiding overcrowding on the line, which will slow down drying.
- Sun: there are many ways in which the sun can be beneficial to drying clothes; not only does it speed up the process, but it helps disinfect the garments, prevent the formation of bad odors and will make any faint stains disappear. Make sure you hang your clothes inside out to prevent colors fading.
- Open air: try to place your in the open air (like in a garden, for example). In this way, drying will be faster and bad odors - caused by humidity - will not develop.
- Additional: to have softer garments after drying, use white vinegar instead of a traditional fabric softener; if you want to avoid wrinkles developing, just shake the clothes out lightly or flatten your garments by hand before hanging them up.
5 specific tips by type
There are also specific drying tips for each type of garment:
- Sheets and towels: hang up sheets exactly at their halfway mark; towels should be hung vertically and fixed with pegs at their upper corners, so they dry more quickly.
- Pants/trousers: if you have room, hang them open, with both legs pegged at the hems, waists down. If the space available is not sufficient, align the inside seams of the legs and hang the trousers by the lower hem of the legs.
- Shirts and tops: These garments can be put up in two ways. The first way consists in hanging them directly on the line, securing them with the pegs near the lower hem on their seams; the second way involves the use of a hanger, which you can hook onto the line.
- Socks and underwear: these smaller items should be hung up with pegs exposing as much surface area as possible to the air. Before hanging them up, take some time to reshape them (for example, as with bra cups).
- Garments that should not be hung up: sweaters and all stretchable garments, as well as silk or lace blouses, should be dried while laying as flat as possible.
Now you are really ready to do the perfect drying!
