How you wash your dirty laundry is up to you. The French, for example, like it uncomplicated, manufacturers build their own music chips into Chinese washing machines, in the USA they mainly wash cold and add bleach, while in Italy the washing machine is often left outside.
However, there are some washing habits that have been proven to be wrong and yet are more persistent than a curry stain on white trousers. Whether it’s crude tips circulating on the internet or so-called “expert knowledge” that has been repeated over and over again for decades – 10 widespread laundry myths are finally clarified below:
30-degree laundry can be washed at 40 degrees without any problems
Washing recommendations in garments are voluntary information provided by the manufacturer. With a little experience, you can confidently interpret them as you see fit. However, the blanket rule “+10 °C is no problem” is not recommended. This is because delicate fabrics such as wool or silk react extremely sensitively to this temperature difference. If such fabrics are heavily soiled, it is therefore better to pre-treat them and wash them at the specified maximum temperature.
The washing machine eats socks
Lonely socks looking for their matching counterpart are probably commonplace in all households. However, the tale of the sock-eating washing machine is only true in very, very rare cases. It can certainly happen that a sock slips through a loose rubber seal in an old washing machine. As a rule, however, the lost sock partner will have slipped into a comforter cover, behind the wardrobe or into the wrong drawer.
Do not leave wet laundry in the drum
There is also a grain of truth behind this fairy tale. If you leave wet laundry in the drum for a long time, it will start to smell. However, this only happens after several hours. So there’s no need to get stressed just because you can’t hang up the laundry as soon as the wash cycle is finished.
Vinegar damages the machine
Opinions differ on vinegar. Some consider it an ecological substitute for fabric softener, others are afraid that the acid could attack the rubber seals. However, the acidity of 100 ml of 5% vinegar diluted with 50 liters of washing water and alkaline soap suds is far too low to be dangerous. Conversely, its limescale-dissolving properties in this concentration are only marginal. Nevertheless, the vinegar does no harm. So if you want to get the stubborn smell of sweat out of shirts, you can safely soak them in vinegar water before washing them.
Seasoning laundry with salt and pepper
What sounds strange was recommended for a while on the Internet and even in some television programs. The pepper is supposed to remove gray haze by rubbing dirt and detergent residues out of the fibers like fine sandpaper – but how much pepper would be necessary for such an effect remains a mystery. Salt, in turn, is supposed to protect the colors of colored laundry. However, salt only helps with fresh red wine stains. The myth that salt can keep colors bright probably comes from the fact that salt is used in the batik process.
Sorting is no longer necessary these days
Sorting laundry is annoying but unavoidable despite modern detergents and so-called “color-catching cloths”. The effectiveness of the latter is also extremely controversial: some users are firmly convinced by the microfiber cloths, but laboratory tests have not been able to prove any significant effect. So, even in the 21st century, the following still applies: full detergent for whites and boiled laundry, color detergent for colored laundry. And the black and white striped top goes into the colored wash – because in case of doubt, it is better that the white stripes turn grey than that the entire white wash becomes dull.
3 tablespoons of detergent are enough
Tons of detergent pollute the environment. Nevertheless, detergent should not be used too sparingly when washing. Because even if the clothes do not have any visible stains, detergent has a second function: it acts as a water softener and prevents the washing machine from calcifying. If you follow the dosage instructions according to the water hardness level, no additional descaler is required. However, if you use little or homemade detergent – made from ivy, for example – you will need additional protection against limescale damage.
Detergent used to be more environmentally friendly
Is everything getting worse? The opposite is true for detergents. In the past, detergents contained significantly more environmentally harmful ingredients and fillers. Nevertheless, washing laundry remains a problem for the environment. It is therefore better to wash at low temperatures and use detergents that are also environmentally friendly and biodegradable. Unfortunately, the label “organic” is not enough, as this usually only refers to the origin of the raw materials. NABU recommends the “Blue Angel” seal or the “EU Ecolabel”.
Sanitizer helps against germs
Of course sanitizer helps against germs. However, as most germs are already eliminated at 40 °C with a heavy-duty detergent, this is still a laundry fairy tale. In the case of fungal diseases or dangerous infections, you should wash at 60 °C. Hygiene rinsers are only used if the child with norovirus has spat on the silk scarf. You can find out more hygiene myths here.
Towels stay fluffy with fabric softener
Over time, towels become hard and scratchy after washing. This is called “dry stiffness”. There are two reasons for this phenomenon: Firstly, limescale builds up in the fibers, and secondly, the fibers are flattened by the washing drum and become matted. Fabric softener helps to prevent matting by forming a protective film around the fibers. However, this protective film is also the problem: it reduces the absorbency of the towel. As there are several reasons not to use fabric softener anyway, the following applies even more to fluffy towels: either put them in the dryer or shake them out vigorously after washing and occasionally rinse them with vinegar water.
Sources: bewusst-haushalten, berliner-zeitung
