Tide might be the detergent of choice for criminals, but our stain-fighting cousins over at Consumer Reports tell us that in terms of actual quality, there’s a new champion in town. Products from Wisk and Kirkland (Costco’s house brand) took the top spots in their most recent detergent rankings. [More]
laundry
Some Non-Wacky Tips That Make Doing Laundry Faster And Easier
By 5.10.13
There are two kinds of household tips that people share on sites like Pinterest: tips that are so simple and useful that you’re amazed that your mother never taught them to you, and tips that are the product of a person with a magazine deadline and a half-baked idea. [More]
If You Could Wear A Shirt 100 Times Without Needing To Wash It, Would You?
By 5.1.13
Staring at a pile of dirty, rumpled, wrinkled and otherwise soiled clothing that needs to be washed is fun for nobody. But what if you had one shirt you didn’t have to worry about wrinkling or stinking for 365 days — would you skip washing it if was made with that functionality as part of its design?
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Here’s What Should Happen When Your Family’s Washer Is Out Of Commission
By 1.30.13
Last week, we published a story from a reader whose Kenmore washer might be repaired someday…maybe, leaving him to buy a cheap temporary replacement in the meantime. Reader Brian noticed the story because he had a similar experience when his local Home Depot sent installers too honest to leave him with a dented dryer. When he complained to the store manager that this left him without an important household appliance, the manager immediately brought over a loaner dryer that Brian’s family got to use for their dryer-less three weeks. [More]
I Don’t Want Money, I Want My Stupid Washer Fixed
By 12.10.12
Sears keeps throwing money at David. You wouldn’t think that would be a problem, but it is. He failed to follow the instructions that no one ever gave to him, and so Sears canceled his repair appointment. They tried to comfort him by offering $25 for the inconvenience of having to leave his house to do laundry, and rescheduled the appointment. Another Saturday, another robocall, and David was bumped from the schedule. Again. They offered him a $25 gift card and a spot on the repair schedule for a day that he won’t be home. [More]
Study: If You’ve Got Asthma, Drying Laundry Inside Your Home Might Be Unhealthy
By 11.2.12
If you’ve got asthma, hay fever or other allergies, you already know what less-than-ideal air conditions can do to those problems. But you might not know that you could possibly be exacerbating the issue just by doing your everyday chores. A new study says that drying your laundry inside the home can pose a health risk to people who are prone to have such conditions. [More]
Make Your Own Dishwashing Detergent At Home
By 4.21.11
The same ingredients you can use to make your own laundry detergent at home can be used to make your own dishwashing detergent, also at home. [More]
Make Your Own Laundry Detergent At Home
By 4.18.11
In just 30 minutes, you can have a five-gallon bucket of homemade laundry detergent that costs 50 cents less per load than store bought, says dollarstoremom. All you need is washing soda, grated bar soap, borax, boiling water, and large bucket. Get the recipe and ideas for adding scents and so forth on the blog. And yep, this mixture will even work on HE washers, according to the commenters. [More]
Some Fancy New Laundry Products Are Utterly Pointless
By 8.19.10
Our colleagues at Consumer Reports test all sorts of products to determine which are worth buying, and which aren’t. This month, they rounded up some laundry products currently on the market that aren’t worth picking up in the store: including a detergent blessed by Martha Stewart herself that wasn’t any more effective than plain water. [More]
10 Tips For Extending The Life Of Your Washer & Dryer
By 6.15.10
Buying a washing machine or a dryer is a huge annoyance and expenditure; something you want to do as few times in your life as possible. That’s why the folks at FreeShipping.org have come up with a list of 10 things you can do to help keep your washer washing and dryer drying for years to come. [More]
Hollister Provides Refund, Will Show Employees What Washed Shorts Look Like
By 6.9.10
Roger, whose Hollister shorts shrank a full size after he had the audacity to wash them, sent us an update. He writes that his situation has a happy ending: the company refunded his entire purchase, not just the shorts, and claim that they’ll be taking the opportunity to make sure to train their employees to see what a pair of washed shorts looks like. See the effect a good complaint can have…once you finally get through to someone with power? [More]
Science Shows That Martha Stewart's Laundry Is Probably Stained
By 6.8.10
Those lovable nerds over at Consumer Reports decided to test laundry detergents — and what they found when they tested Martha Stewart’s detergent… well, it ain’t pretty. [More]
Kmart Wants Your Dirty Laundry
By 5.19.10
If you live in Iowa City, Iowa, you’ll soon be able to do your laundry at Kmart. I don’t get it either, but that’s what the retailer has announced. It will be testing a laundromat addition to one of its Kmart stores in the city, and has named it Kwash. I’m assuming you’re supposed to pronounce it K-Wash, but for the first five minutes I kept reading “quash” and wondering how in the hell that was supposed to make me think of clean clothes and cheap goods. [More]
Twitter Complaint Makes Maytag Step Up, Fix Problem Washer
By 4.14.10
Matt tells Consumerist that he was disappointed in his Maytag washing machine, which had required two service visits in as many years. Maytag’s social media team, monitoring the Internets for unhappy customers, saw his frustrated tweet about the washing machine, and reached out to him to set things right. [More]
VIDEO: How To Fold Your T-Shirt In A Flash
By 3.4.10
We haven’t yet mastered the technique shown in this video, but once we do, we figure this will save us a few hours of time at the laundromat over the course of a year. [More]
Maytag Has Given Me 3 Weeks Of Dirty Clothing
By 12.21.09
Nick bought a Maytag washer, but it’s the ever-broken, un-repaired appliance that’s come to own him. He says he’s gone back and forth with the company and has been promised replacement parts and cash back to defray the cost of doing laundry, but has instead been put through the spin cycle. [More]
Laundromats Enter Underfilled Recession Cycle
By 11.7.09
Are you doing laundry this weekend? Are you running fewer loads than you used to, going longer between washes, or even using a friend or relative’s equipment in order to avoid unloading a pocketful of quarters at the laundromat? If so, you’re not alone. Laundromats, once thought to be a recession-proof business, are surprisingly vulnerable to economic downturns.
When Doing Laundry, Be Careful Not To Overdose
By 6.10.09
Our less-prone-to-hysterics sister publication Consumer Reports says some laundry detergent caps lead to overdosing when it comes to adding detergent to the wash. Why is this a problem? Aside from wasting money, leaving soap film on clothes, and increasing lint levels, it can actually damage high-efficiency washing machines.
