The Mumsnet Laundry Rules - £300 voucher to be won NOW CLOSED

[JustineBMumsnet]

Fairy Non Bio is sponsoring the Mumsnet Talk app, so we’d like you to talk about your top laundry tips for families.

Do you have tips for removing the plethora of stains your DC somehow produce? Maybe you’re skilled in mixing wash loads with zero colour transfer? Or perhaps you’ve got a cast-iron system for laundry that keeps the job from overwhelming you (and your machine).

Whatever they are, share your laundry tips for families below. Everyone who posts on the thread will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 Love2Shop voucher.

If you're an avid Mumsnet talk boards user, you should download the app for yourself. It's free, and allows you to be part of the conversation wherever you are!

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

The very first rule of Mumsnet Laundry is

"Thou shalt not let thine washing be darked on."

I'd love to recommend Fairy, as I've used it since 2003 because of allergies..... however the 'new scent' is a massive allergen and I'm back to square one. So my initial advice is to avoid.

However in practical terms: marry a military man who can't stand washing piling up. I haven't done any in 3 years! 😂😂

Napisan in white washes and with DHs work shirts -works marvels on stains and stopping crusty armpits

I chuck it all in and hope for the best. I have a baby who is weaning so have to wash clothes everyday. I'm past caring about separating them now

I keep my washing on the line until it is dry, however many times it rains. Too lazy to keep bringing it in and out. We live in a low pollution area though.

I've recently discovered how good washing up liquid is on grease marks. You just rub it in neat as soon as possible after dropping food all over your clothes and wash as normal.

I always do whites separately, which seems to keep them nice.
Stains I soak in washing up liquid before washing as normal, which usually works, and if not meh - am not too fussy!
How to get clothes dry in summer when it's raining- that's what I need tips on!

Best tip I ever had (especially useful for extremely pooey newborn and my incompetency at putting nappies on in the beginning!) was sunlight bleaches baby poo stains out of clothing. Wash as normal and hand out to dry in sunlight, and they disappear never to return! I loved it as am totally PFB with my dd and didn't want to put stain remover in her wash, but also didn't want to have to chuck out her lovely first clothes. And best of all it's free!

SUNSHINE! I can't believe how effective it is on poo stains. I can throw as many stain remedies as possible at them and still hang them up with a brown hue. After a day in the sun they disappear. Amazing.

• De-Solv-It for the really bad ones (eg bike grease, nail varnish. Same child.)
• Buy the coolmax-type polyester karate gis as the dirt doesn't get ground in the way it does on cotton ones.
• Long sleeved bibs
• Nothing gets whiteboard marker out of school polo shirts - save your efforts.

Washing up liquid also good on grass stains- rub it in to the stain, leave for a bit, wash as usual.

Sunshine great for any stained whites.

That separate white wash is worth it, but I read a tip to give up on school polo shirts and dye them fun colours to use over the summer. If it's a washing machine dye, run an empty load through after 😱

White vinegar instead of fabric softener - dead cheap, stops gunk building up in the drawer and the drain, helps keep whites white, and towels smell fresh.

Started using it on nappies due to allergies, and never looked back.

Also seems to break down deodorant marks.

You really do need to treat the front and back of stains. I always pre-treat with a spray on stain remover and add a scoopfull of an oxi-action remover in with the powder. It's rare that I don't get a stain out.

I put a capful of Zoflora in with the fabric conditioner with the kids' gym clothes and sports kits. There's never any sweaty smells left on them.

Everything gets separated and nothing gets darked on.

I chuck everything in together. I do at least 1 load a day so never have a build up. I hang it outside as much as possible - sunshine helps remove any stains left.

I do a wildly complex system of at least 7 different loads. I'm not sure I would recommend it for everyone but it works for me.

I mostly hang stuff on the line, but when it comes to tumble drying it's really important to separate out cotton from synthetics into homogenous weight loads, it enables the sensors to work properly and you waste less energy.

@MrsBadger..... For whiteboard pen marks try alcohol, it's worked on my DS school jumpers.

I used alcohol wipes from work.

Seconding washing up liquid and napisan for stains.

Pegs.....either must go red, yellow, red, yellow on one line and green blue green blue on the other......

I avoid stains on white/light clothes by not buying any...a lot of my wardrobe is black so we usually have a black/dark wash, then a coloured wash. We wash towels separately (on a high temp, no conditioner) and bedding (high temp with condiitioner). We hang everything out on an indoor airer rather than tumble drying as it's more environmentally sound and helps clothes last longer. I shake out the clothes and hang very carefully, for most items it means we get away with no ironing.

My top tip is bulk buy socks -all the same colour and style. Bazinga - they all match, and therefore there is no matching up to be done.

And wash each person's in a laundry bag so there is no matching up of sizes.

I put it all in together, and the rule is anyone who needs something washed differently does it themselves.

Everything in together, a wash goes on first thing in the morning so it's on the line before needing to leave for the day on any day not forecast rain!

I use the fairy bar soap on stains before putting in the machine, works a treat x

Have two laundry baskets - for whites and coloureds.

Teach the children to sort and put laundry in the baskets from an early age.

We put a wash on every day in the evening, do it's ready to go out the next morning. This appears to be a contentious point on MN, but it works for us.

I have a machine with an extra large drum so only do a couple of washes a week. I nearly always let my washing get darked on and I leave whites out for as long as possible to bleach out any stains or greying.

I've abdicated all laundry responsibility to DH (after a particularly messy situation with a red dress and whites)

He reads and abides by the labels and I have to say our clothes are lasting longer and looking better