I don’t consider myself to be a domestic goddess by any means. But there is one thing I am definitely good at – getting clothes clean and making them last forever.

I have some slight OCD tendencies towards laundry. I do my laundry a certain way, and anybody else who messes with it does so at their own risk. When my husband and I got married I told him “I have one rule, and one rule only – do not EVER touch my laundry.” I have since taken over the majority of the laundry, and my husband has gotten pretty darn good at following my crazy little system when he helps out.

As narcissistic as my laundry habits may seem, they work. Our clothes last forever, the colors don’t fade, elastic doesn’t wear out, and things hold their shape. I’ve been told I need to share some of my secrets, so here ya go:

1. A great detergent. My favorite is Amway’s SA-8 line. It’s phosphate free, compatible with today’s high-efficiency machines, dissolves completely even in cold water, and doesn’t leave a strong scent on clothes (because to me, the only thing worse than dirty smelling clothes is a too-strong detergent smell). Oh, and it gets things sparkling clean. Even the baby’s cloth diapers are still white. I’ve used it for years.
2. A great stain remover. Again, I love the SA-8 one. I’ve never used anything better.
3. I wash everything – except cloth diapers, towels, and sheets – on cold. It keeps colors from fading.
4. Anything that goes in the dryer – except cloth diapers and towels – gets dried on delicate. It still gets dry, and the lower setting is easier on fabrics so things take longer to wear out.
5. A lot of our stuff gets line-dried. One of my wish-list items for a future home is a huge laundry room with tons of racks for hanging clothes to dry. See, my husband and I are tall people. Husband is 6’6” tall! And I’m no shrinking violet myself at 5’9” (although Husband swears I’m 5’10”). If our clothes shrink in the wash, it’s game over. There’s no coming back from that. So it’s important that we avoid shrinkage at all costs. Especially for Husband’s nice shirts he wears to work, and for both our pants. Pants get hung on a rack in the basement to dry, and we keep a healthy supply of hangers in the laundry room to hang up shirts and other items. I even line-dry some of the baby’s clothes, those particularly cute items I don’t want him to grow out of right away. And jeans always – ALWAYS – get line-dried.
6. Speaking of jeans, if you turn your jeans inside-out to wash them, they won’t fade as quickly. Interesting, eh? So all our jeans get washed inside-out and line dried. It works. I’m tellin’ ya. This method also works well for clothes with embroidery, beading, and screen-printing on them.

So there you have it – my crazy little laundry world! It sounds like a lot of work, but it really isn’t that bad. A little extra effort is worth it to me if it saves us money by making our clothes last.