Laundry Hints & Tips

Blossom and Browne are the experts at laundering your clothes but if you do insist on a little DIY, here are our top laundry hints and tips!

Please note all advice is taken at your own risk, never ignore the manufacturer's cleaning recommendations and take all safety precautions where necessary.

Deodorant Stains on the Underarms of Washable Shirts

Sponge on white vinegar (or soak stain in it); wait 30 minutes. Launder shirts in the hottest water safe for the fabric. Using an biological detergent. To prevent: Let deodorant dry before dressing. And don't let stains sit! Apply prewash spray or liquid detergent ASAP, then launder. Every third or fourth washing, use the hottest water safe for the shirts.

Soiled Shirt Collars

Brush a small amount of hair shampoo onto soiled shirt collars before laundering. Shampoo is made to dissolve body oils.

Save Energy On Tumbledrying

Include a few tennis balls or proprietary tumbledryer balls in each dryer cycle. The balls cut drying time by 25% - 50% and give extra softness to the clothes/towels.

Save On Handwashing

Launder bras, slips and other delicates inside laundry nets or pillowcases.

Remove Bubblegum

Place the garment in the freezer and once hard it should peel off cleanly.

Have a Clean Washing Machine

Three or four times per year, treat your washing machine to a good clean. Add a litre of white vinegar to a tubful of warm water and run the machine through a full cycle, without a load of clothes.

Shrunken Knitwear

Try to reshape a wet sweater to its original size. Add 2-3 tablespoonfuls of hair conditioner to a bucket of room temperature water. Put the sweater in the bucket to soak for about 5 minutes. Lay the sweater on a clean dry towel and slowly and gently try to stretch the fibers and reshape the garment before allowing it to dry on the towel.

Dingy Whites

For gray and dingy whites try the triple soak. Soak the whites first in a solution of a bucketful of water and 2 tablespoons of liquid dish soap. Next rinse out the whites and soak in a solution of 2 tablespoons of ammonia and a bucketful of water. Next, rinse out the whites, and soak in a bucket of warm water and 2 tablespoons of vinegar. Rinse thoroughly and dry. This soaking method will leave your whites bright and clean.

Burnt Stuff on the Iron

Wearing a pair of heat proof gloves, rub the iron with aluminum foil to remove burnt on starch, etc.

Colour Run

Proprietary colour remover are now commonly available at supermarkets. Colour Removers can be effective at removing transfered dye on some colored or patterned backgrounds, although please note that you run the risk of having the original color or pattern of the garment damaged.

Mildew Smells or Stains

Did you forget about the clothes in the washer and now they have a sour smell? If the clothes smell, but aren’t stained by pinpoint sized dots of mildew, you may simply be able to rewash them with a helping of bleach for whites, or colour-safe bleach for colors. If you indeed have mildew stains, washing with chlorine bleach will remove the stains from white clothing. For colored clothing use a mixture of color-safe oxygen bleach (1 teaspoon) , and hydrogen peroxide (1 cup) to sponge the stained areas before rinsing thoroughly and rewashing. Clothes may also benefit from soaking in a borax solution.

Washed Tissues

Remove the biggest clumps of shredded tissue and put the clothing in the tumbledryer. The smaller clumps will get caught in the lint filter where you can remove them after the drying cycle. The more clumps you can remove before the clothing goes into the dryer, the better. Once the clothing is dry, shake out the garments to remove any loose pieces.