Tips to Save Money on Laundry and Clothing Care Costs

The cost of caring for your clothing can get expensive over a period of time. But the cost of doing the laundry doesn't have to eat a hole in your budget. Laundry is a fact of life. Whether you do it at home or at a local laundrymat, the fact still remains that the cost of just washing and drying clothes adds up. There are ways to save money on the cost of caring for your clothing.

Wash a full load of clothes. Washing half a load uses the same amount of electricity as washing a full load, and the same amount of money if you are washing at a laundrymat. The only time you would want to wash less than a full load is if you have bought new clothing that needs to be washed alone the first couple of washes in order to prevent bleeding into the other clothes.

If you have a large family, it's ideal to have the super size washer and dryer. A super size tub will hold double the amount of clothes as a regular washing machine will hold. The one super size load uses the same amount of electricity as the regular size washer tub, but holds twice the load. The same goes with a super size dryer tub. If you must use a dryer, it's best for a large family to have one that will accommodate the needs of a large family.

If clothes are not really soiled dirty and are just being washed because they have been worn, then washing in cold water will save using the hot water heater. Clothes that are heavily soiled and dirty can be washed in warm water, and whites in hot water. Clothes that aren't that soiled or dirty in cold water will get just as clean using only cold water. Set the timer to wash for less time for clothing that isn't heavily soiled and longer for the really dirty jobs.

To really save on the power bill, avoid using the dryer all of the time. There are several ways to dry clothes to save money. One idea is to dry clothes until they are about halfway dry and then hang them on clothes hangers to finish drying or an expensive clothes drying rack. Clothes lines in the backyard give the clothes a fresh smell and they dry very quick in the summer. Another idea is to dry only items such as towels and hang other things up to dry.

Remove clothes immediately from the dryer when they are finished so they they are still warm and unwrinkled. If you leave the clothes in the dryer and they cool down, they will wrinkle. You will either have wrinkled clothes or have to rerun the dryer to reheat them, running up the light bill in doing so.

Using these simple tips will help you to save money on the cost of caring for your clothing. The money you save on laundry costs will make your budget happy.