The Laundry Sorting Hack That Will Prolong The Life Of Your Detergent

Many homeowners desire to get the most bang for their buck, and that extends to their laundry supplies. No one likes using more laundry detergent than they need to, not only because it can lower the life expectancy of their washing machine but also because it means they have to buy more product sooner. Further, as anyone who has perused the laundry detergent aisle knows, that stuff is expensive. Luckily, there is an easy way to cut back on laundry detergent without cutting any corners. No, you don't have to dilute the soap with water or opt to wear your clothes longer. Instead, you can sort your laundry according to soil level. 

There are all sorts of different ways you can sort your clothes before washing them, giving you tons of options when it comes to choosing what works best for your situation. Some people like separating their lights and darks, while others focus on splitting up items according to fabric. But if energy efficiency and saving detergent is your goal, then your best bet is to separate according to the soil level, or how dirty the items are. Here's why. 

This hack works to save your detergent because it allows you to use different amounts of soap depending on how dirty the items are. For example, if you're washing delicate silk shirts that you barely wore, you only need to add a small amount of soap into the machine so as not to oversaturate the fabrics. However, if you have dirty towels you haven't washed in two weeks or a mountain of gym clothes that smell to high heavens, then you can be much more liberal with your detergent use. This is for good reason, as the dirtier clothes need more soap to help lift dirt, body oils, and smells from the fibers. 

Typically, you should use about 1 ounce of detergent for an average-soiled load in a typical washing machine. That means you should increase the amount of laundry detergent you use for dirtier batches and decrease it for items that haven't been worn as much. By following this laundry separating technique, you will save more soap. Think of it this way: If you combined barely-worn clothes with dirty bed sheets in two loads, you would overcompensate for the bed sheets by adding more detergent in both loads. On the other hand, if you washed them separately, you would use less on the first load and slightly more on the second, saving you some product. This helps optimize each load and stretches out the time between needing to buy more detergent.