November 12, 2025 • 41 mins
By popular demand, we answered all of your laundry questions: Do you really need to separate lights from darks? How much detergent should you use? Are front-loading machines better than top-loading? What do dry cleaners actually do? And much, much more.
Our guest this week is Patric Richardson, author of Laundry Love: Finding Joy in a Common Chore.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Him, Manny, and this is no such thing. The show
where we set all our dumb arguments and yours by
actually doing the research. This week we're doing a mail
bag episode answering all your questions about laundry.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
If you go commando in your jeans, you can't wear
them as long.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
I No, there's no no such thing, no such Thank touch, thank.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Touch, thank.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Touch.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Thank This episode was inspired by a Spotify comment on
our episode about Kanye from Daniel m asking for us
to do an episode on how to use the washing
machine without destroying our clothes. We decided to broaden that
out to all of our questions about laundry. So we
put a call out and we got plenty of questions,
(00:50):
and luckily we have answers to I think all of them.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
So we're talking separating lights from darks. We're talking types
of detergent to use. We're talking todd dryer balls, water temperature,
yeah yeah, things of that nature. So I called a
Patrick Richardson, aka the laundry Guy.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
My name is Patrick Richardson and people call me the
laundry Guy. Welcome to laundry camp. My laundry camps are
the hottest ticket in town.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
He wrote a book called Laundry Love, Finding Joy in
a Common Chorea. Seems like a good guy to talk to.
So I tried to go in kind of chronological order
of washing things. So I started with prep and sorting. Okay,
so this is a big one I had, was do
you have to separate lights from darks?
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Before we get to the answer, yeah, cool, what do
we currently do?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
My wife does and I don't, and at any time
I don't. I don't notice that anything bad happens to
the clothes. I'm sure there's some you know, maybe it's
it's rare, so it's worth not mixing them, But yeah,
I don't. I've never noticed any kind of weirdness happening
if when I do miss yeah, I never did it.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
And the only time I would really think about it
was if I got like a new if I had
like a new pack of white teas and like a
really new red T shirt or so like things like
that where it's like, okay, this is not going to
go well with fresh items. But all most of my
stuff it's like, you know, first of all, I'm not
too concerned if all right, the white loses a little freshness.
(02:19):
I don't wear like slain white teas out that much anyway,
So I think that that's probably been the fact I
don't care if anything fades that much.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
We're not franchise.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
In my white in my white.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
So yeah, I never sorted, and I still don't.
Speaker 5 (02:38):
I used to sort, but I also used to wash
my laundry at different temperatures. I've given up on that.
I'll do everything cold now, so I don't really sort
unless there'd be times where I'm washing my sheets that
are white and I'll put some oxie clean in it.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
So I'll just do all the whites together.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Riveting stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Hey, there's a lot, there's gonna be a lot more
of this. So do you have to separate lights from
darks or when should you?
Speaker 2 (03:09):
You absolutely should separate your clothes. You should do it
for a couple of reasons. I mean, obviously there's the
color bleed thing. We actually have tools that will help
with that. You can buy these great little sheets at
the grocery store that you throw in that help with
color bleed. But what it doesn't help with is, believe
it or not, darker dyes are heavier than lighter dyes,
(03:30):
So like dark T shirts weigh more than light T
shirts and if you don't separate them, it's beating up
your clothes. I mean, it's kind of like throwing your
clothes in the creek and beating them with the rock.
You know, it's very very aggressive. Your white shirts, if
they go in with your navy blue shirts, it's really
really hard on them. So beyond the color bleed, there's
(03:52):
the weight, and you know that's something we should deal with.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
So the concern is less the color bleed, which is
what I Will always thought it was, and more the
integrity of the yeah, fabrics, the weights.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
White T shirt becomes less soft over time because you're
in there with dark.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
I did not even think about it, but think about
your white shirts in your dark.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
He's right, they're light, they are lighter. Yeah. Wow.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
And when he when he I asked the clarifying question
because I didn't quite get what he meant by the
heavier dies, I thought, just like, yeah, okay, the die
when you're dying the clothes, it's heavier. I was like,
what do they have to do with I think, okay,
well that's done now, I'm I'm not doing It's not
an easter.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
You have a white.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
But then he basically said it again, and I was like, oh,
I see, yeah, sure it's actually which is definitely true
to my loved experience of holding black T shirts.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Ones is certainly important when you're thinking of sheets, so like,
I'll just throw white sheets in with my regular clothes.
The sheets are the thing in your house you probably
want to be the softest.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Someone asked about should we separate clothes based on materials?
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Who's doing that? Yeah? Separating based on materials? What was that?
I mean, like, oh, these are all my linen shirts.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
I think I think that's they didn't go into cotton. Yeah,
I think they mean just yeah, basically, like.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
I guess I would have to do like one hundred
different washes.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
So much of this is just like even if I
had my own washer dryer. Yeah, there's only so much
time in my life.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
The only way just makes sense to me is like
we're talking about Okay, I'm suburating my bedding. Yeah, so
that's more. That's more. How I think about it is
like material would be well some types of things, because
like jeans.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I don't really think that's as necessary as separating by color.
The one exception is performance, where like yoga pants, running pants,
biking shorts, that sort of thing. I think you should
separate those out. And it's not because of the color
or the fabric. It's because those fabrics have a characteristic.
They're always polyesterone, they almost always contain lycra and they
(05:54):
have this characteristic that when you wash them and then
you put them on ten minutes later, they smell terrible.
And that is because they're hydrophobic. They hate water, and
they're oleophilic. They love oil, so they love all the
oil from your skin and all the bacteria that's crapped
in that oil. So you should kind of separate them
(06:15):
out so that you can use like an oxygen bleach
or a color safe bleach to break that down. And
color safe bleach is not safe for wool or silk,
so people say, well, I don't have wool or silk,
but then they forget that they have smart wool socks
or they have wool shirts that they wear when they run.
It's not safe. So I think you should separate out
(06:35):
that active wear, knowing that you're going to add color
safe bleach every load.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
I didn't know hydrophobia existed in this world. Still, Yeah,
people need to you know, rock in the mirror.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Yeah, it's a big getting ridiculously enough is enough, one
of you guys? Tell me what the what the takeaway
from that is basically, the the hydrophobic clothes, it's harder
to break down.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Yeah, it's not. It doesn't.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
It repels water to some degree, so you got to
add this color to.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Really get in there. It's not really cleaning it because
because it's pushing stuff away, and that's the point obviously
when you're un Then I asked about separating towels. A
lot of people ask about.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Tow Yeah, a lot of people. Did y'all do that
growing up?
Speaker 1 (07:26):
No, I've never even heard of this.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
No.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
I also just asked like generally, like it seems like
people have a I don't know if this is a
towel thing, but people seem to have a hygienic concern.
So like the towels are extra dirty, so I don't
want them with my clothes.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
That I oh, yeah, that's when I was growing up,
we separated socks.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Yeah, crazy, So this doesn't This doesn't make sense to
me because it just seems just the socks.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
You just socks, it socks, and like just washing rags
like all the I don't know. I think it was
actually less about hygiene, Like I remember my my mom
basically feeling like the socks affected the smell of the
other clothes when they came out, because we were dirty
(08:08):
ass little kids, like we'd run outside with our socks on,
like dirty muddy coming back in the house, and shouldn't
She just wanted not to affect.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Ultimately, I think today I'm not running around with my
socks outside in the streets of because but.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
When you go home, is your mom still washing just
the socks by himself? Do you know how you noticed
they're gone?
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I think it's I haven't noticed, which means she probably doesn't.
It was because of the kids.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Yeah, yeah, So I basically asked, is that a thing
to be worried about, like dirt transfer from another while
they're being washed with presumably soap, And yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
That used to be a much bigger thing. Okay, if
we were having this, I mean, we wouldn't have had
a podcast in the nineteen seventies, right, we'd be doing
the Paul Harvey Radio Hour. But in the seventies or
the eighties that would have mattered. Technology has gotten so
good with detergent and with washing machines, I don't worry
about it. I mean, I've throw my towels in with
(09:04):
my shirts. I mean I'm wearing a shirt right now
that I washed with my sheets. You know, I don't.
I don't think that's as important now as it used
to be because of technology. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
So basically you're saying just the detergents and other things
have gotten better at actually getting rid of the germs.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Yeah. I mean our detergents and are both detergents and
washing machines have gotten so good and so efficient that
our clothes are much cleaner than they used to be.
You know. So because of that, I just don't really
worry about the towels being sanitary anymore because I know
everything's going to come out, you know, relatively sanitary now.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
So that does help explain though, why people of the
past would have more been more concerned with that. So
I was like, okay, people aren't just like macared dermophobes. Yeah,
like you know, it's like, okay, there was more of
a issue.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
And it seems like is passed down just like you
behave your habits.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Yeah, good phrasey, just give why do the machines tend
to have, you know, like symbols and not words, do
you know, I mean it makes them more universal. Yeah,
you know, as we become more multicultural, they still work.
I mean, clothing labels did the same thing. It used
to say machine wash cold, machine wash warm, and now
(10:25):
you just see a little symbol. I actually like the
little symbols. I think that in a lot of ways,
they're simpler. Washing machines used to say colors, whites, bedding, whatever,
and those settings didn't really work, you know, because if
you're going to wash the bedding with the colors, what
do you do?
Speaker 2 (10:43):
You know, which one do you choose? So I kind
of like the little symbols. But the truth of the
matter is I live and die by the express wash.
I think the express wash is the answer to all
of life's problems. So if I could design my own
washing machine, it would literally only have one cycle.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
There is a question about using a front loading machine
versus top loading, which apparently is a big discussion.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
I've never seen this online.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
This is an extremely not in New York. This is
like the rest of the.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Country is.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Front loader is going to be better than top loader
because of the way that they were. Okay, top loader
has gotten better. If you had asked this question in
nineteen ninety, there was no question. Washing machine engineers spend
a lot of time making washing machines better and better
and better. But broadloading is always going to be better
(11:37):
than top loading.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Just because of the action of it.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yes, just because of the way it works. Because what
really gets your clothes clean is the water forcing through
the clothes. So the thing about a front loader, and
you have to visualize this because it's podcast the clothes
come up out of the water and fall back in
the water. They come up out of the water and
fall back in the water. When they fall in the water,
that's the water forcing through them. You can achieve the
(12:01):
force with a top loader, but it's never going to
be as dramatic, right, Okay, that makes sense, you know,
because the clothes don't really come completely out of the water. Okay, So, yes,
a front loader is still gonna be better, but the
difference isn't quite as dramatic, So.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Don't worry about it.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Yeah, front leader more rigorous clean, But basically this doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Yeah, I asked about how how do you clean a
washing machine in a dryer?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Oh, a lot of conversation. We actually have to clean them.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Cleaning a washing machine is super easy. You dump in
a pound of borax and a gallon of vinegar and
you run it. The vinegar breaks down the like detergent
residue and that sort of thing, because vinegar will write
down detergent, and then the borax almost acts like your
scrubber because borax is granular and it basically is running
around the drum sort of breaking everything loose. To clean
(12:56):
a dryer, the best way to do it is to
saturate a towel like a saturate a bath towel with
vinegar and throw it in the dryer and then turn
it on and let it run. It creates vinegar steam,
but as the towel tumbles, it actually wipes it down.
And then when it's done in both the washer and
the dryer, just grab a towel and just a spray
bottle of vinegar and water and just wipe everything down
(13:17):
one more time.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Now, this is probably one of the biggest toughest questions
I've had to ask. Oh, breaking down hot water cold water? Yeah,
what do you guys do?
Speaker 3 (13:28):
I just do everything cold because I've had shrinkage, And
I don't know, I've never thought deeply about it shrink
not that kind of shrinkage. And I've never you know,
I just I'm afraid of, like any clothes shrinking.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
And you've always done this.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Yeah, but I don't know if it's in the if
it shrinks in the water, or if it shrinks in
the dryer.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
I think both. I used to.
Speaker 5 (13:53):
I feel like everybody growing up you wash based on
the colors. You know, you're white, you would wash hot
hollered in your colored clothes. And I feel like, I
don't know if it's a marketing thing, but they kept saying, like,
you know, you can just use cold water, and like
eventually it worked.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Laundry.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
Yeah, it's different.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Patrick, this is a kind of a shocking answer. Just
gonna prep you after the break. Can you break down
(14:36):
when we should be using hot water versus cold water.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
I never used hot water or cold water. I only
use warm. There Again, in the seventies, you needed hot
water because you're denurgent in your your machine wasn't working
as well, so you needed that hot water to sanitize
your your towels and sheets. Now you don't really need it.
Cold water there's this whole thing about cold water wash.
(15:00):
What the industry doesn't tell you is they consider cold
water sixty five degrees. Unless you live in San Antonio, Texas.
Your cold water is not sixty five degrees. It's colder
than that. You're not actually activating the detergent like you should.
So warm water is warm enough to activate the detergent.
But the reality is warm water isn't as warm as
(15:21):
your bath got it. So, like, if you're somebody who
takes a bath that's usually one hundred or one hundred
and five degrees, warm water is going to be somewhere
between seventy and ninety. To put your hand in it,
it's going to feel tepid. Yeah, so warm water is
not that warm. I use warm water for everything, including
I mean, I'm wearing a cashmere cardigan right now, and
(15:43):
I watch it in the washing machine with warm water.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
And then yeah, because my question was, like, when people
are worried about things shrinking or other bad things happening,
is that from more the washing side or the drying
side the dryer. I think, yeah, that.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Can happen with either. If you use the express cycle,
you don't really have that that's you got another reason
that I love head. Okay, I'm a two hours cycle.
It's really the manipulation that causes shrinking. So two hours
in the washing machine is always going to cause a
little bit of shrink. Tumbling in the dryer also can
cause shrink. Really, the best thing to do is usually
(16:18):
express cycle and hang it out. If you're worried.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
That man is crazy Cashmere, I mean he's the laundry
guy who are better than his expert.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
Yeah, I don't want to test it. What do y'all
do it first?
Speaker 1 (16:34):
I mean when he was explaining the temperatures, I was like, oh, yeah,
like we're thinking about it in human temperatures. Yeah, but
this is just water nature temperatures. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
And I didn't know that the water needs to be
a certain temperature to act.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Yeah, the determine that makes sense to me.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
I did hear that and that, but I thought they
had just.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
If I'm just doing a spot washing, I would be
using warmer water, like yeah, if you're trying to get
out of stain or something, Yeah, I'm using hot water,
like the hottest water possible.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
You know.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
So it makes sense that there's you know, an alchemy
going on there. You're not going to get from purely cool.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
You think about just cleaning your house, right, yeah, I
mean because you're the bathroom, you're probably not I don't know,
if you're washing your tub with freezing water, you're probably
not getting in too clean. You get that little steamy then.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Breaks it up quick, yeah, or just doing your dishes.
I asked about when to hang dry and when to
machine dry, and what should you be careful about.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
I would always take knits out, so sweaters, sweatshirts, pollos,
you know, thrown across the drying rack, or lay them
on a towel on the floor. I mean I take
out my dress shirts and my jeans, not so much
because of the shrink, but because it shortens their life.
There was a study done in the late eighties that
(17:46):
a quality garment would survive fifty trips through the washer
and dryer. If you gave up the dryer, you've got
one hundred and twenty trips through the washer. So you
more than double the life of a garment by not
putting it in the dryer. However, I also know, like
I don't have a clothesline, so I don't even where
to dry my sheets, so they have to go in
the dryer. I'm not going to hang every sock and
(18:09):
every pair of boxers I so I throw those in
the dryer. But things I want to hang on to,
I always hang them to dry or laym flat to dry.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
So obviously hang dry is always gonna be safer, better
for the clothes. So if you really care, do that otherwise. Yeah, yeah,
the European way. I asked a few things about detergent questions. Yes,
this answer is mind blownk. I asked about how much
detergent you actually need, and how to calibrate with load
size and the different washers and all that.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Okay, this is the biggest mistake everyone makes with their laundry,
is too much detergent. The industry and things that you
need a quarter to I have a cup of detergent.
The reality is for a full load. So a full load,
which is in a top loader, it's about seventy eight
percent we'll say eighty because it's easier. In a front loader,
it's about seventy five two percent full. A full load
(19:02):
needs two tablespoons of detergent.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
When the load starts getting smaller, you start cutting it back.
So half a load is one tablespoon, And there's a
really good reason. One of the things the detergent does
is it has this surfactin that floats on the surface
of the water. The dirt comes out of your clothes,
it gets trapped in the surfactin, it becomes heavier than
the water, and it goes down the drain. If you
(19:26):
use too much detergent, what happens is that surfact it
can't rense out, so it settles back into your clothes,
but it brings all the dirt with it. That's why
you end up with dingy towels or laundry that smells musty,
those sorts of things that happens from too much detergent.
And I know that people have this idea that more
detergent equals cleaner clothes. But here's a very realistic example.
(19:51):
You go to wash your hands, You put a squirt
of soap on your hands, you sing Happy Birthday twice,
and you rense for ten seconds. Right, what happens if
you're hands are really dirty, So you pour the entire
bottle of soap on your hands, you sing Happy Birthday twice,
and you rinse for ten seconds. The soap is still
on your hands and they're just sticky and gross and dirty.
(20:14):
That's what happens to your laundry when you're using too
much detergect.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
It makes sense too, because when I do my laundry,
it's like you get the little cup and it I
fill the cup all the way up.
Speaker 4 (20:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
Then you look at it and it's like, oh, that's
fine loads.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Yeah, but I'm like, well, who's who's counting?
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Yeah, I'm like, actually, I like really clean clothes.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
And also, to be frank, I'm loading that machine up
yeah beyond. Yeah, it needs all the help I can
get because the clothes aren't even moving in there. So
this is just you know, so attactrick.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Squeeze into.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Draw like two drops of water.
Speaker 5 (21:05):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yeah, so that blew my mind.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
Do we do we talk about detergent versus.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Typods' that's literally next.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
Okay, I'm gonna save my I'm gonna save my question comment.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Okay, I haven't even thought of this. I use so
much liquid deterrement, but if it's a tide pod, I
just throw one tide pod in there. Yeah, just doesn't
make any sense. What's happening in my brain? Yeah, even
that's probably too much. The one type pod.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
I think so based on his calculation, it sounds like it.
But I'll play his dancing all right. But yeah, that
was shocking to me. But obviously it's you know, because big,
big Deterreentah, It's like they're not going to clarify this.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
Well, it's funny.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
I feel like sometimes they like try to be like,
our detergent is better because it's more concentrated, so you
can use less, but no one actually does it.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
And so it was like, use the cap, but the
markers on how many loads you need to do is
the same color as the cap. Yeah, so I'm like,
all right, I'll fill the ship right up to next step.
We had question about using tide pods versus liquid detergent
versus powder. I asked what Patrick's ranking is, and if
there's much of a difference, okay.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Liquid or powder, I'm gonna call them even. There's enough
detergent in most pods to do five loads of laundry.
So since I told you to use less laundry, you
can imagine that pods aren't gonna be my first pick.
They're easy again.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Yes, they're necessary, yeah, yeah, okay, And it's about the
same for liquid and powder.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Just a matter of yeah, two tables then, like, if
you're going to the laundromat, just put you know, I mean,
I don't want to carry that big box either, so
just put some out into like a ziploc bag or
into a little container and just take the amount you need.
Could you only need two tablespoons per load? So for
five loads, you know you're not even using a cup.
Speaker 5 (22:47):
That's fascinating change my life because I've been a tie
pod guy since college. Wow, it's just like you said,
it's easy. Yeah, of course, you just throw the pods
in the in the bag. And I used to be
a multi I just recently I'm like, why am I
using more than one? I used to put more than one,
(23:07):
and that I used to put two three the same
same pot like a fabric. No, no, no, just like, okay,
this is a big, big load on me, two three
of them.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
And recently I said, if I just put one for.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Everything, try it out.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
Yeah, And I didn't notice it.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
And it sounds like, if anything, your clothes are cleaner now.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
So now I feel like maybe I should graduate to
actually liquid because I'm running low right now on tide
Pole is about to reorder them.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Try Maybe I'll do the link try it out. Maybe
I'll do the liquid and put even less.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
But yeah, that was shocking to me. I mean now
I might try out powder even Yeah, it seems it
does seem easier, especially if I do do what he's
saying or buy a big thing and to just transfer
a little bit into like a toper. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
You know, Tie did a great job branding tide pods then,
because it makes you think you need one for one load.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Yeah, of course.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
And it and it's like so small and concentrated, doesn't
look like that much, but yeah, fascinating.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
And obviously is much more convenient. Yeah, storage and anything else,
so wild good good on them.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
I'm gonna cut them up.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Yeah, they should make smaller ones.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Hey that's a third of a pot over there.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
If they get smaller than people will really start eating
them probably.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
They look like handling stains. Yes, And and also there
is a question about you know, are there things that
(24:43):
you would do that would like seal a stain in
so then it's like there's no touch, like if it's
gone through the dry or something like that. People are
concerned that then like.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
You're not going back. Yeah, I guess if it's like
if I spill Coca cola on me or something, I'll
do like a little tide pen thing. But for ketchup,
I'm like, i'd be.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
More about ketchup. Coke.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Yeah, I don't know, they just always come out. I've
never had a coke much lighter.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Than actually when it's poured on something.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Yeah, trust me, a lot of coke. But in the
in the event of like wanting to wear it, keep
wearing it.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
So what what are you pre treating? Okay, coke?
Speaker 3 (25:20):
I'm not nothing. I'm not pre treating coke. I don't
pretreat anything.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
You're just throwing the hamper.
Speaker 5 (25:27):
If you still oil on yourself or something, you're not
pretreating it like olive oil.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
No, I don't pre treat anything. And I've never had
an issue either. I mean, it always just comes out.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
That's crazy.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Okay, maybe the Turgan's been, you know, doing great things,
and you're over here throwing five toidepods in your line
coming out launch.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
All right, let's let's find out what the experts is
on that same tip tied to go and can you
explain kind of how those work and like when best
to use them or when you should avoid them if
there's maybe certain stains that they're just not gonna help
with or make worse.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
They're just a stain remover, you know, the way you
see them work on TV as somebody colors the stain
and it completely disappears. That doesn't really happen. There are
lots of those little travel stain removers. There's another one
I like better called Amdex. But what you do is
you put them on and they're just like a little
stain remover, like a little spot stain remover, And the
best way to do it is to put it on
(26:29):
and then like take a towel, you know. I do
this in my hotel sometimes, put a towel behind the
stain and then blot through with another wet towel with
a wet washcloth and just basically you're just washing that spot.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Yeah that makes sense. But because it's a pen, I
like put the put the detergent on there and then
just try to scratch it out. Yeah, yeah, just that
nothing doesn't work.
Speaker 5 (26:53):
No, Just sometimes after using O'SE I was like, oh,
I should have just left the stain.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
And then washed it.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
Normally it looks weir around with this wet ass.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
So they don't seem to dry for the rest of
the day.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it's working. Here's a good one.
People asked about if fabric softener is a scam.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
M hmmm. I gave up on fabri softener a long
time ago.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
He did, Yeah, just no results.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
I was just like, why am I already?
Speaker 5 (27:19):
Guy?
Speaker 4 (27:19):
Yeah, you know, I'm already putting ten typods in at
a time.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Yeah, I've only I've thrown it in. Like if I
don't really don't even know what scenarios. If I'm staying
in an airbnb or something in there, it's there. I'm
like like a little treat.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Fabric softener and dryer sheets and sand boosters. The way
they work is they coat the fabric. It's kind of waxy,
and it melts onto the fabric or it's fixed to
the fabric and it leaves this fake texture. One of
the problems with that is often they contain thallatees like
a thalate ester, and thalate esters are indo crend disruptors,
(27:52):
so they do a lot of things. None of them
are you know, are things I want? Yeah, I think
if you used lesser target are naturally soft cotton is
naturally soft. When your cotton feels crunchy or when it's
itchy or sticky, that's because there's too much detergent. Just
get that out and your clothes are soft. They don't
need anything else.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Wow, indicate it.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yeah, don't use it.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
It's funny that it doesn't eat. It doesn't even actually
make your clothes leaves like.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
It's like a very cosmetic effect, basically cover up. Yeah,
so stay safe out there for your health. The next
one was about dryer balls and dryer sheets.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Dryer sheets are no go. Dryer balls I love. Yeah,
those are good like wool dryer ball. I love them,
and they speed up your drying time. It will actually
shorten it. They also keep your clothes moving around the
edge of the dryer, so they're actually a little bit softer.
I think they're great, So use.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
The dryer balls, not the dryer sheets.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
I don't think I have.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Someone who pays for their dry time.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah you notice this. It's good to know, because yeah,
i'd pay for my dry time.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
Too, because the normal when I would just do it
like similar to you, I do big loads. So when
I would do it before, if I did not put
more time on.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
It, yeah, with the dryer balls.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
I'm gonna pick some.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Someone asked how to save T shirt collars in the wash?
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Oh yeah, any any tips.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
A shorter cycle will do it, because that they stretch
out from those really long cycles. Okay, so a shorter cycle.
And the other thing is, if that is something that
happens to you, like it happens to me because I
have a really big head, don't put them in the dryer,
and they tend to They tend to return to their
original shape a little bit better.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
How often should we be washing clothes?
Speaker 2 (29:44):
I try to wash my things as infrequently as possible.
I wear my jeans nine or ten times before I
wash them. Yeah, and you know, I'm a germophobe. I
wear my shirts about three times. If I can, I
usually spill on them. I can't always make it three,
but I try. I wear my shirts about three times.
Things that go immediately next to your skin, like underwear, socks,
(30:07):
you should wash that every time you wear it, you know. Yeah,
things that are your like I'm gonna call it the
first layer. You need to wash more often. If you
wear shirts and you don't wear a T shirt and
you're very sweaty, you're gonna have to wash them more often.
Bacteria does live there. You know, if you go commando
in your jeans, you can't wear them as long.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Yeah. So where do you guys stand on these jeans?
And I really never wash It's like a need to
basis most pants, honestly, but especially jeans.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
Like the only pants I wash some more frequently their sweatpants.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
Longer. Yeah, any athletic where Yeah. Yeah. I like the.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Concept of the first line, yes, which means, as you
guys know, I most like to wear my hoodies with
without any T shirt under it, So you should be.
I got start washing those more often often if.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
You don't really sweat that often.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
Yeah, yeah, it's true, you're not.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
Really sweaty guy. Yeah, I could never do. That's the
reason I would never not wear a shirt under a
hit like.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Because of the sweat.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
Raw just my raw. But I want to wear a
sweat I want.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
To preserve the sweatshirt.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
Yeah, that's true. I'm putting that on raw. It's gonna
have to go and wash. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (31:21):
The jeans, I don't even know how many times I want.
He knows that, he said ten times.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
I don't. It's when God tells me there's not.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
A I don't wash it for jeans.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
And they're going right back in the pile.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Yeah, to be weir yea. My only absolute one use
is underwear and really yeah, and then like yeah, Jim.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
And sometimes like yeah, you know, but yeah, I always
wear new socks if I leave the house.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Yeah, I'll redo, I'll reado a software depending on what's
going on. Someone asked about any tricks to get the
mildew smell out of clothes that you've washed but forgot
to put in the dry or without rewashing them all
over again.
Speaker 4 (31:58):
Let me tell you this. I don't know this.
Speaker 5 (32:01):
This is crazy because when we put out this ask,
the amount of responses that I got of like, I'll
wash my clothes, Oh, I forgot to put him in
the dryer. How do I get the smell out? How
often are people doing this? Like it's happened to me,
I've been that person. But it sounds like this is happening.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
For that long that it would. Yes, yeah, so this is.
Speaker 5 (32:20):
It seems like a big issue for people that they
wash their clothes and then just leave it for a
day or two.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Is another one.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
Couldn't be me because my clothes will be on the
damn ground, but I'll be arrested.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
I just run them through an express cycle with a
cup of vinegar. I wouldn't put more detergent in. Okay,
I'm just throwing a cup of vinegar and run them
back through. Like you could even do just the rents
if you want it, just the rent cycle, but just
a quick cycle. I mean, yes, there are other things
you could do, but honestly, it's not worth it. I mean,
this is the fastest way. Just run them through an
(32:51):
express cycle with some vinegar.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Former guest Walt Hickey Okay, Franchise Movies episode from July
that people sh listen to. He asked about that they
heard that we shouldn't dry clean suits and we should
get them steamed and pressed instead. Is this true?
Speaker 2 (33:09):
I have one hundred percent for that. Okay, suits are
usually wool, They naturally repel dirt. Most of the time
people want to dry clean things. It's just because they
they're wrinkled, and you know you can steam them if
you invest in a steamer, and you can save yourself
so much money.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Can you explain what what drag cleaners actually do?
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Yeah, drag cleaners, it's it's kind of a dry cleaning
is dry because it's not water. It's still a liquid.
There are a few depending on what drag cleaners you
go to, there's a couple of are more common. They
run it through a liquid and it's sort of like
a wash. It's just a liquid that isn't water. Right.
The one thing dry cleaners do that's tough for a
(33:48):
lot of people at home is they have the really
great irons. Okay, you know, they can do the great
job at pressing that you can't really as easily achieve
at home. You know, if you buy a good iron
and you get a spray bottle so that you can
build up some extra water, you know, some mist to
create extra steam, you can do a pretty good job
at home. I mean, I washed my suits in the
(34:09):
washing machine, but I have a great iron, so I
can stand, you know, I can iron them back and
I recommend that. Like if somebody is like, oh, I
wear a suit every day, I'm like, you need to
buy a really good steam generating iron because you will
save money.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
That is fascinating. I'm so a little confused. It's it's
called dry cleaning because it's not water, but it is liquid.
So it's not really dry cleaning.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
It's chemicals. Yeah, but I think they're doing a mixture
of overall clean and I'm sure they do a spot
clean yea. I imagine lots of people are because.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
So will you wash the washer suits?
Speaker 1 (34:50):
And that's scary.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
That's a little scary.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
I think if I think if I was if I
had to wear a suit every day for work, yeah,
like when I get my promotion at A P. Morgan,
then I'll do it.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Yeah, then I would watch it like then, but like I.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Wear a bulk wash them about three times a year, yeah,
liberally yeah, yeah, so for me, I can drag lean
your wedding.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
Was the only time I wore a suit this year?
Speaker 1 (35:15):
I think that was maybe one of two times I ever
won one, and the other time was another one.
Speaker 5 (35:20):
But sometimes see something like that, right, I got wear
exactly and it'll be like, okay, like this is not
really dirty, yeah exactly. I want to the next time
I wear it for it to be like look fresh. Yeah,
which is like he's saying, it's mostly just like an
ironing situation.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
I didn't realize.
Speaker 5 (35:37):
Okay, so I guess between why wears, you know, I'll
just iron it.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Yeah, yeah, especially Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
There's nothing major happening now. We just have a few
more shorter ones. He mentioned he has, you know, a
Culture Club T shirt he bought back in the day
that he really loves. I asked, what's the best way
to maintain a printed graph on a T shirt?
Speaker 2 (36:00):
Oh yeah, lip it inside out. Never use fabric softer
because it will actually cause the print to separate from
the garment. And do not put those in the dryer.
So I mean thing about it. They're set with heat,
so if you put them in with heat, it's going
to set them just like it's set them.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
I asked, just what are the most common mistakes or
misconceptions people have when it comes to washing clothes class
In case you missed anything, Yeah, in this list of
thirty questions.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
It's the idea of too much, too long of a cycle,
too much detergent in both cases less as more or
shorter cycles moless detergent and you're better off.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
And then lastly, he left us off with two tips.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Number one is for things that you put in the
dryer that will get static. I'm thinking I live in Minnesota,
so polar fleece, you know, or fleece is a big
one for me. You can use a ball made of
aluminum foil. Take a one yard piece of aluminum foil,
make a ball the size of a softball, and throw
it in the dryer. You can use it as many
times as you can until it gets the size of
(37:01):
a wallet. But it will remove static better than anything
you've ever used. That's another way you can ditch dryer sheets,
because that's the reason people like them. The other one
that's really funny, and it depends on who you are.
But if let's say you're standing with a group of smokers,
or you go to a restaurant and you leave and
you smell like the restaurant. The shirt's clean, but it
(37:24):
has some sort of odor, or your coat in January
smells kind of stale because it's the middle of winter
and you don't want to clean it. Everything else is clean,
it just the odors off. You can spray it with
really cheap vodka. Vodka will remove the odor from anything,
and when vodka drives the unique characteristic to it, it's
(37:44):
odorless and colorless. So you can spray it on and
then it's dry and it's over. There's no washing, So
if you smell like cigarette smoke, spray it with vodka,
let it hang for twenty minutes and then the odor's gone
and you can put it back in your closet.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
This is something we needed growing up, you know, in
an East African household. Food the food I would get
my ass fried at school every day. It's just like
the garlic and the stews, like it really sticks onto
the clothes. It doesn't matter how much you wash them.
But now and I know, I could just break viegar.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Next time you stumble home, you know, late from the bar,
to tell your wife, you know, cleaning.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Yeah, exactly is that is that.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
My clothes are really clean? What you think? So let's
do some takeaways. What's the the biggest thing you learned
from this?
Speaker 4 (38:51):
All right?
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Is this going to change your habits?
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Now?
Speaker 3 (38:54):
Well, someone who pays someone to come pick up my laundry, what.
Speaker 4 (38:58):
He's doing you're doing?
Speaker 3 (39:00):
You should maybe shoutow them once and be like, I
do want to see what's going on back there?
Speaker 5 (39:04):
Now, I kind of I'm I think I'm gonna separate.
Next week, I'm gonna separate. I'm gonna wash.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
While separating is tough, separating because everything else I'm I'm
good to its separating.
Speaker 5 (39:18):
Issue with separating is then my load sizes are all exactly.
I will separate if it works, or it's.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Like, okay, maybe I have to do a white week
and then a colored week.
Speaker 4 (39:28):
I do do.
Speaker 5 (39:29):
I do do white weeks, brock white weeks with my
sheets because I have pairs of white sheets. Saw wait
two weeks to do all of the white sheets at once,
and then I'll put any other whites with them, socks
and shirts. So I'm washing on warm, warm warm next Monday,
(39:50):
my washday, I'm gonna wash on warm.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
I'm gonna amount of detergent was a huge.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
That's my big yeah, which is great.
Speaker 5 (39:56):
I think I'm gonna ditch the tide pods. I think
I'm gonna do powder to try powder next because I
already said I always already do my baking soda, so
I can just add my detergent to that. I have
my baggage that I use, so I'll do each two
baggage for my two loads. I already do it upstairs.
So I'm gonna do two baggies with my bake and soda,
and then I'm just gonna put in my detergent in
there and a lot less than.
Speaker 4 (40:20):
Yeah, go along with Yeah, I'm gonna have that deterreeent forever.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
I'm gonna have some dryer.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
Balls probably have to last so much longer. I'm gonna
play this episode for the guy who.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Does my laundry.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
Hey, have a you might want to hear some of this. Hey,
before you take this stuff.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
Give me your phone. So I hope we answered all
your questions. If there's anything we missed, please shoot us
an email or a voicemail and we will try to
get an answer for you to the best of our ability.
We'll put a video of what dry cleanings actually do
on our substeck. You can just tell people to google it.
Speaker 4 (40:55):
Yeah, go for a video.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
Actually, do Google Google.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Check out this website called YouTube dot com.
Speaker 4 (41:03):
We should win a Nobel Peace Prize for this poet.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
Yeah, they're handing those two fucking anybody.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
So yeah, no, no.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
No.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Such thing as a production of Kaleidoscope content. Our executive
producers are Kate Osborne and Mangeshkur. The show is created
by Manny Fidel, Noah Friedman, and Devin Joseph. Themeon credits
song by Manny Fidel, mixing by our boy Steve bone
big thanks to Patrick richardson our wonderful guest Is It
No Such thing? Dot show? To subscribe to our newsletter
and see how dry cleaning works. If you have feedback
(41:36):
for us, or a question laundre related or otherwise, our
email address is Manny Noah Devin at gmail dot com.
You can also leave us a voicemail by calling the
number in our show notes below. We'll be back next
week with a new episode. Thanks for listening such things
Him, Manny, and this is no such thing. The show
where we set all our dumb arguments and yours by
actually doing the research. This week we're doing a mail
bag episode answering all your questions about laundry.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
If you go commando in your jeans, you can't wear
them as long.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
I No, there's no no such thing, no such Thank touch, thank.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Touch, thank.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Touch.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Thank This episode was inspired by a Spotify comment on
our episode about Kanye from Daniel m asking for us
to do an episode on how to use the washing
machine without destroying our clothes. We decided to broaden that
out to all of our questions about laundry. So we
put a call out and we got plenty of questions,
(00:50):
and luckily we have answers to I think all of them.
Speaker 4 (00:53):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
So we're talking separating lights from darks. We're talking types
of detergent to use. We're talking todd dryer balls, water temperature,
yeah yeah, things of that nature. So I called a
Patrick Richardson, aka the laundry Guy.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
My name is Patrick Richardson and people call me the
laundry Guy. Welcome to laundry camp. My laundry camps are
the hottest ticket in town.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
He wrote a book called Laundry Love, Finding Joy in
a Common Chorea. Seems like a good guy to talk to.
So I tried to go in kind of chronological order
of washing things. So I started with prep and sorting. Okay,
so this is a big one I had, was do
you have to separate lights from darks?
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Before we get to the answer, yeah, cool, what do
we currently do?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
My wife does and I don't, and at any time
I don't. I don't notice that anything bad happens to
the clothes. I'm sure there's some you know, maybe it's
it's rare, so it's worth not mixing them, But yeah,
I don't. I've never noticed any kind of weirdness happening
if when I do miss yeah, I never did it.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
And the only time I would really think about it
was if I got like a new if I had
like a new pack of white teas and like a
really new red T shirt or so like things like
that where it's like, okay, this is not going to
go well with fresh items. But all most of my
stuff it's like, you know, first of all, I'm not
too concerned if all right, the white loses a little freshness.
(02:19):
I don't wear like slain white teas out that much anyway,
So I think that that's probably been the fact I
don't care if anything fades that much.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
We're not franchise.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
In my white in my white.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
So yeah, I never sorted, and I still don't.
Speaker 5 (02:38):
I used to sort, but I also used to wash
my laundry at different temperatures. I've given up on that.
I'll do everything cold now, so I don't really sort
unless there'd be times where I'm washing my sheets that
are white and I'll put some oxie clean in it.
Speaker 4 (02:55):
So I'll just do all the whites together.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Riveting stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
Hey, there's a lot, there's gonna be a lot more
of this. So do you have to separate lights from
darks or when should you?
Speaker 2 (03:09):
You absolutely should separate your clothes. You should do it
for a couple of reasons. I mean, obviously there's the
color bleed thing. We actually have tools that will help
with that. You can buy these great little sheets at
the grocery store that you throw in that help with
color bleed. But what it doesn't help with is, believe
it or not, darker dyes are heavier than lighter dyes,
(03:30):
So like dark T shirts weigh more than light T
shirts and if you don't separate them, it's beating up
your clothes. I mean, it's kind of like throwing your
clothes in the creek and beating them with the rock.
You know, it's very very aggressive. Your white shirts, if
they go in with your navy blue shirts, it's really
really hard on them. So beyond the color bleed, there's
(03:52):
the weight, and you know that's something we should deal with.
Speaker 1 (03:57):
So the concern is less the color bleed, which is
what I Will always thought it was, and more the
integrity of the yeah, fabrics, the weights.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
White T shirt becomes less soft over time because you're
in there with dark.
Speaker 5 (04:09):
I did not even think about it, but think about
your white shirts in your dark.
Speaker 4 (04:13):
He's right, they're light, they are lighter. Yeah. Wow.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
And when he when he I asked the clarifying question
because I didn't quite get what he meant by the
heavier dies, I thought, just like, yeah, okay, the die
when you're dying the clothes, it's heavier. I was like,
what do they have to do with I think, okay,
well that's done now, I'm I'm not doing It's not
an easter.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
You have a white.
Speaker 1 (04:34):
But then he basically said it again, and I was like, oh,
I see, yeah, sure it's actually which is definitely true
to my loved experience of holding black T shirts.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Ones is certainly important when you're thinking of sheets, so like,
I'll just throw white sheets in with my regular clothes.
The sheets are the thing in your house you probably
want to be the softest.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Someone asked about should we separate clothes based on materials?
Speaker 4 (05:00):
Who's doing that? Yeah? Separating based on materials? What was that?
I mean, like, oh, these are all my linen shirts.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
I think I think that's they didn't go into cotton. Yeah,
I think they mean just yeah, basically, like.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
I guess I would have to do like one hundred
different washes.
Speaker 4 (05:13):
Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (05:13):
So much of this is just like even if I
had my own washer dryer. Yeah, there's only so much
time in my life.
Speaker 5 (05:19):
The only way just makes sense to me is like
we're talking about Okay, I'm suburating my bedding. Yeah, so
that's more. That's more. How I think about it is
like material would be well some types of things, because
like jeans.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
I don't really think that's as necessary as separating by color.
The one exception is performance, where like yoga pants, running pants,
biking shorts, that sort of thing. I think you should
separate those out. And it's not because of the color
or the fabric. It's because those fabrics have a characteristic.
They're always polyesterone, they almost always contain lycra and they
(05:54):
have this characteristic that when you wash them and then
you put them on ten minutes later, they smell terrible.
And that is because they're hydrophobic. They hate water, and
they're oleophilic. They love oil, so they love all the
oil from your skin and all the bacteria that's crapped
in that oil. So you should kind of separate them
(06:15):
out so that you can use like an oxygen bleach
or a color safe bleach to break that down. And
color safe bleach is not safe for wool or silk,
so people say, well, I don't have wool or silk,
but then they forget that they have smart wool socks
or they have wool shirts that they wear when they run.
It's not safe. So I think you should separate out
(06:35):
that active wear, knowing that you're going to add color
safe bleach every load.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
I didn't know hydrophobia existed in this world. Still, Yeah,
people need to you know, rock in the mirror.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
Yeah, it's a big getting ridiculously enough is enough, one
of you guys? Tell me what the what the takeaway
from that is basically, the the hydrophobic clothes, it's harder
to break down.
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Yeah, it's not. It doesn't.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
It repels water to some degree, so you got to
add this color to.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Really get in there. It's not really cleaning it because
because it's pushing stuff away, and that's the point obviously
when you're un Then I asked about separating towels. A
lot of people ask about.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
Tow Yeah, a lot of people. Did y'all do that
growing up?
Speaker 1 (07:26):
No, I've never even heard of this.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
No.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
I also just asked like generally, like it seems like
people have a I don't know if this is a
towel thing, but people seem to have a hygienic concern.
So like the towels are extra dirty, so I don't
want them with my clothes.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
That I oh, yeah, that's when I was growing up,
we separated socks.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Yeah, crazy, So this doesn't This doesn't make sense to
me because it just seems just the socks.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
You just socks, it socks, and like just washing rags
like all the I don't know. I think it was
actually less about hygiene, Like I remember my my mom
basically feeling like the socks affected the smell of the
other clothes when they came out, because we were dirty
(08:08):
ass little kids, like we'd run outside with our socks on,
like dirty muddy coming back in the house, and shouldn't
She just wanted not to affect.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
Ultimately, I think today I'm not running around with my
socks outside in the streets of because but.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
When you go home, is your mom still washing just
the socks by himself? Do you know how you noticed
they're gone?
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I think it's I haven't noticed, which means she probably doesn't.
It was because of the kids.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
Yeah, yeah, So I basically asked, is that a thing
to be worried about, like dirt transfer from another while
they're being washed with presumably soap, And yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
That used to be a much bigger thing. Okay, if
we were having this, I mean, we wouldn't have had
a podcast in the nineteen seventies, right, we'd be doing
the Paul Harvey Radio Hour. But in the seventies or
the eighties that would have mattered. Technology has gotten so
good with detergent and with washing machines, I don't worry
about it. I mean, I've throw my towels in with
(09:04):
my shirts. I mean I'm wearing a shirt right now
that I washed with my sheets. You know, I don't.
I don't think that's as important now as it used
to be because of technology. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
So basically you're saying just the detergents and other things
have gotten better at actually getting rid of the germs.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Yeah. I mean our detergents and are both detergents and
washing machines have gotten so good and so efficient that
our clothes are much cleaner than they used to be.
You know. So because of that, I just don't really
worry about the towels being sanitary anymore because I know
everything's going to come out, you know, relatively sanitary now.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
So that does help explain though, why people of the
past would have more been more concerned with that. So
I was like, okay, people aren't just like macared dermophobes. Yeah,
like you know, it's like, okay, there was more of
a issue.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
And it seems like is passed down just like you
behave your habits.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Yeah, good phrasey, just give why do the machines tend
to have, you know, like symbols and not words, do
you know, I mean it makes them more universal. Yeah,
you know, as we become more multicultural, they still work.
I mean, clothing labels did the same thing. It used
to say machine wash cold, machine wash warm, and now
(10:25):
you just see a little symbol. I actually like the
little symbols. I think that in a lot of ways,
they're simpler. Washing machines used to say colors, whites, bedding, whatever,
and those settings didn't really work, you know, because if
you're going to wash the bedding with the colors, what
do you do?
Speaker 2 (10:43):
You know, which one do you choose? So I kind
of like the little symbols. But the truth of the
matter is I live and die by the express wash.
I think the express wash is the answer to all
of life's problems. So if I could design my own
washing machine, it would literally only have one cycle.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
There is a question about using a front loading machine
versus top loading, which apparently is a big discussion.
Speaker 4 (11:05):
I've never seen this online.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
This is an extremely not in New York. This is
like the rest of the.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
Country is.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Front loader is going to be better than top loader
because of the way that they were. Okay, top loader
has gotten better. If you had asked this question in
nineteen ninety, there was no question. Washing machine engineers spend
a lot of time making washing machines better and better
and better. But broadloading is always going to be better
(11:37):
than top loading.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
Just because of the action of it.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
Yes, just because of the way it works. Because what
really gets your clothes clean is the water forcing through
the clothes. So the thing about a front loader, and
you have to visualize this because it's podcast the clothes
come up out of the water and fall back in
the water. They come up out of the water and
fall back in the water. When they fall in the water,
that's the water forcing through them. You can achieve the
(12:01):
force with a top loader, but it's never going to
be as dramatic, right, Okay, that makes sense, you know,
because the clothes don't really come completely out of the water. Okay, So, yes,
a front loader is still gonna be better, but the
difference isn't quite as dramatic, So.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Don't worry about it.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Yeah, front leader more rigorous clean, But basically this doesn't matter.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
Yeah, I asked about how how do you clean a
washing machine in a dryer?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (12:29):
Oh, a lot of conversation. We actually have to clean them.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Cleaning a washing machine is super easy. You dump in
a pound of borax and a gallon of vinegar and
you run it. The vinegar breaks down the like detergent
residue and that sort of thing, because vinegar will write
down detergent, and then the borax almost acts like your
scrubber because borax is granular and it basically is running
around the drum sort of breaking everything loose. To clean
(12:56):
a dryer, the best way to do it is to
saturate a towel like a saturate a bath towel with
vinegar and throw it in the dryer and then turn
it on and let it run. It creates vinegar steam,
but as the towel tumbles, it actually wipes it down.
And then when it's done in both the washer and
the dryer, just grab a towel and just a spray
bottle of vinegar and water and just wipe everything down
(13:17):
one more time.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Now, this is probably one of the biggest toughest questions
I've had to ask. Oh, breaking down hot water cold water? Yeah,
what do you guys do?
Speaker 3 (13:28):
I just do everything cold because I've had shrinkage, And
I don't know, I've never thought deeply about it shrink
not that kind of shrinkage. And I've never you know,
I just I'm afraid of, like any clothes shrinking.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
And you've always done this.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Yeah, but I don't know if it's in the if
it shrinks in the water, or if it shrinks in
the dryer.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
I think both. I used to.
Speaker 5 (13:53):
I feel like everybody growing up you wash based on
the colors. You know, you're white, you would wash hot
hollered in your colored clothes. And I feel like, I
don't know if it's a marketing thing, but they kept saying, like,
you know, you can just use cold water, and like
eventually it worked.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Laundry.
Speaker 4 (14:13):
Yeah, it's different.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Patrick, this is a kind of a shocking answer. Just
gonna prep you after the break. Can you break down
(14:36):
when we should be using hot water versus cold water.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
I never used hot water or cold water. I only
use warm. There Again, in the seventies, you needed hot
water because you're denurgent in your your machine wasn't working
as well, so you needed that hot water to sanitize
your your towels and sheets. Now you don't really need it.
Cold water there's this whole thing about cold water wash.
(15:00):
What the industry doesn't tell you is they consider cold
water sixty five degrees. Unless you live in San Antonio, Texas.
Your cold water is not sixty five degrees. It's colder
than that. You're not actually activating the detergent like you should.
So warm water is warm enough to activate the detergent.
But the reality is warm water isn't as warm as
(15:21):
your bath got it. So, like, if you're somebody who
takes a bath that's usually one hundred or one hundred
and five degrees, warm water is going to be somewhere
between seventy and ninety. To put your hand in it,
it's going to feel tepid. Yeah, so warm water is
not that warm. I use warm water for everything, including
I mean, I'm wearing a cashmere cardigan right now, and
(15:43):
I watch it in the washing machine with warm water.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
And then yeah, because my question was, like, when people
are worried about things shrinking or other bad things happening,
is that from more the washing side or the drying
side the dryer. I think, yeah, that.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Can happen with either. If you use the express cycle,
you don't really have that that's you got another reason
that I love head. Okay, I'm a two hours cycle.
It's really the manipulation that causes shrinking. So two hours
in the washing machine is always going to cause a
little bit of shrink. Tumbling in the dryer also can
cause shrink. Really, the best thing to do is usually
(16:18):
express cycle and hang it out. If you're worried.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
That man is crazy Cashmere, I mean he's the laundry
guy who are better than his expert.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
Yeah, I don't want to test it. What do y'all
do it first?
Speaker 1 (16:34):
I mean when he was explaining the temperatures, I was like, oh, yeah,
like we're thinking about it in human temperatures. Yeah, but
this is just water nature temperatures. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
And I didn't know that the water needs to be
a certain temperature to act.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Yeah, the determine that makes sense to me.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
I did hear that and that, but I thought they
had just.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
If I'm just doing a spot washing, I would be
using warmer water, like yeah, if you're trying to get
out of stain or something, Yeah, I'm using hot water,
like the hottest water possible.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
You know.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
So it makes sense that there's you know, an alchemy
going on there. You're not going to get from purely cool.
Speaker 5 (17:05):
You think about just cleaning your house, right, yeah, I
mean because you're the bathroom, you're probably not I don't know,
if you're washing your tub with freezing water, you're probably
not getting in too clean. You get that little steamy then.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Breaks it up quick, yeah, or just doing your dishes.
I asked about when to hang dry and when to
machine dry, and what should you be careful about.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
I would always take knits out, so sweaters, sweatshirts, pollos,
you know, thrown across the drying rack, or lay them
on a towel on the floor. I mean I take
out my dress shirts and my jeans, not so much
because of the shrink, but because it shortens their life.
There was a study done in the late eighties that
(17:46):
a quality garment would survive fifty trips through the washer
and dryer. If you gave up the dryer, you've got
one hundred and twenty trips through the washer. So you
more than double the life of a garment by not
putting it in the dryer. However, I also know, like
I don't have a clothesline, so I don't even where
to dry my sheets, so they have to go in
the dryer. I'm not going to hang every sock and
(18:09):
every pair of boxers I so I throw those in
the dryer. But things I want to hang on to,
I always hang them to dry or laym flat to dry.
Speaker 4 (18:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
So obviously hang dry is always gonna be safer, better
for the clothes. So if you really care, do that otherwise. Yeah, yeah,
the European way. I asked a few things about detergent questions. Yes,
this answer is mind blownk. I asked about how much
detergent you actually need, and how to calibrate with load
size and the different washers and all that.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Okay, this is the biggest mistake everyone makes with their laundry,
is too much detergent. The industry and things that you
need a quarter to I have a cup of detergent.
The reality is for a full load. So a full load,
which is in a top loader, it's about seventy eight
percent we'll say eighty because it's easier. In a front loader,
it's about seventy five two percent full. A full load
(19:02):
needs two tablespoons of detergent.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
When the load starts getting smaller, you start cutting it back.
So half a load is one tablespoon, And there's a
really good reason. One of the things the detergent does
is it has this surfactin that floats on the surface
of the water. The dirt comes out of your clothes,
it gets trapped in the surfactin, it becomes heavier than
the water, and it goes down the drain. If you
(19:26):
use too much detergent, what happens is that surfact it
can't rense out, so it settles back into your clothes,
but it brings all the dirt with it. That's why
you end up with dingy towels or laundry that smells musty,
those sorts of things that happens from too much detergent.
And I know that people have this idea that more
detergent equals cleaner clothes. But here's a very realistic example.
(19:51):
You go to wash your hands, You put a squirt
of soap on your hands, you sing Happy Birthday twice,
and you rense for ten seconds. Right, what happens if
you're hands are really dirty, So you pour the entire
bottle of soap on your hands, you sing Happy Birthday twice,
and you rinse for ten seconds. The soap is still
on your hands and they're just sticky and gross and dirty.
(20:14):
That's what happens to your laundry when you're using too
much detergect.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
It makes sense too, because when I do my laundry,
it's like you get the little cup and it I
fill the cup all the way up.
Speaker 4 (20:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
Then you look at it and it's like, oh, that's
fine loads.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Yeah, but I'm like, well, who's who's counting?
Speaker 3 (20:40):
Yeah, I'm like, actually, I like really clean clothes.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
And also, to be frank, I'm loading that machine up
yeah beyond. Yeah, it needs all the help I can
get because the clothes aren't even moving in there. So
this is just you know, so attactrick.
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Squeeze into.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
Draw like two drops of water.
Speaker 5 (21:05):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yeah, so that blew my mind.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
Do we do we talk about detergent versus.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Typods' that's literally next.
Speaker 4 (21:11):
Okay, I'm gonna save my I'm gonna save my question comment.
Speaker 3 (21:16):
Okay, I haven't even thought of this. I use so
much liquid deterrement, but if it's a tide pod, I
just throw one tide pod in there. Yeah, just doesn't
make any sense. What's happening in my brain? Yeah, even
that's probably too much. The one type pod.
Speaker 1 (21:28):
I think so based on his calculation, it sounds like it.
But I'll play his dancing all right. But yeah, that
was shocking to me. But obviously it's you know, because big,
big Deterreentah, It's like they're not going to clarify this.
Speaker 4 (21:40):
Well, it's funny.
Speaker 5 (21:41):
I feel like sometimes they like try to be like,
our detergent is better because it's more concentrated, so you
can use less, but no one actually does it.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
And so it was like, use the cap, but the
markers on how many loads you need to do is
the same color as the cap. Yeah, so I'm like,
all right, I'll fill the ship right up to next step.
We had question about using tide pods versus liquid detergent
versus powder. I asked what Patrick's ranking is, and if
there's much of a difference, okay.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Liquid or powder, I'm gonna call them even. There's enough
detergent in most pods to do five loads of laundry.
So since I told you to use less laundry, you
can imagine that pods aren't gonna be my first pick.
They're easy again.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Yes, they're necessary, yeah, yeah, okay, And it's about the
same for liquid and powder.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Just a matter of yeah, two tables then, like, if
you're going to the laundromat, just put you know, I mean,
I don't want to carry that big box either, so
just put some out into like a ziploc bag or
into a little container and just take the amount you need.
Could you only need two tablespoons per load? So for
five loads, you know you're not even using a cup.
Speaker 5 (22:47):
That's fascinating change my life because I've been a tie
pod guy since college. Wow, it's just like you said,
it's easy. Yeah, of course, you just throw the pods
in the in the bag. And I used to be
a multi I just recently I'm like, why am I
using more than one? I used to put more than one,
(23:07):
and that I used to put two three the same
same pot like a fabric. No, no, no, just like, okay,
this is a big, big load on me, two three
of them.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (23:17):
And recently I said, if I just put one for.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Everything, try it out.
Speaker 4 (23:21):
Yeah, And I didn't notice it.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
And it sounds like, if anything, your clothes are cleaner now.
Speaker 5 (23:28):
So now I feel like maybe I should graduate to
actually liquid because I'm running low right now on tide
Pole is about to reorder them.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
Try Maybe I'll do the link try it out. Maybe
I'll do the liquid and put even less.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
But yeah, that was shocking to me. I mean now
I might try out powder even Yeah, it seems it
does seem easier, especially if I do do what he's
saying or buy a big thing and to just transfer
a little bit into like a toper. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
You know, Tie did a great job branding tide pods then,
because it makes you think you need one for one load.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Yeah, of course.
Speaker 3 (23:59):
And it and it's like so small and concentrated, doesn't
look like that much, but yeah, fascinating.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
And obviously is much more convenient. Yeah, storage and anything else,
so wild good good on them.
Speaker 4 (24:11):
I'm gonna cut them up.
Speaker 1 (24:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
Yeah, they should make smaller ones.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Hey that's a third of a pot over there.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
If they get smaller than people will really start eating
them probably.
Speaker 4 (24:21):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
They look like handling stains. Yes, And and also there
is a question about you know, are there things that
(24:43):
you would do that would like seal a stain in
so then it's like there's no touch, like if it's
gone through the dry or something like that. People are
concerned that then like.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
You're not going back. Yeah, I guess if it's like
if I spill Coca cola on me or something, I'll
do like a little tide pen thing. But for ketchup,
I'm like, i'd be.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
More about ketchup. Coke.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Yeah, I don't know, they just always come out. I've
never had a coke much lighter.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Than actually when it's poured on something.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
Yeah, trust me, a lot of coke. But in the
in the event of like wanting to wear it, keep
wearing it.
Speaker 4 (25:17):
So what what are you pre treating? Okay, coke?
Speaker 3 (25:20):
I'm not nothing. I'm not pre treating coke. I don't
pretreat anything.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
You're just throwing the hamper.
Speaker 5 (25:27):
If you still oil on yourself or something, you're not
pretreating it like olive oil.
Speaker 3 (25:37):
No, I don't pre treat anything. And I've never had
an issue either. I mean, it always just comes out.
Speaker 4 (25:42):
That's crazy.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Okay, maybe the Turgan's been, you know, doing great things,
and you're over here throwing five toidepods in your line
coming out launch.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
All right, let's let's find out what the experts is
on that same tip tied to go and can you
explain kind of how those work and like when best
to use them or when you should avoid them if
there's maybe certain stains that they're just not gonna help
with or make worse.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
They're just a stain remover, you know, the way you
see them work on TV as somebody colors the stain
and it completely disappears. That doesn't really happen. There are
lots of those little travel stain removers. There's another one
I like better called Amdex. But what you do is
you put them on and they're just like a little
stain remover, like a little spot stain remover, And the
best way to do it is to put it on
(26:29):
and then like take a towel, you know. I do
this in my hotel sometimes, put a towel behind the
stain and then blot through with another wet towel with
a wet washcloth and just basically you're just washing that spot.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Yeah that makes sense. But because it's a pen, I
like put the put the detergent on there and then
just try to scratch it out. Yeah, yeah, just that
nothing doesn't work.
Speaker 5 (26:53):
No, Just sometimes after using O'SE I was like, oh,
I should have just left the stain.
Speaker 3 (26:57):
And then washed it.
Speaker 4 (26:58):
Normally it looks weir around with this wet ass.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
So they don't seem to dry for the rest of
the day.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it's working. Here's a good one.
People asked about if fabric softener is a scam.
Speaker 4 (27:12):
M hmmm. I gave up on fabri softener a long
time ago.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
He did, Yeah, just no results.
Speaker 4 (27:17):
I was just like, why am I already?
Speaker 5 (27:19):
Guy?
Speaker 4 (27:19):
Yeah, you know, I'm already putting ten typods in at
a time.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Yeah, I've only I've thrown it in. Like if I
don't really don't even know what scenarios. If I'm staying
in an airbnb or something in there, it's there. I'm
like like a little treat.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Fabric softener and dryer sheets and sand boosters. The way
they work is they coat the fabric. It's kind of waxy,
and it melts onto the fabric or it's fixed to
the fabric and it leaves this fake texture. One of
the problems with that is often they contain thallatees like
a thalate ester, and thalate esters are indo crend disruptors,
(27:52):
so they do a lot of things. None of them
are you know, are things I want? Yeah, I think
if you used lesser target are naturally soft cotton is
naturally soft. When your cotton feels crunchy or when it's
itchy or sticky, that's because there's too much detergent. Just
get that out and your clothes are soft. They don't
need anything else.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Wow, indicate it.
Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yeah, don't use it.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
It's funny that it doesn't eat. It doesn't even actually
make your clothes leaves like.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
It's like a very cosmetic effect, basically cover up. Yeah,
so stay safe out there for your health. The next
one was about dryer balls and dryer sheets.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Dryer sheets are no go. Dryer balls I love. Yeah,
those are good like wool dryer ball. I love them,
and they speed up your drying time. It will actually
shorten it. They also keep your clothes moving around the
edge of the dryer, so they're actually a little bit softer.
I think they're great, So use.
Speaker 1 (28:51):
The dryer balls, not the dryer sheets.
Speaker 3 (28:53):
I don't think I have.
Speaker 4 (28:55):
Someone who pays for their dry time.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
Yeah you notice this. It's good to know, because yeah,
i'd pay for my dry time.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
Too, because the normal when I would just do it
like similar to you, I do big loads. So when
I would do it before, if I did not put
more time on.
Speaker 4 (29:10):
It, yeah, with the dryer balls.
Speaker 1 (29:15):
I'm gonna pick some.
Speaker 4 (29:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
Someone asked how to save T shirt collars in the wash?
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Oh yeah, any any tips.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
A shorter cycle will do it, because that they stretch
out from those really long cycles. Okay, so a shorter cycle.
And the other thing is, if that is something that
happens to you, like it happens to me because I
have a really big head, don't put them in the dryer,
and they tend to They tend to return to their
original shape a little bit better.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
How often should we be washing clothes?
Speaker 2 (29:44):
I try to wash my things as infrequently as possible.
I wear my jeans nine or ten times before I
wash them. Yeah, and you know, I'm a germophobe. I
wear my shirts about three times. If I can, I
usually spill on them. I can't always make it three,
but I try. I wear my shirts about three times.
Things that go immediately next to your skin, like underwear, socks,
(30:07):
you should wash that every time you wear it, you know. Yeah,
things that are your like I'm gonna call it the
first layer. You need to wash more often. If you
wear shirts and you don't wear a T shirt and
you're very sweaty, you're gonna have to wash them more often.
Bacteria does live there. You know, if you go commando
in your jeans, you can't wear them as long.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Yeah. So where do you guys stand on these jeans?
And I really never wash It's like a need to
basis most pants, honestly, but especially jeans.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
Like the only pants I wash some more frequently their sweatpants.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:46):
Longer. Yeah, any athletic where Yeah. Yeah. I like the.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Concept of the first line, yes, which means, as you
guys know, I most like to wear my hoodies with
without any T shirt under it, So you should be.
I got start washing those more often often if.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
You don't really sweat that often.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
Yeah, yeah, it's true, you're not.
Speaker 5 (31:05):
Really sweaty guy. Yeah, I could never do. That's the
reason I would never not wear a shirt under a
hit like.
Speaker 3 (31:10):
Because of the sweat.
Speaker 4 (31:11):
Raw just my raw. But I want to wear a
sweat I want.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
To preserve the sweatshirt.
Speaker 4 (31:14):
Yeah, that's true. I'm putting that on raw. It's gonna
have to go and wash. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (31:21):
The jeans, I don't even know how many times I want.
He knows that, he said ten times.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
I don't. It's when God tells me there's not.
Speaker 3 (31:27):
A I don't wash it for jeans.
Speaker 4 (31:30):
And they're going right back in the pile.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Yeah, to be weir yea. My only absolute one use
is underwear and really yeah, and then like yeah, Jim.
Speaker 3 (31:41):
And sometimes like yeah, you know, but yeah, I always
wear new socks if I leave the house.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
Yeah, I'll redo, I'll reado a software depending on what's
going on. Someone asked about any tricks to get the
mildew smell out of clothes that you've washed but forgot
to put in the dry or without rewashing them all
over again.
Speaker 4 (31:58):
Let me tell you this. I don't know this.
Speaker 5 (32:01):
This is crazy because when we put out this ask,
the amount of responses that I got of like, I'll
wash my clothes, Oh, I forgot to put him in
the dryer. How do I get the smell out? How
often are people doing this? Like it's happened to me,
I've been that person. But it sounds like this is happening.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
For that long that it would. Yes, yeah, so this is.
Speaker 5 (32:20):
It seems like a big issue for people that they
wash their clothes and then just leave it for a
day or two.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Is another one.
Speaker 5 (32:27):
Couldn't be me because my clothes will be on the
damn ground, but I'll be arrested.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
I just run them through an express cycle with a
cup of vinegar. I wouldn't put more detergent in. Okay,
I'm just throwing a cup of vinegar and run them
back through. Like you could even do just the rents
if you want it, just the rent cycle, but just
a quick cycle. I mean, yes, there are other things
you could do, but honestly, it's not worth it. I mean,
this is the fastest way. Just run them through an
(32:51):
express cycle with some vinegar.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Former guest Walt Hickey Okay, Franchise Movies episode from July
that people sh listen to. He asked about that they
heard that we shouldn't dry clean suits and we should
get them steamed and pressed instead. Is this true?
Speaker 2 (33:09):
I have one hundred percent for that. Okay, suits are
usually wool, They naturally repel dirt. Most of the time
people want to dry clean things. It's just because they
they're wrinkled, and you know you can steam them if
you invest in a steamer, and you can save yourself
so much money.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Can you explain what what drag cleaners actually do?
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Yeah, drag cleaners, it's it's kind of a dry cleaning
is dry because it's not water. It's still a liquid.
There are a few depending on what drag cleaners you
go to, there's a couple of are more common. They
run it through a liquid and it's sort of like
a wash. It's just a liquid that isn't water. Right.
The one thing dry cleaners do that's tough for a
(33:48):
lot of people at home is they have the really
great irons. Okay, you know, they can do the great
job at pressing that you can't really as easily achieve
at home. You know, if you buy a good iron
and you get a spray bottle so that you can
build up some extra water, you know, some mist to
create extra steam, you can do a pretty good job
at home. I mean, I washed my suits in the
(34:09):
washing machine, but I have a great iron, so I
can stand, you know, I can iron them back and
I recommend that. Like if somebody is like, oh, I
wear a suit every day, I'm like, you need to
buy a really good steam generating iron because you will
save money.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
That is fascinating. I'm so a little confused. It's it's
called dry cleaning because it's not water, but it is liquid.
So it's not really dry cleaning.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
It's chemicals. Yeah, but I think they're doing a mixture
of overall clean and I'm sure they do a spot
clean yea. I imagine lots of people are because.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
So will you wash the washer suits?
Speaker 1 (34:50):
And that's scary.
Speaker 3 (34:52):
That's a little scary.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
I think if I think if I was if I
had to wear a suit every day for work, yeah,
like when I get my promotion at A P. Morgan,
then I'll do it.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Yeah, then I would watch it like then, but like I.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Wear a bulk wash them about three times a year, yeah,
liberally yeah, yeah, so for me, I can drag lean
your wedding.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
Was the only time I wore a suit this year?
Speaker 1 (35:15):
I think that was maybe one of two times I ever
won one, and the other time was another one.
Speaker 5 (35:20):
But sometimes see something like that, right, I got wear
exactly and it'll be like, okay, like this is not
really dirty, yeah exactly. I want to the next time
I wear it for it to be like look fresh. Yeah,
which is like he's saying, it's mostly just like an
ironing situation.
Speaker 4 (35:36):
I didn't realize.
Speaker 5 (35:37):
Okay, so I guess between why wears, you know, I'll
just iron it.
Speaker 3 (35:43):
Yeah, yeah, especially Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
There's nothing major happening now. We just have a few
more shorter ones. He mentioned he has, you know, a
Culture Club T shirt he bought back in the day
that he really loves. I asked, what's the best way
to maintain a printed graph on a T shirt?
Speaker 2 (36:00):
Oh yeah, lip it inside out. Never use fabric softer
because it will actually cause the print to separate from
the garment. And do not put those in the dryer.
So I mean thing about it. They're set with heat,
so if you put them in with heat, it's going
to set them just like it's set them.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
I asked, just what are the most common mistakes or
misconceptions people have when it comes to washing clothes class
In case you missed anything, Yeah, in this list of
thirty questions.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
It's the idea of too much, too long of a cycle,
too much detergent in both cases less as more or
shorter cycles moless detergent and you're better off.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
And then lastly, he left us off with two tips.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Number one is for things that you put in the
dryer that will get static. I'm thinking I live in Minnesota,
so polar fleece, you know, or fleece is a big
one for me. You can use a ball made of
aluminum foil. Take a one yard piece of aluminum foil,
make a ball the size of a softball, and throw
it in the dryer. You can use it as many
times as you can until it gets the size of
(37:01):
a wallet. But it will remove static better than anything
you've ever used. That's another way you can ditch dryer sheets,
because that's the reason people like them. The other one
that's really funny, and it depends on who you are.
But if let's say you're standing with a group of smokers,
or you go to a restaurant and you leave and
you smell like the restaurant. The shirt's clean, but it
(37:24):
has some sort of odor, or your coat in January
smells kind of stale because it's the middle of winter
and you don't want to clean it. Everything else is clean,
it just the odors off. You can spray it with
really cheap vodka. Vodka will remove the odor from anything,
and when vodka drives the unique characteristic to it, it's
(37:44):
odorless and colorless. So you can spray it on and
then it's dry and it's over. There's no washing, So
if you smell like cigarette smoke, spray it with vodka,
let it hang for twenty minutes and then the odor's gone
and you can put it back in your closet.
Speaker 3 (38:02):
This is something we needed growing up, you know, in
an East African household. Food the food I would get
my ass fried at school every day. It's just like
the garlic and the stews, like it really sticks onto
the clothes. It doesn't matter how much you wash them.
But now and I know, I could just break viegar.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Next time you stumble home, you know, late from the bar,
to tell your wife, you know, cleaning.
Speaker 3 (38:28):
Yeah, exactly is that is that.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
My clothes are really clean? What you think? So let's
do some takeaways. What's the the biggest thing you learned
from this?
Speaker 4 (38:51):
All right?
Speaker 1 (38:52):
Is this going to change your habits?
Speaker 2 (38:53):
Now?
Speaker 3 (38:54):
Well, someone who pays someone to come pick up my laundry, what.
Speaker 4 (38:58):
He's doing you're doing?
Speaker 3 (39:00):
You should maybe shoutow them once and be like, I
do want to see what's going on back there?
Speaker 5 (39:04):
Now, I kind of I'm I think I'm gonna separate.
Next week, I'm gonna separate. I'm gonna wash.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
While separating is tough, separating because everything else I'm I'm
good to its separating.
Speaker 5 (39:18):
Issue with separating is then my load sizes are all exactly.
I will separate if it works, or it's.
Speaker 1 (39:24):
Like, okay, maybe I have to do a white week
and then a colored week.
Speaker 4 (39:28):
I do do.
Speaker 5 (39:29):
I do do white weeks, brock white weeks with my
sheets because I have pairs of white sheets. Saw wait
two weeks to do all of the white sheets at once,
and then I'll put any other whites with them, socks
and shirts. So I'm washing on warm, warm warm next Monday,
(39:50):
my washday, I'm gonna wash on warm.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
I'm gonna amount of detergent was a huge.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
That's my big yeah, which is great.
Speaker 5 (39:56):
I think I'm gonna ditch the tide pods. I think
I'm gonna do powder to try powder next because I
already said I always already do my baking soda, so
I can just add my detergent to that. I have
my baggage that I use, so I'll do each two
baggage for my two loads. I already do it upstairs.
So I'm gonna do two baggies with my bake and soda,
and then I'm just gonna put in my detergent in
there and a lot less than.
Speaker 4 (40:20):
Yeah, go along with Yeah, I'm gonna have that deterreeent forever.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
I'm gonna have some dryer.
Speaker 3 (40:24):
Balls probably have to last so much longer. I'm gonna
play this episode for the guy who.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Does my laundry.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
Hey, have a you might want to hear some of this. Hey,
before you take this stuff.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
Give me your phone. So I hope we answered all
your questions. If there's anything we missed, please shoot us
an email or a voicemail and we will try to
get an answer for you to the best of our ability.
We'll put a video of what dry cleanings actually do
on our substeck. You can just tell people to google it.
Speaker 4 (40:55):
Yeah, go for a video.
Speaker 3 (40:56):
Actually, do Google Google.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Check out this website called YouTube dot com.
Speaker 4 (41:03):
We should win a Nobel Peace Prize for this poet.
Speaker 3 (41:06):
Yeah, they're handing those two fucking anybody.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
So yeah, no, no.
Speaker 3 (41:11):
No.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Such thing as a production of Kaleidoscope content. Our executive
producers are Kate Osborne and Mangeshkur. The show is created
by Manny Fidel, Noah Friedman, and Devin Joseph. Themeon credits
song by Manny Fidel, mixing by our boy Steve bone
big thanks to Patrick richardson our wonderful guest Is It
No Such thing? Dot show? To subscribe to our newsletter
and see how dry cleaning works. If you have feedback
(41:36):
for us, or a question laundre related or otherwise, our
email address is Manny Noah Devin at gmail dot com.
You can also leave us a voicemail by calling the
number in our show notes below. We'll be back next
week with a new episode. Thanks for listening such things
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