Initial preparations for washing

Preparing clothes for washing

■■Always follow the advice on the garment care label. It will tell you about the fabric of the garment and how it should be washed.

■■Sort the laundry according to type of fabric, colour, degree of soiling, and allowable water temperature.

■■Check and empty pockets. Coins, safety pins, etc can damage both your machine and your clothes.

■■Remove any metal attachments, or place the items in a laundry bag, pillowcase, or something similar (bras, or garments with metal buttons or belt buckles). The metal attachments may cause damage to the machine.

■■Close zippers, hooks and eyes. This is to make sure that these items do not snag on other clothes.

■■Place small items like infants’ socks and nylon stockings, etc in a laundry bag, pillow case or something similar. This will also save your laundry from getting lost.

■■Do not wash single items as they may cause out of balance. Add extra similar items to balance the load.

■■Wash trousers, jeans and delicate clothes turned inside out.

■■Wash “machine washable” or “hand washable” labelled items with an appropriate programme only.

■■Do not wash colours and whites together. New, dark coloured items may release a lot of dye. It is recommended to wash them separately.

■■Pre-treat heavily soiled areas with stain remover if necessary. Apply these away from the machine as contents of the stain remover may damage plastic parts of the machine.

■■Use only dyes/colour changers and lime removers suitable for machine washing. Plastic and rubber parts of the clothes washer can be stained by dyes. Always follow the instructions on the packaging.