Advice and tips before washing

Here are some tips that may help you be- fore washing.

Sorting your laundry

Sort items according to:

•how soiled they are

•colour

•material

Clothing

•Do up zips so that they don’t harm fabrics.

•New coloured items may contain excess dye and should therefore be washed sepa- rately the first few times.

•Turn delicate items inside out. This reduc- es the risk of burling and fading.

•Empty pockets and wash them inside out if possible!

Laundry labels

Look at the item’s laundry label. The table below indicates suitable wash programmes for various materials and wash loads.

Coloured cotton

Coloured cotton items labelled for hot washing (60°C) should be washed at 60ºC the first time in order to remove any excess dye. If you do not do so, there is a risk that the colour will run. Use detergent without bleach in order to preserve the colour of the fabric.

Delicates

Unbleached linen

Unbleached linen fabrics should be washed at 60°C, using detergent containing no bleach or optical whiteners. Heavily-soiled linen can occasionally be washed at higher temperatures, but not too often since the heat can destroy the linen’s shine and strength.

Laundry label symbols

Laundry	Material	Programme		Load
labels	Material	Programme		Load
	Cotton, linen, white and light-coloured items.	White Cotton 60° to 95°		1/1 drum
	Cotton, linen. Dark-coloured items.	Coloured Cottons 60°		1/1
	Polyester, cotton/polyester, nylon. White items.	Synthetic 60°		1/2
	Rayon, acetate, acrylic. Non-colourfast	Synthetic 40°		1/2
	items.
	Polyester, cotton/polyester, nylon.	Synthetic 40°		1/2
	Coloured items.
	Silk and very delicate items	Synthetic 30°		1/3
	Items labelled with the IWS or	Wool/Hand 40°	1/3
	Items labelled with the IWS or	Wool/Hand 40°	1/3
	Superwash mark