The Art of Manliness - The Dude's Guide to Laundry： How to Save Time, Money, and Your Wardrobe

00:00:00.000 Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast.

00:00:11.280 If you didn't grow up doing your own laundry, once you headed out on your own, you probably

00:00:15.140 just figured things out on the fly, hoped for the best, and have been doing things the

00:00:18.680 same way ever since.

00:00:20.400 But while you may be getting the job done okay, you also might be making some mistakes

00:00:24.340 that are costing you time, money, and cleaner clothes.

00:00:27.160 In this episode from the Art of Manliness Department of Essential Life Skills, we'll cover all

00:00:31.620 the things you should have learned as a young man but never did, and how to do your laundry

00:00:35.160 effectively.

00:00:36.400 Our guide is Patrick Richardson, aka The Laundry Evangelist, a laundry expert who runs how to

00:00:41.660 do laundry camps, hosts the television show The Laundry Guy, and is the author of Laundry

00:00:46.080 Love.

00:00:46.860 Today on the show, Patrick shares the one cycle in water temperature you should use for all

00:00:50.240 your clothes, exactly how much detergent you should be using, which is a lot less than

00:00:54.260 you think, how often you should wash your clothes, which is less often than you think,

00:00:58.660 why you shouldn't ever use dryer sheets, and what to throw in your dryer instead, how

00:01:02.620 regardless of what the tag says, you can wash anything at home, including a wool suit, how

00:01:07.520 to easily get rid of stains, including yellow pit stains, and many more tips that will save

00:01:11.180 you time, money, and hassle in doing your laundry.

00:01:14.040 After the show's over, check out our show notes at aom.is slash laundry.

00:01:32.220 Patrick Richardson, welcome to the show.

00:01:34.780 Thank you so much.

00:01:35.580 Thanks for having me.

00:01:36.200 This is going to be fun.

00:01:37.160 This is going to be a lot of fun because you are the laundry evangelist.

00:01:41.560 You run a popular laundry camp where you teach people how to do laundry better.

00:01:45.900 You host a TV show called The Laundry Guy.

00:01:48.620 You are the laundry guy.

00:01:50.020 And you've written a book called Laundry Love, all about the ins and outs of laundry.

00:01:54.800 So how did you become the laundry evangelist slash laundry guy?

00:02:01.280 Well, let me give you the longest possible answer, as short as I possibly can.

00:02:05.780 When I was two and a half years old, one of my earliest memories is handing my granny

00:02:10.460 clothespins to put clothes on the clothesline.

00:02:13.100 And I loved laundry enough by that point that I turned three in November, and that

00:02:19.740 December, Santa brought me a toy washing machine.

00:02:22.760 And from that point, it was off to the races.

00:02:24.900 I always loved laundry, so I studied apparel and textiles in college.

00:02:29.500 When I left the University of Kentucky, I moved to Minnesota, and I worked for Neiman Marcus

00:02:33.440 and then for Nordstrom, and about 11, oh gosh, it was 12 years ago now.

00:02:37.800 Oh, time flies.

00:02:38.880 I opened a designer vintage store, and I carried these beautiful vintage pieces, but I knew

00:02:45.720 they wouldn't survive if people didn't know how to take care of them.

00:02:48.720 So I carried laundry product.

00:02:50.540 And from there, everybody was way more interested in the laundry product than they were the designer

00:02:55.500 vintage.

00:02:55.900 There was an article written about my love of washing everything, and everybody kept

00:03:01.020 asking the same questions.

00:03:02.820 So I launched a laundry camp, and from there, everything else happened.

00:03:07.660 Somebody saw me and talked about the shows.

00:03:10.080 Karen, who helped with the book, came to camp and was like, you really need to write a

00:03:14.580 book, and I'm going to help you do it.

00:03:16.360 And all bets are off from there, right?

00:03:19.260 Right.

00:03:19.880 So you are a textile expert.

00:03:21.720 This is what you...

00:03:22.540 I mean, you've been doing this since you were a kid.

00:03:24.320 You went to college, you studied textiles, you're the expert.

00:03:28.320 And I'm hoping in this conversation, we can help make laundry better, easier, and even

00:03:33.920 a bit more enjoyable for people.

00:03:35.420 Because it's one of those chores, like, it just never stops.

00:03:38.120 You have to do your laundry for the rest of your life.

00:03:40.940 So let's talk about supplies and equipment first.

00:03:44.280 Let's talk about gear.

00:03:45.700 Sure.

00:03:45.960 Let's start with the washing machine. 1.00

00:03:47.200 What kind of washing machine do you recommend for people to get to have the best wash? 0.81

00:03:52.180 Okay, so anymore, the technology has gotten so good, I don't have the hardcore opinion

00:03:59.180 that I used to have.

00:04:00.240 I will tell you, I still prefer front loader.

00:04:02.540 I will always prefer front loader.

00:04:04.900 But top loading washing machines with no agitators, the technology's gotten so good that if you like

00:04:10.760 top loader, you know, go ahead.

00:04:12.820 It's fine.

00:04:13.540 I'm always going to prefer front loader because I just like the, I like the mechanism that

00:04:18.460 makes them work.

00:04:19.320 I like the way they work a little better.

00:04:21.340 But more importantly, make sure that you can control the time to get that 30-minute wash

00:04:27.120 cycle and you do whatever you need to do to make sure that your clothes are being washed

00:04:32.380 in water that's at least 65 degrees.

00:04:35.480 In my book, I say you need to wash in warm and you are hearing it here first because I

00:04:43.320 literally found this out two days ago.

00:04:45.740 There is a washing machine company now that is setting their cold setting with a thermometer.

00:04:52.280 So it's actually blending in as much warm water as it needs to, to make their cold water

00:04:57.480 wash 65 degrees.

00:04:58.660 So if you're going to go buy a brand new machine, if you, if you haven't bought one in the last

00:05:03.500 few months, you don't have that.

00:05:05.200 But if you're going to go buy a brand new machine, that is actually now an option.

00:05:08.680 So being able to do a short cycle and get the water to 65 degrees would be the two most

00:05:13.820 important things to me.

00:05:15.220 Okay.

00:05:15.720 I need you to sell me on the high efficiency washing machines because my wife and I, we've

00:05:20.280 got the, the old school agitator washing machine that, you know, our moms had growing 1.00

00:05:25.160 up.

00:05:25.380 And the reason why is when we've seen the, the high efficiency washing machines in action,

00:05:30.220 we look at it, it's like, there's not any water in there.

00:05:33.000 There's hardly any water in there.

00:05:34.420 And it's just kind of a couple gallons.

00:05:35.880 Yeah.

00:05:36.000 And it's just kind of like, just sort of gently moving it around.

00:05:38.820 Like how are clothes getting washed in that?

00:05:41.460 So make the case for the high efficiency.

00:05:43.580 Should we ditch the old school agitator washing machine?

00:05:46.960 Sure.

00:05:47.200 Well, the reason you should ditch the old school agitator is because the worst thing you do

00:05:51.700 to your clothes in the laundry process is actually agitation or abrasion.

00:05:58.160 You know, it's your clothes rubbing against themselves.

00:06:00.980 The way the agitator cleans is it forces the clothes against each other. 0.95

00:06:05.260 The way a high efficiency machine cleans, like let's do a front loader first, because it's

00:06:10.760 an easier visual.

00:06:11.960 The clothes are lifted up out of the water and they fall back into the water.

00:06:15.780 They're lifted up out of the water and they fall back into the water.

00:06:18.560 When that water forces through the clothes, that's the cleaning process. 0.91

00:06:22.420 Modern top loaders have what's called a napeller and it makes your clothes move like a carousel.

00:06:28.420 So they come out of the water, go back in the water, come out of the water, go back in

00:06:31.460 the water.

00:06:32.020 And it really is the water that cleans your clothes.

00:06:34.480 It's not the detergent.

00:06:36.220 So the way that you force the water through the clothes is the cleaning process.

00:06:41.220 And so new machines, because they don't have that much water, it's easier for your clothes

00:06:45.680 to come out of the water, go back in the water.

00:06:48.080 With an agitator, they don't come out of the water.

00:06:50.520 What actually happens?

00:06:51.880 If you ever look at it, it'll spin and jerk, spin and jerk.

00:06:55.440 And when it's jerking, it's forcing the water back through the clothes, but it's also rubbing

00:07:00.660 them against themselves.

00:07:02.540 So that's the big perk to the HE.

00:07:05.280 Okay.

00:07:05.880 So it's going to put less wear and tear in your clothing and y'all say it cleans better

00:07:10.040 and you're using less water.

00:07:11.540 You're using significantly less water.

00:07:13.900 But I mean, I say that Laundry Love is a sustainable book because all the practices

00:07:19.360 in it are very sustainable, but I didn't write it from a standpoint of sustainability.

00:07:26.100 So yes, you use less water.

00:07:29.900 It's 100% correct.

00:07:31.780 But I don't tell people that's why they should use an HE machine.

00:07:35.560 I tell them they should use it.

00:07:36.880 It's because it's better for your clothes.

00:07:38.640 Yeah.

00:07:38.820 And those agitators can get really violent.

00:07:40.660 A few weeks ago, I think we had a load of sheets in the washing machine and somehow like

00:07:47.380 a ball formed inside the fitted sheet.

00:07:50.360 And all of a sudden I heard this, this, and then I walked in the laundry room and our

00:07:56.420 washing machine was literally walking across the floor because this ball was just beating

00:08:02.620 against the side.

00:08:03.420 And I was like, oh my gosh.

00:08:04.900 Yeah.

00:08:05.080 It gets so out of balance.

00:08:06.360 Yeah.

00:08:06.900 Yeah.

00:08:07.240 It freaked me out.

00:08:07.860 Okay.

00:08:08.080 So we might have to think about getting the front loader.

00:08:11.460 And I think one of the things too, you can stack those things if you want, right?

00:08:14.860 You can get two on top of each other and do two loads if you want.

00:08:18.240 I've seen people do that.

00:08:19.500 It's one of the other benefits.

00:08:20.200 Yeah.

00:08:20.600 I, if I had, you know, the laundry room of my dreams, which I don't, but if I did, I

00:08:26.920 would do two stackables.

00:08:28.060 I'd do two washers, two dryers because you could do them in the same footprint.

00:08:32.260 Yeah.

00:08:32.960 Well, you mentioned washing machine technology.

00:08:35.880 Like you don't have a really strong opinion on things these days because technology has

00:08:39.500 changed.

00:08:40.600 How has it changed?

00:08:41.660 Like so that you don't have much of an opinion on whether you get this one or that

00:08:45.720 one.

00:08:46.780 Well, I mean, they've just, they've gotten so good.

00:08:49.400 Like every manufacturer has tested the machine and they've gotten so good at water efficiency.

00:08:55.520 I mean, almost every machine now has a computer in it, which, I mean, gives you all sorts of

00:09:02.080 little things that you don't know.

00:09:03.500 Like it keeps your machine in balance.

00:09:05.760 It controls the water temperature, it controls how much water it can sense.

00:09:09.640 But just even the basic technology, if you buy the most basic, you know, HE machine,

00:09:16.420 the technology is better than the most high end HE machine when they first launched in

00:09:21.680 the nineties, because we've just figured out like how to move the clothes.

00:09:27.180 And the real key to getting your clothes clean is moving the clothes.

00:09:31.120 You know, in the seventies, the machines of the seventies, we didn't know, like if we put

00:09:36.580 fins in the bottom of the machine, it'll move the clothes up and down. 1.00

00:09:40.000 You know, all we knew is turn and jerk and to fill it up with water and add a bunch of

00:09:44.260 powdered detergent and pray.

00:09:46.380 You know, now we know like we can speed up the spin cycle.

00:09:50.600 We have the ability to speed up the spin cycle.

00:09:52.560 First of all, you know, cause the motors are so much more powerful.

00:09:55.800 So more water spins out of the clothes, which means less time in the dryer.

00:09:59.580 You know, my washing machine, if you do a warm wash, it actually cools before it does

00:10:06.140 the rinse, you know, which is something that just didn't exist 10 years ago, you know, and

00:10:12.760 now you can like add steam if you want that extra little cleaning boost, just the technology

00:10:17.880 of, of just regular washing machines has gotten so fantastic.

00:10:21.740 I mean, I'm not talking about, you know, machines that are nine or $10,000.

00:10:27.000 I'm talking about what you would go into, you know, when you go to an appliance store and

00:10:31.140 you go in and you buy a washing machine, these are just, that's what I'm talking about.

00:10:34.900 Just everyday washing machines.

00:10:36.900 It's just, we have sensor dry, we have high speed spin, they can take more weight.

00:10:43.320 You know, the washing machines in the seventies, you can only do about 15 pounds worth of clothes.

00:10:47.040 Now you can easily do 30, you know, we've just, we just understand technology in general.

00:10:53.080 Okay.

00:10:53.180 So washing machine, the high efficiency washing machine, that's the way to go.

00:10:56.900 Less wear and tear, uses less water, just does a great job of getting your clothes clean.

00:11:01.900 What about detergent?

00:11:03.420 What do you recommend for detergent?

00:11:05.180 Well, my favorite is soap, but that's kind of rare.

00:11:08.300 It's hard to find.

00:11:09.800 I prefer soap to detergent.

00:11:12.400 Their difference is the way they're manufactured.

00:11:14.360 Soap is a base plus an acid and it creates, it saponifies, it creates soap.

00:11:22.600 Detergent is cleaning ingredients that are mixed together.

00:11:26.080 I prefer soap because it rinses cleaner, but if you're just going to buy detergent at the

00:11:31.480 grocery, great.

00:11:33.100 Look for something that's plant-based, but what matters the most is only use about two tablespoons

00:11:39.240 for a full load.

00:11:41.020 You don't need very much detergent.

00:11:43.040 Why is that?

00:11:44.980 Because it isn't the detergent that cleans your clothes, it's the water.

00:11:48.600 And the detergent does two things.

00:11:50.700 It lowers the viscosity of water, which is a fancy way of saying it softens the water.

00:11:56.920 But the big thing is there's a surfactant in soap and or detergent.

00:12:01.360 And surfactant means it floats on the surface of the water.

00:12:04.100 The dirt comes out of your clothes.

00:12:05.700 It gets trapped in the surfactant and it goes down the drain.

00:12:09.360 If you're using too much detergent, the dirt comes out of the clothes.

00:12:13.280 It gets trapped in the surfactant, but it can't rinse away.

00:12:16.620 So the only place it has to go is to resettle back into your clothes.

00:12:20.360 That's how we end up with like crunchy towels or dingy white, or sometimes things have this

00:12:25.980 kind of musty odor when they come out of the washer.

00:12:27.980 That's all because the detergent is still there.

00:12:30.780 There's just too much detergent.

00:12:32.480 That's interesting because when you look at the instructions for detergent on the big

00:12:36.880 brand detergents, you're putting a lot in there.

00:12:39.240 It's like a cup or the lid full.

00:12:41.720 Right.

00:12:42.560 The best way I can explain that is, you know, I sell, I have a store in the Mall of America

00:12:46.540 and I sell laundry soap and it's $26 a pound.

00:12:50.180 If there's some way that I could convince you that you needed a pound of soap for every

00:12:55.480 load of laundry and you do it, I would be rich. 0.95

00:12:59.800 Your clothes would be filthy, but I would be rich.

00:13:04.000 Okay.

00:13:04.620 What about laundry pods?

00:13:05.980 I know a lot of people use that for the convenience factor.

00:13:08.140 What are your thoughts on that?

00:13:09.040 They're easy, but there's enough detergent in one pod to do five loads of laundry.

00:13:13.480 Oh, geez.

00:13:13.920 I am not really a fan because I like to be able to control how much because, you know,

00:13:18.840 you talked about you and your wife washing the sheets.

00:13:21.300 That's a big load of laundry.

00:13:23.100 So you need a full load.

00:13:24.400 But what if you just threw in, you know, like you were out gardening and you both had, you

00:13:30.280 know, shorts and a t-shirt, but it was dirty and you wanted to wash it.

00:13:33.840 That's a really small load.

00:13:36.060 So you don't need as much detergent.

00:13:38.360 And the thing with pods is you just can't control that.

00:13:41.680 Okay.

00:13:41.780 So laundry soap.

00:13:43.680 Where can people find that?

00:13:44.840 Can you get it on Amazon?

00:13:46.120 Where can you go to get that?

00:13:47.120 You can get it on Amazon.

00:13:48.640 I mean, you can get it in like co-ops or Whole Foods.

00:13:51.880 Okay.

00:13:52.180 What's great is I'm starting to see it pop up in grocery stores.

00:13:56.220 Okay.

00:13:56.880 Because it's a greener option.

00:13:58.280 So it's becoming more common.

00:14:00.500 So, you know, that to me is super exciting.

00:14:02.880 Does it come in flakes?

00:14:04.000 Is that how it is?

00:14:04.660 It's usually flakes.

00:14:06.200 Occasionally, it'll be powder, but it's most often flakes.

00:14:09.880 I've seen bars of laundry soap before.

00:14:12.500 What are those for?

00:14:13.760 That's like more for a stain removal.

00:14:16.200 It's usually too aggressive.

00:14:18.440 Like there are people who shave it and use it as laundry soap.

00:14:22.100 Not a big fan because it's actually formulated for stain removal.

00:14:25.740 Okay.

00:14:26.220 So it's pretty aggressive.

00:14:28.000 Okay.

00:14:28.100 Besides the laundry soap, any other supplies you recommend having on hand so you can get

00:14:34.120 your laundry done easily?

00:14:35.800 Well, spray bottle of vinegar and water for sure because that is my go-to stain remover.

00:14:40.780 If I have a stain on a shirt, I'm always going to spray it with vinegar and water.

00:14:44.720 And then your bar of laundry soap you just asked about and a horsehair brush because if

00:14:48.760 you wet the brush and you run it across the bar and build lather up in the brush and attack

00:14:53.840 a stain, you can get out just about anything.

00:14:58.160 And the reason you do it that way is because if you use the bar and you wet it, you're actually

00:15:02.860 pushing the stain further into the fabric.

00:15:05.720 If you use the bristles of the brush, the bristles like, it's like brushing your teeth.

00:15:10.000 You know, it sort of lifts everything up and gets it out of the fabric.

00:15:13.280 I think it's interesting, the vinegar and water mixture, that's your go-to stain removal.

00:15:18.700 So you're not using like the shout or things like that to get rid of stains?

00:15:22.300 I don't use anything.

00:15:23.260 I mean, I use, for my laundry, I use an oily soap, which you could use liquid hand soap.

00:15:29.720 People use dish soap and that's a, here's my issue with dish soap.

00:15:35.340 The technology, you know, the number one brand of dish soap, the technology has gotten so

00:15:41.040 good.

00:15:41.360 They have put it in a spray bottle and you can literally spray it on a pan and wipe it

00:15:46.620 off and like wash the pan.

00:15:48.680 The way they did that is they made it really, really acidic, which is great because it does

00:15:54.080 what it's supposed to do perfectly.

00:15:56.380 The thing is, if you were to do it on a black t-shirt and you sprayed that on, it's so acidic,

00:16:02.360 you'll get the stain out, but it'll look like it left a mark.

00:16:06.200 So I use liquid hand soap, which same thickness, because that's what I want, but without that

00:16:13.720 acidity.

00:16:15.320 So liquid hand soap, stain brush, stain brush, vinegar and water, and then occasionally oxygen

00:16:20.960 bleach.

00:16:21.420 And that's, that is literally everything I use for the laundry.

00:16:24.960 What's the oxygen?

00:16:26.580 Is that OxyClean?

00:16:28.140 Yeah, that'd be a, that's the most common brand.

00:16:30.900 The reason I love oxygen bleach, it'll take out red wine, it'll take out blueberries, it'll

00:16:35.020 take out blood.

00:16:36.200 But the big thing is if you have polar fleece or you have active wear and you wear it and

00:16:41.860 when you're, when you wash it, you put it back on, it smells terrible.

00:16:46.100 That's because it's hydrophobic and oleophilic.

00:16:48.380 It hates water.

00:16:49.120 It loves oil.

00:16:50.120 So it loves the oil from your skin and the bacteria in the oil in your skin and the water

00:16:55.300 isn't enough to take it away.

00:16:56.500 The oxygen bleach will break it down.

00:16:58.660 So it'll actually break that sweat down and wash it out of the fabric.

00:17:02.600 So it doesn't have that odor anymore.

00:17:04.740 Oh yeah.

00:17:05.080 I hope we can talk more about that, getting your active wear clean.

00:17:08.040 Cause I know a lot of people have that problem.

00:17:09.580 And we'll talk more about how you use those supplies.

00:17:11.480 You mentioned the liquid hand soap, you know, what you call the oily soap, brush, vinegar

00:17:15.900 and oxygen bleach when we talk about stain removal.

00:17:19.180 But now that we have our supplies on hand, let's talk about washing our clothes.

00:17:23.220 And you recommend that we should probably wash our clothes less often than we think.

00:17:29.320 So how often do we actually need to wash our clothes?

00:17:32.900 Well, like my jeans, I have a pair of jeans on right now while I'm talking to you.

00:17:37.300 And I've worn them several.

00:17:39.160 I don't really know because I don't wear them every day.

00:17:41.220 I mean, I don't wear them back to back, but I think you should wear your jeans nine or

00:17:44.400 10 times before you wash them.

00:17:46.260 I try to wear my shirts two or three times unless like if I get a spot, I spot treat it.

00:17:51.560 But, you know, if I get sweaty or whatever, then I'm going to wash it.

00:17:55.000 But our clothes just really aren't that dirty.

00:17:58.280 You know, we don't have to wash them every time.

00:18:00.560 And the washing leads to abrasion, which causes them to break down.

00:18:04.560 Yeah.

00:18:04.880 So I prefer, you know, I mean, boxers and socks, we're going to wash those every single

00:18:09.820 time.

00:18:10.500 Right.

00:18:11.320 But your shirts, your jeans, that kind of stuff, you just don't really have to wash it

00:18:15.420 as often as you think.

00:18:16.820 So what do you do?

00:18:17.700 Can you hang it up or should you air it out?

00:18:19.620 I mean, what kind of, what do you do in between washes? 0.99

00:18:22.100 You can, if you need to air it out, that's great.

00:18:25.680 I always, you know, I mean, I hang everything just because I don't have much drawer space

00:18:29.760 and have a lot of hanging space.

00:18:31.300 But like if you needed to fold the jeans up, I'd let them air out a few hours to make sure

00:18:35.280 they're bone dry and then fold them up.

00:18:37.400 My shirts, I just put them back on the hanger.

00:18:39.620 And if you put them back on the hanger when they're still warm, like, you know, if you take

00:18:43.400 your shirt off and immediately put it back on the hanger, usually the wrinkles just fall

00:18:47.100 back out of it.

00:18:47.640 You don't even have to re-steam it.

00:18:49.440 That's cool.

00:18:50.100 Something that we do in our household is we have like a half Z pile. 1.00

00:18:54.400 So it's like, we have like a rack in the closet where you put things on there where, you know,

00:18:59.620 it's, you wore it once.

00:19:01.000 It might not be dirty, but it's not ready to be washed yet.

00:19:05.220 And it allows it to air out.

00:19:07.000 And then you can always just pull it off whenever you're ready to wash it.

00:19:09.480 Right.

00:19:09.660 Do you know what's really funny?

00:19:11.180 Do you know, there's a trend for that and it's called the laundry chair.

00:19:14.860 The laundry chair.

00:19:16.420 That's what it's actually called.

00:19:17.800 Yeah.

00:19:17.980 Okay.

00:19:18.700 It's people who have a chair in their bedroom and they take something off and throw it on

00:19:21.400 the chair.

00:19:22.140 Okay.

00:19:22.900 Because they want to wear it again.

00:19:24.200 I think there's like butler's chairs.

00:19:25.800 Isn't there like a butler chair that people used to have in their closet where they'd hang

00:19:28.240 stuff up?

00:19:29.080 Maybe that was.

00:19:29.360 Yeah, there was actually.

00:19:30.800 Yeah.

00:19:31.320 Okay.

00:19:31.540 So you don't need to wash your clothes as often as you think.

00:19:34.420 Underwear, socks, you know, wash that stuff all the time.

00:19:36.600 But other stuff, you don't need to wash as much.

00:19:39.660 You know, like the jeans I'm wearing right now, I think it's been a month or two since

00:19:44.200 they were washed.

00:19:45.060 Yeah.

00:19:45.980 Yeah.

00:19:46.200 They just don't, they don't need it.

00:19:48.060 Yeah.

00:19:48.360 And I guess one downside of washing your jeans a lot is that it can reduce some of the,

00:19:53.660 I don't know, the look on it, like the dye.

00:19:55.940 But maybe that's not a problem.

00:19:57.180 Maybe you actually want that.

00:19:58.060 Well, it's funny.

00:20:00.080 We generally want that out of denim because we have the ability to set the dye so they

00:20:04.520 don't fade.

00:20:05.560 But most people like them to fade as they wash them.

00:20:09.540 I mean, I do.

00:20:10.440 If you don't like them to fade, you actually can soak them in really hot water with a fourth

00:20:15.200 a cup of salt and you'll set the color forever.

00:20:18.420 Really?

00:20:18.580 Okay.

00:20:19.180 I didn't know that.

00:20:20.500 Yeah.

00:20:21.160 So you do that once you get like a new pair of jeans, you just soak it in salt?

00:20:24.580 Yeah.

00:20:24.780 Or even if you, you bought this pair of jeans a couple months ago and you just washed them

00:20:28.420 for the first time.

00:20:29.500 Yeah.

00:20:29.760 Let's say you wash them two or three times and you love the way they look at that exact

00:20:34.340 moment.

00:20:35.080 You can do it then.

00:20:36.940 Okay.

00:20:37.640 That's cool.

00:20:38.740 Yeah.

00:20:38.940 Something I've been playing around with too lately was the Levi's shrink to fit jeans.

00:20:45.600 The non-sans. 1.00

00:20:46.240 Such a great look.

00:20:47.000 Yeah.

00:20:47.840 So that's cool because you get to a point with those jeans where like, they look like

00:20:51.020 you want to keep this forever.

00:20:52.780 It's like that salt trick.

00:20:53.900 That is cool.

00:20:54.620 Okay.

00:20:55.000 I like that.

00:20:56.120 I'll tell you something really funny about shrink to fit jeans.

00:20:59.040 Yeah.

00:20:59.660 Because this also was back, and it's totally unrelated to this conversation, but it's funny.

00:21:04.180 When I was in college, I was in a store that was doing, that's when shrink to fit was,

00:21:10.560 had just come out.

00:21:11.640 And if you bought a pair, you could climb into a hot tub with them and shrink them to

00:21:18.260 fit on you.

00:21:19.460 That's awesome.

00:21:20.460 Isn't that hysterical?

00:21:21.300 That is cool.

00:21:22.100 No, it's like right there in the store.

00:21:23.300 They had like a hot tub.

00:21:24.300 You just, you put them on.

00:21:25.160 Yeah, right in the middle of the store.

00:21:26.520 That's awesome.

00:21:27.220 That's cool.

00:21:27.620 And you just took your socks and shoes off and climbed in.

00:21:30.040 And then you got out and you stood basically on this, it was kind of a big rack.

00:21:35.500 I don't know, until enough water dripped off and then it was really hot outside.

00:21:39.440 So they were like, well, just go outside.

00:21:40.880 You'll be good to go.

00:21:42.340 We're going to take a quick break for your word from our sponsors.

00:21:49.480 And now back to the show.

00:21:51.460 The very first rule that you talk about of laundry in your book is don't let your clothes

00:21:58.460 tell you what to do.

00:22:00.280 And basically what you're telling people is just ignore the laundry care tag, which when

00:22:05.740 I read that, like, this is blasphemy.

00:22:07.020 Like my mother told me, like, you always read the tag.

00:22:09.780 The internet says you read the tag.

00:22:12.060 Why are you saying ignore the tag? 0.99

00:22:15.000 Because the tags say stupid things. 0.98

00:22:18.240 Like, you know, I'm wearing a cotton dress shirt right now. 0.98

00:22:23.060 And it's just a cotton shirt, but the tag says dry clean only. 1.00

00:22:26.240 Well, that's idiotic. 0.99

00:22:27.220 It's a cotton shirt. 1.00

00:22:28.180 You know, a cotton shirt can be washed.

00:22:30.700 The one that always gets me is dry clean only for cashmere sweaters.

00:22:34.120 I love cashmere sweaters.

00:22:36.100 I live in Minnesota.

00:22:37.660 I wear them all winter long.

00:22:40.600 Okay.

00:22:41.420 Cashmere goats are these smelly goats that live on the side of a mountain. 0.52

00:22:45.780 And they just run around as, you know, smelly goats.

00:22:49.380 They stand in the rain.

00:22:51.620 And the cashmere is fine.

00:22:53.260 The reason that it says dry clean only is because people don't know how to do laundry.

00:23:00.480 So, you know, if you treat a cashmere sweater like you treat a cotton towel, no, you can't

00:23:07.020 wash it the same way, but you can still wash it.

00:23:10.040 The hair is totally washable.

00:23:12.400 The other thing that's really interesting is if you buy a sweater in the United States

00:23:16.060 and you buy the same sweater in Europe, it will have different care instructions because

00:23:20.640 the Europeans are more familiar with laundry.

00:23:23.120 So something in the U.S. that says dry clean only in Europe, it will have washing instructions.

00:23:28.460 That's interesting.

00:23:29.140 I didn't know that.

00:23:30.080 Yeah.

00:23:30.260 So you make the case, you can wash every bit of clothing you own at home.

00:23:34.500 You don't have to take it to the dry cleaners.

00:23:36.040 Yeah.

00:23:36.360 I haven't been to the dry cleaner in at least 16 years.

00:23:40.120 Could you wash?

00:23:41.100 Can I wash one of my wool suits at home if I wanted to?

00:23:43.480 Yeah.

00:23:43.840 I just, in fact, I just washed a wool suit last week.

00:23:46.620 You have to put them in a mesh bag.

00:23:48.120 I mean, you can't just throw them in the washer like anything.

00:23:50.400 You have to put them in a mesh bag really tight so they don't move around.

00:23:54.700 And you just toss them in the washer.

00:23:56.420 When they're dry, you hang them up, let them dry and steam them out.

00:23:59.520 That's it.

00:23:59.940 And it doesn't harm the lining, like the silk lining you might have or whatever?

00:24:04.040 No, I mean, it's because dry cleaning isn't really a dry process.

00:24:08.240 It's a liquid.

00:24:09.400 It's dry because it isn't water.

00:24:11.500 It's a chemical.

00:24:12.700 It's a chemical, right.

00:24:13.860 So it's a liquid process.

00:24:15.560 It's just not water.

00:24:16.660 The reason dry cleaning ever came into being was because when we first started doing dry

00:24:21.820 cleaning in like the 30s, when it became a thing, silk, at the time, silk is the second

00:24:26.820 strongest fiber known to man.

00:24:28.100 And at the time, we didn't have the ability to dye silk permanently.

00:24:32.780 And we actually dyed it with salt.

00:24:35.380 And so if you got it in water, the water would dissolve the salt.

00:24:39.340 What they found was petroleum wouldn't dissolve the salt.

00:24:43.680 So dry cleaning became a thing because of silk.

00:24:46.920 That's interesting.

00:24:47.520 And you make the point in the book that this idea that you have to dry clean wool or even

00:24:51.760 a wool suit.

00:24:52.620 It's kind of silly because wool suits existed before dry cleaning existed.

00:24:56.680 And people cleaned those.

00:24:59.640 Right.

00:24:59.840 I mean, think of the Victorians.

00:25:01.100 They changed clothes more than a four-year-old and they didn't have dry cleaners.

00:25:06.920 They washed everything.

00:25:08.640 And we know that the clothes survived because we still see them.

00:25:11.040 I mean, you can go to museums.

00:25:12.820 You know, I mean, it's not uncommon to go to a museum and see like a Civil War uniform

00:25:17.680 or, you know, a mourning dress from the 1820s.

00:25:22.200 And that stuff didn't, there was no dry cleaning.

00:25:25.760 Yeah.

00:25:26.580 Okay.

00:25:26.900 So ignore, you can wash things at home.

00:25:28.860 You just have to know how to do it.

00:25:30.180 For certain things, you got to do it differently.

00:25:32.020 Maybe we'll talk about some of those things.

00:25:33.400 Let's talk about this sorting laundry.

00:25:36.180 Do you recommend people sorting their clothes before washing?

00:25:39.560 The best way to sort is white as a load, black as a load, the cool colors.

00:25:48.380 So blue, green, and purple with gray, the hot colors, red, orange, and yellow with brown.

00:25:53.780 And then if you wear performance wear like Athleta, Lululemon, Under Armour, you know, those,

00:26:01.900 sort those in a separate load and that's it.

00:26:03.980 So you don't have to separate your white towels from your white t-shirts, from your white dress shirts, from your white sheets.

00:26:10.900 They can all go in the washing machine together.

00:26:13.020 Why do you sort the laundry based on these colors?

00:26:17.820 It's based on the weight of the dye.

00:26:20.280 I'm trying to minimize abrasion.

00:26:22.780 And different dyes have different weights.

00:26:25.520 So how does the dye cause that abrasion?

00:26:28.720 It's the weight.

00:26:29.720 Okay, the weight of the clothes.

00:26:31.120 So the weight of the clothes.

00:26:32.260 Yeah, okay.

00:26:32.960 A white t-shirt weighs less than a pair of-

00:26:35.400 A black t-shirt.

00:26:36.240 Black t-shirt.

00:26:36.740 Okay.

00:26:37.540 Okay, that's interesting.

00:26:38.680 So you're sorting colors because you want the clothes in a load to be the same weight.

00:26:42.780 You don't want to mix them together to have heavier clothes, a braiding lighter weight clothes in a load.

00:26:48.620 So it's not for the reason I think, you know, I think people in the past, you know, you were told in the past,

00:26:53.620 the reason why you sort is because you want to avoid dark stuff mucking up your white stuff. 0.94

00:26:58.820 Well, right.

00:26:59.720 And it originally happened because of the ringer washer.

00:27:02.460 And then from there, you're exactly right.

00:27:04.940 Like, we didn't have the technology.

00:27:06.280 There again, we're going to use technology.

00:27:07.900 We didn't have the technology to set the dye.

00:27:10.740 So, you know, there's an episode of the Brady Bunch, I think, where Bobby does a load of laundry and he throws in a red sock and everything in the load turns pink.

00:27:19.180 Yeah.

00:27:19.620 That happened to me when I was a kid.

00:27:21.600 Yeah, it was a thing then.

00:27:23.080 If you did that right now, it probably wouldn't happen.

00:27:26.460 Okay.

00:27:26.920 Because the technology has changed.

00:27:28.040 The dye just sets better.

00:27:29.800 Yeah, it's just the quality of the dye is so much better.

00:27:32.780 Okay.

00:27:33.060 So we sort by this, what you just said.

00:27:34.980 So whites together, blacks together, cool colors together, hot color, warm colors together, and then you want your athletic wear separate.

00:27:43.160 Right.

00:27:43.620 Let's talk about washing.

00:27:45.020 Are we going to wash these clothes any different from each other?

00:27:48.500 Because you usually think you have to sort your whites because you're going to wash that on hot, but you're dark, you're going to wash on cool. 1.00

00:27:53.760 We're going to wash everything on warm, and we're going to wash everything on the express cycle.

00:27:58.780 So the 30-minute wash cycle and warm water across the board.

00:28:03.100 Now, I just said earlier, you know, I have been schooled in the last two days because there is now a machine where you can wash on cold.

00:28:11.020 As long as your water is 65 degrees or warmer, I don't care what you call the cycle.

00:28:17.980 Okay.

00:28:18.080 I live in Minnesota.

00:28:19.480 Our water is naturally very cold.

00:28:22.640 So I never was able to use cold because I never had a machine that would bring the temperature up to 65.

00:28:30.900 People in San Antonio, Texas can use cold.

00:28:33.760 So I don't care what you call the cycle.

00:28:35.700 I just want the water to be 65 degrees or warmer.

00:28:38.720 And that 65-degree mark, is that when the detergent actually starts doing what it's supposed to be doing?

00:28:44.380 Is that why you wanted that?

00:28:45.220 Yes.

00:28:45.640 That's exactly why.

00:28:46.560 Why not go hot?

00:28:48.480 Because the cotton, like your cotton towels, for example, they can totally take the hot water, but they're sewn with polyester thread.

00:28:56.280 Polyester just cannot take hot water.

00:28:59.040 It breaks down too fast.

00:29:00.840 That's the reason, like, your towels, the edges look like bacon because the water was too hot in the washer or the dryer was too hot and the polyester thread shrank.

00:29:10.020 So warm is warm enough to get everything clean without doing any damage.

00:29:15.440 And you said the cycle, you just want that express cycle.

00:29:18.080 Like, a lot of washing machines that come with those different, like, things that are, like, permanent press is one of them, I think, or whatever.

00:29:24.000 Is that the dryer?

00:29:24.640 Yeah, there's permanent press.

00:29:25.640 There's delicate.

00:29:26.440 There's hand wash.

00:29:27.380 There's heavy duty.

00:29:28.380 There's sanitary.

00:29:29.180 Yeah, the express cycle, if you don't have an express cycle, by the way, use permanent press.

00:29:34.440 But you just want that short cycle.

00:29:37.360 Because once you bring the temperature up, you know, you bring the water to temperature and you add the detergent, it really only takes about two minutes for your clothes to come clean with a little bit of agitation.

00:29:49.640 So when your clothes wash for eight minutes in a 30-minute cycle, that's more than long enough for them to come clean.

00:29:56.520 And if you wash longer, you're just wearing your clothes down more.

00:29:59.280 Yeah, you're just breaking them down.

00:30:00.760 Yeah.

00:30:01.440 And you can do this to all your clothes, your whites, your jeans, your dark colors, your red.

00:30:06.540 It doesn't matter.

00:30:08.000 Absolutely.

00:30:08.620 I mean, I just do this across the board.

00:30:10.520 Even, like, a wool sweater, a cashmere sweater, do the same thing?

00:30:13.600 Yes.

00:30:13.920 As long as you put it in a mesh bag, you know, easy.

00:30:19.200 Well, speaking of cold water washing, I've seen detergents that are like, this is designed for cold water washing.

00:30:26.500 Is there anything to that?

00:30:28.360 Well, it's funny.

00:30:29.560 If you read the fine print, they say that they think cold water is 65 degrees.

00:30:35.560 Because the industry thinks cold is 65 degrees.

00:30:38.740 The industry thinks warm water doesn't come until about 80 degrees.

00:30:42.820 So, the industry thinks if cold is 65, it's just municipal water.

00:30:48.080 You know, in Duluth, Minnesota, in the winter, municipal water is 41 degrees.

00:30:52.440 Yeah.

00:30:53.220 That's the difference.

00:30:54.880 And I think in the book, you talked about when you wash in cold water, like, let's say you're in Duluth, Minnesota, you wash in cold water, even with a cold water-designed detergent, because it's not warm enough to start activating, all that's happening is that detergent is just staying in your clothes.

00:31:11.140 Exactly.

00:31:11.540 And, you know, it's easy to test, because if you're a cold water washer, flip your water to your cycle to warm, put something you've washed, so something that, you know, is quote-unquote clean, back in the machine, don't do anything else.

00:31:25.680 Just turn it on warm water, and it's going to suds, because all that detergent is going to activate.

00:31:31.000 Right.

00:31:31.220 Because it didn't get activated the first time you washed it.

00:31:34.180 So, the detergent, we talked about that.

00:31:35.720 You don't want to use much.

00:31:37.140 I think you said two tablespoons?

00:31:39.300 Two tablespoons for a full load.

00:31:41.200 And if the load gets smaller, you need to start cutting it down.

00:31:44.160 Is a full load, like, it's all the way to the top?

00:31:46.960 Is that considered a full load?

00:31:48.060 It depends on your machine.

00:31:49.500 Usually, with a top loader, it's somewhere between 70% and 75% full.

00:31:55.860 And with a front loader, it's usually up to about 80% full.

00:32:00.400 Okay.

00:32:00.920 So, you're going to wash your clothes on warm and on the express cycle, which takes only 30 minutes, for all your stuff.

00:32:09.140 I think that's, it's easy to remember.

00:32:10.900 You don't have to think about things too much anymore.

00:32:13.120 Let's talk about bleach.

00:32:14.360 Should you bleach your whites?

00:32:15.460 That was something that my mom did growing up. 1.00

00:32:18.220 Yeah.

00:32:18.620 You should never bleach your white.

00:32:20.780 There again, it's a technology thing.

00:32:22.420 The reason you shouldn't bleach white is because the color that you're thinking of is white.

00:32:27.020 You know, like a white dress shirt, right?

00:32:29.780 It's this beautiful, vibrant white.

00:32:32.600 That color is known as optic white.

00:32:36.120 It is not a naturally occurring color.

00:32:38.500 To get what we think of as white, we use a blue dye.

00:32:42.260 It's called an optical whitener or an optical brightener, but it's a blue dye.

00:32:46.520 And so, we dye the white white to get it that bright white color.

00:32:51.880 When you use bleach, we know that bleach lifts color.

00:32:56.320 That's why we don't put bleach in black, for example.

00:32:59.300 Because if you bleach black, it comes out kind of spotty gray.

00:33:03.260 That's what happens to white. 0.92

00:33:05.580 It just takes three or four times of doing it before our eyes can perceive the difference in color.

00:33:12.340 But once it happens, then your white looks dingy and, you know, there's no repairing it.

00:33:18.080 Yeah, I remember I experienced that when I was on my own for the first time and I had to wash some white dress shirts.

00:33:23.500 And I was like, oh, I'll throw bleach on it.

00:33:25.180 And I don't think I actually filled up the washing machine with water first before I put the bleach.

00:33:29.500 I just put the bleach right on my shirts and then I pulled them out.

00:33:31.980 How would you get holes?

00:33:33.060 I got holes in like these yellow stains.

00:33:36.520 I'm like, okay, I used bleach wrong.

00:33:38.660 So, I stopped using bleach after that.

00:33:40.760 Good.

00:33:41.040 So, don't use bleach.

00:33:42.280 And I think you have been talking about like, we're not even using bleach to disinfect stuff anymore.

00:33:47.300 Even in hospitals, they're using other stuff.

00:33:49.620 Yeah, there's other things that are better.

00:33:51.280 I mean, at home, if you need things to be sanitary, just add vinegar.

00:33:55.200 Yeah, vinegar is an all-natural cleaner.

00:33:57.940 It does wonders.

00:33:59.000 Yeah, it's kind of an amazing thing, really, vinegar.

00:34:01.200 It really is.

00:34:01.740 I've been using vinegar on my glass shower door.

00:34:05.860 Yeah, absolutely.

00:34:06.700 I'm the shower cleaner.

00:34:07.940 And I've always had problems with the soap scum or just like the water stains.

00:34:12.040 And I'd buy the really expensive, really smelly, doesn't it?

00:34:15.680 Like my eyes would burn shower cleaner.

00:34:18.220 And I would never get the stuff off.

00:34:20.560 And then I just started using vinegar and water.

00:34:23.220 And it's awesome.

00:34:24.380 It's crystal clear.

00:34:25.920 It's amazing.

00:34:26.480 It does better than Windex.

00:34:27.540 It's awesome.

00:34:28.680 Yeah, it's great and easy and cheap.

00:34:32.080 Yeah, it's super cheap.

00:34:33.300 Okay, so for most stuff, you can just throw it in the laundry, the washing machine.

00:34:38.360 You're going to be good.

00:34:39.340 With certain items that are a little more delicate, you want to get these mesh bags.

00:34:43.860 So what are you going to put in these mesh bags?

00:34:45.200 So wool sweaters, other types of knits?

00:34:47.660 Anything wool or anything silk is the easiest way to think about it.

00:34:51.400 Okay.

00:34:52.020 And this could be also your wool suit.

00:34:54.960 Yeah, absolutely.

00:34:55.560 If you do it, the jacket goes in one bag and the pants go in another.

00:34:59.680 Okay.

00:34:59.840 And you said they have to be packed pretty tight.

00:35:01.820 Is that right?

00:35:02.540 Yeah, you want it like a sausage.

00:35:03.940 So if your bag is too big, just push it to the bottom of the bag and then roll the bag around it and put a rubber band around it.

00:35:10.060 You want it to be like a sausage when you wash it.

00:35:13.420 Because the water will still move through it.

00:35:14.840 It'll still come clean.

00:35:16.200 But you don't want it rubbing against itself.

00:35:18.680 The whole point is for it to not move inside that bag.

00:35:22.120 And then when you dry sweaters or a suit, you're not going to put these in the dryer, right?

00:35:27.020 You're going to let them air dry?

00:35:27.800 No.

00:35:27.900 Anything that goes in a mesh bag never goes in the dryer.

00:35:30.640 Okay.

00:35:31.300 When you dry sweaters, something that we do is we lay them out flat on the ground on a towel.

00:35:36.660 Do we need to do that?

00:35:38.220 Yeah.

00:35:38.580 That's a great way to do it.

00:35:39.740 But the other thing you can do is you can lay them across a drying rack.

00:35:43.940 You don't want to hang sweaters up when they're wet because you'll get those hanger ears.

00:35:48.700 Yeah.

00:35:49.260 So you can't hang them on the dryer rack to save space if you needed to do that.

00:35:52.540 Yes, you absolutely can.

00:35:53.960 Because you kind of, when you lay them on the drying rack, you lay them kind of, you know, you're folding kind of across the middle.

00:35:59.380 You know, so the weight is evenly distributed.

00:36:02.460 So nothing really stretches out.

00:36:04.880 Okay.

00:36:05.400 All right.

00:36:05.680 So we just save people some dry cleaning bills.

00:36:07.660 You can wash your wool sweaters, your suits at home.

00:36:11.540 Just air dry them out.

00:36:13.120 Let's talk about drying in general.

00:36:14.620 Besides those items of clothing, which we're going to allow to air dry, with the clothing you are throwing into the dryer or the textiles you are throwing in the dryer, this can include sheets and towels.

00:36:24.600 How do people mess this up?

00:36:27.260 Dryer sheets is the first one because you should never use those.

00:36:30.960 And then the other thing is, is like people will turn the dryer on for two hours.

00:36:34.760 You know, their clothes are dry in 30 minutes and then they just tumble in hot, dry heat.

00:36:41.000 I mean, you're just breaking them down right in front of you.

00:36:44.440 Why don't you use dryer sheets?

00:36:46.160 Because they coat the fabric.

00:36:48.200 So fabric, softener, and dryer sheets, they coat the fabric.

00:36:50.940 That's how they work.

00:36:52.160 And it does a couple things.

00:36:53.520 It takes away absorbency.

00:36:54.700 The first time you use fabric, softener, or dryer sheets on your towels, you reduce their absorbency by like 80%.

00:37:01.280 It makes it harder to get stains out because stains get sort of trapped under this coating.

00:37:08.380 And then it also takes away breathability.

00:37:10.820 Like I'm thinking of like golf shirts or linen in the summer.

00:37:13.920 If you use fabric softener on them, they can't breathe.

00:37:18.220 So that's probably the worst thing you do to your clothes is fabric softener and dryer sheets.

00:37:22.700 And so for the setting on the dryer, what are you going to put that at?

00:37:25.000 Just like the lowest setting possible?

00:37:26.780 I put it on warm and then I always do it by time.

00:37:30.960 Like I know that towels and sheets will dry in my dryer in 30 minutes.

00:37:35.380 So I just do it by time.

00:37:36.860 Okay.

00:37:37.460 What do dryer balls do? 1.00

00:37:40.220 We use those, but I'm wondering, what do they actually do?

00:37:42.320 They actually speed up your drying time because they speed up the center or they maintain the centrifugal force of the dryer.

00:37:49.600 So they keep the clothes tumbling so that they don't knot up like your sheets did in the washing machine.

00:37:54.520 They keep everything tumbling.

00:37:56.000 And since it's tumbling and kind of loose, it's just drying faster.

00:38:00.720 So, I mean, they're pretty great.

00:38:02.300 I leave them in the dryer.

00:38:03.320 I never take them out.

00:38:05.200 I've seen these things that kind of look like porcupines.

00:38:07.980 Is that the same thing as a dryer ball?

00:38:09.620 Yeah.

00:38:10.140 It's a dryer ball.

00:38:11.060 They're just rubber.

00:38:12.320 Okay.

00:38:13.040 Some people prefer those, you know, whichever one you like.

00:38:15.760 They work the same way.

00:38:17.440 Oh, yeah.

00:38:17.760 We use the wool ones.

00:38:19.200 Like these big giant wool balls.

00:38:21.100 I feel like they soften clothes a little and maybe slightly reduce static.

00:38:25.160 Do they reduce static?

00:38:26.440 They don't.

00:38:27.600 But, you know, the greatest thing in the world to reduce static is a ball of aluminum foil.

00:38:32.320 You take a one-yard piece of aluminum foil and make a ball a little bit bigger than a softball.

00:38:38.340 Throw it in the dryer.

00:38:39.200 It will remove static better than anything you've ever used.

00:38:42.760 It'll continue to compress on itself.

00:38:44.760 When it gets to the size of a walnut, you just throw it in recycling and make a new one.

00:38:49.080 But you will be amazed at how great it is on static.

00:38:52.580 All right.

00:38:53.780 No more dryer sheets, no more fabric softeners then.

00:38:56.780 Exactly.

00:38:57.820 I'm not a big fan of the smell when you're, like, walking in your neighborhood and you can tell someone's using a dryer sheet.

00:39:04.320 Isn't that the worst?

00:39:05.540 Because you go outside to breathe the outdoors and then you end up breathing in chemicals.

00:39:09.320 Yeah.

00:39:09.560 Well, speaking of, people use fabric softener because, you know, some people like that smell, that downy fresh, right?

00:39:15.740 Yeah.

00:39:16.440 Any tips for people who want to make their clothes smell nice but not use fabric softener?

00:39:21.740 Yeah.

00:39:22.060 Put some essential oils on your wool ball.

00:39:24.720 Okay.

00:39:25.120 You can put a few drops of essential oils on your wool ball and it will scent your clothes in the dryer without staining anything.

00:39:32.060 It's great.

00:39:32.720 If you love that, like, fresh, sort of linen-y, outdoorsy kind of smell, try lemongrass or bergamot.

00:39:40.160 Some people use lavender.

00:39:41.660 I actually sent my sheets with peppermint.

00:39:43.960 You know, you can sort of pick what you want.

00:39:45.960 And what's great is then you can pick whatever you want.

00:39:48.400 You know, you're not relying on, like, river rain or something.

00:39:52.700 But, you know, the essential oils are also completely safe.

00:39:56.620 I will – I'm going to throw out a caveat here, though, which I always do.

00:39:59.720 If you're going to start using essential oils for your laundry, you need to do your own research as far as babies and pets.

00:40:08.100 Okay.

00:40:08.540 Why is that?

00:40:09.200 I guess there's, like, you have an allergic reaction.

00:40:11.420 Some essential oils are not pet safe and some essential oils make babies grumpy.

00:40:17.560 Interesting.

00:40:18.400 You don't want a grumpy baby.

00:40:20.040 Absolutely not.

00:40:21.760 If you wash their clothes, you want them to take a nap.

00:40:24.200 Right.

00:40:24.960 So maybe give them some lavender. 1.00

00:40:27.100 Yeah.

00:40:27.600 Yeah.

00:40:27.840 I think – I was thinking that the essential oils tip, I think it would be really nice to, like, have sandalwood, like, sandalwood-smelling clothes.

00:40:34.620 Sandalwood would be fabulous.

00:40:35.580 Or oud would be great.

00:40:37.660 Yeah.

00:40:37.840 Yeah.

00:40:37.980 I mean, the thing is you can play around with them, you know, like – I mean, depending on how far you wanted to go.

00:40:43.540 I mean, if you wanted to, like, do your active wear or something, you know, you could do, like, something citrusy because it would keep you very alert.

00:40:51.140 Ooh.

00:40:51.500 Yeah.

00:40:51.740 I like that.

00:40:52.700 I like this hack.

00:40:53.560 Okay.

00:40:53.760 I'm going to get some essential oils.

00:40:55.380 Yeah.

00:40:55.740 Usually I'm like, oh, essential oils, that's kind of weird.

00:40:57.520 But I like the essential oils for making your clothes smell nice.

00:40:59.880 Yeah.

00:41:00.460 Speaking of athletic wear, I want to get back to more detail on this.

00:41:03.700 Why is it so hard to get the stink out of athletic wear?

00:41:09.920 It's the fabric.

00:41:11.180 It's – you know, the fabric is polyester.

00:41:13.260 And polyester is awesome.

00:41:14.860 It is an amazing fabric.

00:41:16.480 We could do anything with polyester.

00:41:18.080 But we've never been able to get over this oleophilic-hydrophobic thing.

00:41:23.040 You know, hates water, loves oil.

00:41:24.660 And it just loves the bacteria in your sweat.

00:41:27.600 And your sweat under your arms, between your legs and behind your knees, is oilier than any other sweat on your body.

00:41:36.560 Okay.

00:41:36.860 So it's just holding on to that oil.

00:41:38.800 Yeah.

00:41:39.000 It's just holding that oil and the sweat's in it.

00:41:40.740 So that's the reason we kind of held the active wear off because we're going to throw oxygen bleach in with it.

00:41:45.300 And the oxygen bleach is just going to break that oil down.

00:41:48.420 I mean, the very first time you do it, it's usually gone.

00:41:52.440 If, you know, they're biking shorts and you've had them for several years, you may have to wash them a couple of times before all the sweat's gone.

00:42:00.920 But you'll notice a huge difference the very first time you do it.

00:42:04.940 Do you need to pre-soak the shirts or the clothing?

00:42:07.780 You can just toss it in the washer with the, you know, just put the oxygen bleach in with the shirt and you're good to go.

00:42:13.240 Do you have to dry them any differently?

00:42:14.620 Like, are you going to use high heat or anything like that?

00:42:16.520 No.

00:42:17.200 No.

00:42:17.580 I mean, I usually, like that stuff, I usually hang it all up.

00:42:20.380 I don't even put it in the dryer.

00:42:22.280 But, you know, yeah, once you do the oxygen bleach, I mean, you're golden.

00:42:26.860 Right.

00:42:27.420 Okay.

00:42:27.760 That's a good tip.

00:42:28.740 Let's talk about stain removal.

00:42:30.200 How do you get rid of the most common stains you see?

00:42:32.800 So, you know, like red wine, coffee, spaghetti sauce.

00:42:35.780 Like, how do you get rid of that stuff?

00:42:37.280 So, usually, okay, you kind of mentioned, it's funny, everything you ask uses one thing.

00:42:43.420 Oxygen bleach will take out red wine.

00:42:45.440 It'll take out blood. 0.85

00:42:46.860 If there's color and there's oil, spray it with vinegar and water, blot it, and then scrub it with soap and a brush.

00:42:53.400 The reason you do it in that order is because the oil keeps you from being able to get at the color with the brush or with the horsehair brush.

00:43:01.260 So, when you take the vinegar, you spray it with vinegar, it actually breaks down the surface tension of the stain.

00:43:07.000 So, then you can scrub that color out because you've already gotten rid of the oil.

00:43:11.660 The reason people have trouble with those stains is because they don't use the vinegar first.

00:43:18.240 If you use the vinegar first, it'll come right out.

00:43:22.160 I loved your advice about getting rid of stains.

00:43:24.280 You don't really sweat stains.

00:43:25.740 You're like, yeah, we can take care of pretty much anything.

00:43:27.360 You had an instance where someone called you.

00:43:29.760 They were getting married that day.

00:43:31.580 Some kid, like permanent marker, sharpie marker, just drew all over the dress.

00:43:37.220 And you're able to get the stain out.

00:43:38.040 While she had it on.

00:43:38.920 While she had it on.

00:43:39.480 I mean, she was at her wedding.

00:43:40.800 Right.

00:43:41.220 Like, she was at her wedding.

00:43:43.480 Yeah, and I had to leave the store.

00:43:45.140 We were – and it's funny because, as I told you, I have a store.

00:43:48.100 It's in the mall.

00:43:49.280 So, I couldn't close.

00:43:50.940 And I was trying to get one of my employees to come in so I could get over to her. 1.00

00:43:54.300 We were actually at the point where we were thinking about getting one of her bridesmaids to come work in my store so that I could get to the wedding to get the sharpie out of the dress. 0.86

00:44:05.540 Fortunately, somebody showed up.

00:44:06.860 And it was somebody who used to work for me, and I was like, I need you to stay here 20 minutes.

00:44:10.200 I'll be back.

00:44:11.180 You know, we used some rubbing alcohol.

00:44:12.360 It came right out.

00:44:13.560 What's so great about anything is once you know you can remove a stain, you can wear anything you want.

00:44:19.020 You know, you can wear your tuxedo jacket with jeans and a t-shirt to a Taylor Swift concert if you want to.

00:44:23.920 You know, you can wear your cashmere sweater fly fishing.

00:44:28.000 Because once you can get it out, once you can get it clean, you can wear it when you want to wear it.

00:44:33.680 Yeah, you don't have to be so precious with your clothes.

00:44:35.360 You can actually enjoy them.

00:44:36.260 Right.

00:44:37.200 What about this stain?

00:44:38.700 I know a lot of guys listening might have experienced this with white dress shirts, the yellow armpit stain.

00:44:44.740 Yes.

00:44:45.320 Hardest stain there is to get out.

00:44:47.220 Yeah.

00:44:47.460 What's going on there?

00:44:48.240 What is that?

00:44:48.840 And why is it so hard to get out?

00:44:49.960 And how do you get it out?

00:44:50.860 So, the reason it's so hard to get out is because it throws the pH of the shirt off so far that the detergent just can't do it.

00:45:01.440 I'm going to tell you a two-part trick to this because there's a trick and then a hack.

00:45:05.640 Okay.

00:45:05.880 The trick to get it out is take your oily hand soap or your oily laundry soap, put it on there. 0.93

00:45:12.460 Sprinkle oxygen bleach over the top of it, rub it in, and let it sit.

00:45:17.340 And you may need to let it sit a couple hours.

00:45:19.900 Turn the hot water, the tap, all the way to hot and put it under there.

00:45:24.320 And you'll watch that stain, like, melt out.

00:45:26.920 Usually, it'll happen once.

00:45:28.640 If it's really, really bad, you may have to do it twice.

00:45:33.000 But it'll come right out.

00:45:34.240 But here's the hack.

00:45:35.600 Once you get that stain out or you're starting with a new shirt, if every single time, immediately, before you start the washer.

00:45:44.840 So, you're getting ready to wash your white dress shirts.

00:45:48.120 If you spray the pits or the collar, that's where the other people get it, where some people get it.

00:45:52.240 Or the cuffs with vinegar and water and throw it in the washer.

00:45:56.200 And the vinegar still has to be wet when the washer starts.

00:45:59.180 You'll never have the stain again.

00:46:01.880 Ooh, that's nice.

00:46:02.960 I like that.

00:46:04.040 Yeah, it's great.

00:46:04.780 Because it actually, what it does is the stain is basic.

00:46:08.560 The vinegar is acidic.

00:46:09.700 It brings the pH back close enough to neutral that your soap or your detergent can wash it out.

00:46:15.480 Is the stain, is that just a mixture of sweat and the deodorant?

00:46:19.320 Yeah, it's mainly the sweat.

00:46:20.900 It's the sweat acting with the fabric.

00:46:23.180 You know, the deodorant is there, which actually makes it a little harder because it's sort of waxy.

00:46:28.260 Yeah.

00:46:28.740 But it's really the sweat and the fabric that cause that yellowing.

00:46:32.140 Well, this has been great, Patrick.

00:46:33.660 I mean, there's a lot of great stuff in here for make your laundry better.

00:46:37.740 Where can people go to learn more about your work?

00:46:40.140 The easiest place is go to laundryevangelist.com because you can watch my YouTube videos.

00:46:45.860 I do a live every Thursday on YouTube where I answer questions.

00:46:49.600 You can see videos.

00:46:51.060 You can see, you know, places I've been featured.

00:46:53.380 So, if you want to see TV or, you know, the Wall Street Journal, whatever, you can see those.

00:46:58.860 And you can actually, you know, you can see the products.

00:47:01.340 But you can actually even submit a question and then I answer them on live.

00:47:05.300 So, you know, if you have a question that you didn't get today, you can ask it and then I answer them every Thursday.

00:47:11.320 That's awesome.

00:47:12.260 Well, Patrick Richardson, thanks for your time.

00:47:14.080 It's been a pleasure.

00:47:15.280 Thank you so much.

00:47:16.100 Thanks for having me.

00:47:16.720 This was so much fun.

00:47:19.040 My guest today is Patrick Richardson.

00:47:20.520 He's the author of the book Laundry Love.

00:47:22.120 It's available on Amazon.com.

00:47:23.720 You can learn more information about his work at his website, laundryevangelist.com.

00:47:27.160 Also, check out our show notes at aom.is slash laundry, where you can find links to resources and delve deeper into this topic.

00:47:35.080 Well, that wraps up another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast.

00:47:42.460 The Art of Manliness podcast hosts guests from a wide range of fields, so you can improve each and every area of your life.

00:47:48.140 One week, we could be discussing the philosophy of physical fitness, another, the art of laundry.

00:47:52.860 If you enjoy the ever-fresh variety of the AOM podcast, consider taking a minute to leave the show a review or share it with a friend.

00:47:58.800 I greatly appreciate all the generous folks who do so.

00:48:01.420 As always, thank you for the continued support.

00:48:03.380 And until next time, it's Brett McKay reminding you to not listen to AOM podcast, but put what you've heard into action.

The Art of Manliness - May 13, 2024

The Dude's Guide to Laundry： How to Save Time, Money, and Your Wardrobe

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