Thread | Brutkey

Laundry tips and opinions which were requested:

Using fabric softener will make cotton feel clammy and greasy, and give it a mildewy smell. Fabric conditioning helps with staticky plastic fibres but isn't necessary for natural fibres! Just wash without. Never put it on towels, it stops their absorption powers. You can use a little bit of vinegar instead of fabric softener, it will have a mild smell when wet, dries odourless.

Line drying is less wear on clothes than dryer but live your life if you have no place to dry them!

Bedding needs to be washed super hot occasionally! Towels, too!

If your shirts smell terrible because you've been sweating into them, soak them in the sink with a cup of vinegar in room temperature water, rinse, wash normally. This kills a lot of mildew and helps break apart organic residue.

Liquid laundry detergent is silly! Just get detergent in powder form, you're spared the plastic bottles and no heavy liquids are ferried around.
Soap nuts are great if you're allergic to everything but soap nuts. They're not even nuts and are compostable!

A lot of the washing instructions are LIES. You can literally boil 100% cotton and it's fine! You'd be amazed how much dry clean only is not! Polyester and cotton will be just dandy in 60 Celsius - the manufacturers play it safe because some dyes fade in hotter temps. Cheaply made clothes may shrink, but if it's stinky, take the risk!

Willow, Venus Pirate 🏳️‍⚧️

@Willow@chaosfem.tw

@sinituulia@eldritch.cafe Any tips for getting fabric softener out of hand-me-down synthetics?

Sini Tuulia
@sinituulia@eldritch.cafe

@Willow@chaosfem.tw Oh yes, it's basically my nemesis. It depends on how much is on there, and what it smells like, sometimes the only thing that works is washing it 5-12 times and suffering.

But! I've found that Marseille soap works pretty well. (It's a type of traditional olive oil based block soap. As soap as you can get, really. I assume Castile soap works similarly.)
First I'll reaaaaaaally lather the garments in the sink with the soap and some comfortably warm water, mostly rinse that off, lather again, rinse it again... You can sort of tell when gunk stops coming off, when it feels less slippery, or the smell changes?
Then you just need to rinse it really really well, because bar soap isn't super good inside a washing machine in large quantities, though a little doesn't hurt. Put in like double the detergent you'd usually use, wash normally.
If that didn't do it, or it feels fine but smells bad, wash it with a cup of table vinegar, or 3 tablespoons of white vinegar.