Follow these tips when washing clothes, and you will get clean clothes without excessive use of nature's resources.
1. Wash less often. Some people toss clothes in the laundry basket on autopilot, but it's worth assessing the garment before it goes to the wash. Is it really dirty? Repeated washing is one of the most energy-demanding stages in the life cycle of a garment. You should probably wash underwear and socks (with the exception of woolen socks) after each use, but many other garments can be worn once, twice or three times before you have to wash them. Less washing will also wear less on the clothes, so you can wear them for longer.
2. Fill up the machine! Fuller machine = fewer washes, and then you save both water and energy.
3. Lower the temperature. With today's detergents, you don't need to wash everything at 60 degrees. In fact, there is little that needs to be done at 60, it is usually just as clean at 30 and 40 degrees. In many countries, everything is washed in cold water.
4. Skip the prewash. Instead, you can treat stains directly on garments that need more thorough treatment before putting them in the machine, then you save both water and energy.
5. Use eco-labelled detergents, and dose them correctly instead of just throwing it in the machine. Your laundy does not get extra clean with extra detergent.
6. Remove stains locally, without washing the entire garment. Fat stains can be soaked in soap for dishwashing, left for 10 minutes and therafter rinsed in tap water. Hold the stain close to the tap, with the inside facing the nozzle. Let the water rinse hard through the stain.
7. Wash synthetic clothes in a Guppy bag or other special laundry bag to catch microplastics.
8. Skip the dryer if you can, and hang the laundry to dry. Air drying saves your clothes, the environment and your wallet.
9. Are you going to buy a new washing machine or dryer? Choose a machine with energy class A+ and above.