Speaker 1: Him, Manny, and this is no such thing. The show
Speaker 1: where we set all our dumb arguments and yours by
Speaker 1: actually doing the research. This week we're doing a mail
Speaker 1: bag episode answering all your questions about laundry.
Speaker 2: If you go commando in your jeans, you can't wear
Speaker 2: them as long.
Speaker 3: I No, there's no no such thing, no such Thank touch, thank.
Speaker 1: Touch, thank.
Speaker 2: Touch.
Speaker 1: Thank This episode was inspired by a Spotify comment on
Speaker 1: our episode about Kanye from Daniel m asking for us
Speaker 1: to do an episode on how to use the washing
Speaker 1: machine without destroying our clothes. We decided to broaden that
Speaker 1: out to all of our questions about laundry. So we
Speaker 1: put a call out and we got plenty of questions,
Speaker 1: and luckily we have answers to I think all of them.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 1: So we're talking separating lights from darks. We're talking types
Speaker 1: of detergent to use. We're talking todd dryer balls, water temperature,
Speaker 1: yeah yeah, things of that nature. So I called a
Speaker 1: Patrick Richardson, aka the laundry Guy.
Speaker 2: My name is Patrick Richardson and people call me the
Speaker 2: laundry Guy. Welcome to laundry camp. My laundry camps are
Speaker 2: the hottest ticket in town.
Speaker 1: He wrote a book called Laundry Love, Finding Joy in
Speaker 1: a Common Chorea. Seems like a good guy to talk to.
Speaker 1: So I tried to go in kind of chronological order
Speaker 1: of washing things. So I started with prep and sorting. Okay,
Speaker 1: so this is a big one I had, was do
Speaker 1: you have to separate lights from darks?
Speaker 4: Before we get to the answer, yeah, cool, what do
Speaker 4: we currently do?
Speaker 3: My wife does and I don't, and at any time
Speaker 3: I don't. I don't notice that anything bad happens to
Speaker 3: the clothes. I'm sure there's some you know, maybe it's
Speaker 3: it's rare, so it's worth not mixing them, But yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't. I've never noticed any kind of weirdness happening
Speaker 3: if when I do miss yeah, I never did it.
Speaker 1: And the only time I would really think about it
Speaker 1: was if I got like a new if I had
Speaker 1: like a new pack of white teas and like a
Speaker 1: really new red T shirt or so like things like
Speaker 1: that where it's like, okay, this is not going to
Speaker 1: go well with fresh items. But all most of my
Speaker 1: stuff it's like, you know, first of all, I'm not
Speaker 1: too concerned if all right, the white loses a little freshness.
Speaker 1: I don't wear like slain white teas out that much anyway,
Speaker 1: So I think that that's probably been the fact I
Speaker 1: don't care if anything fades that much.
Speaker 3: We're not franchise.
Speaker 4: In my white in my white.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I never sorted, and I still don't.
Speaker 5: I used to sort, but I also used to wash
Speaker 5: my laundry at different temperatures. I've given up on that.
Speaker 5: I'll do everything cold now, so I don't really sort
Speaker 5: unless there'd be times where I'm washing my sheets that
Speaker 5: are white and I'll put some oxie clean in it.
Speaker 4: So I'll just do all the whites together.
Speaker 3: Riveting stuff.
Speaker 1: Hey, there's a lot, there's gonna be a lot more
Speaker 1: of this. So do you have to separate lights from
Speaker 1: darks or when should you?
Speaker 2: You absolutely should separate your clothes. You should do it
Speaker 2: for a couple of reasons. I mean, obviously there's the
Speaker 2: color bleed thing. We actually have tools that will help
Speaker 2: with that. You can buy these great little sheets at
Speaker 2: the grocery store that you throw in that help with
Speaker 2: color bleed. But what it doesn't help with is, believe
Speaker 2: it or not, darker dyes are heavier than lighter dyes,
Speaker 2: So like dark T shirts weigh more than light T
Speaker 2: shirts and if you don't separate them, it's beating up
Speaker 2: your clothes. I mean, it's kind of like throwing your
Speaker 2: clothes in the creek and beating them with the rock.
Speaker 2: You know, it's very very aggressive. Your white shirts, if
Speaker 2: they go in with your navy blue shirts, it's really
Speaker 2: really hard on them. So beyond the color bleed, there's
Speaker 2: the weight, and you know that's something we should deal with.
Speaker 1: So the concern is less the color bleed, which is
Speaker 1: what I Will always thought it was, and more the
Speaker 1: integrity of the yeah, fabrics, the weights.
Speaker 3: White T shirt becomes less soft over time because you're
Speaker 3: in there with dark.
Speaker 5: I did not even think about it, but think about
Speaker 5: your white shirts in your dark.
Speaker 4: He's right, they're light, they are lighter. Yeah. Wow.
Speaker 1: And when he when he I asked the clarifying question
Speaker 1: because I didn't quite get what he meant by the
Speaker 1: heavier dies, I thought, just like, yeah, okay, the die
Speaker 1: when you're dying the clothes, it's heavier. I was like,
Speaker 1: what do they have to do with I think, okay,
Speaker 1: well that's done now, I'm I'm not doing It's not
Speaker 1: an easter.
Speaker 4: You have a white.
Speaker 1: But then he basically said it again, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I see, yeah, sure it's actually which is definitely true
Speaker 1: to my loved experience of holding black T shirts.
Speaker 3: Ones is certainly important when you're thinking of sheets, so like,
Speaker 3: I'll just throw white sheets in with my regular clothes.
Speaker 3: The sheets are the thing in your house you probably
Speaker 3: want to be the softest.
Speaker 1: Someone asked about should we separate clothes based on materials?
Speaker 4: Who's doing that? Yeah? Separating based on materials? What was that?
Speaker 4: I mean, like, oh, these are all my linen shirts.
Speaker 1: I think I think that's they didn't go into cotton. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think they mean just yeah, basically, like.
Speaker 3: I guess I would have to do like one hundred
Speaker 3: different washes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: So much of this is just like even if I
Speaker 1: had my own washer dryer. Yeah, there's only so much
Speaker 1: time in my life.
Speaker 5: The only way just makes sense to me is like
Speaker 5: we're talking about Okay, I'm suburating my bedding. Yeah, so
Speaker 5: that's more. That's more. How I think about it is
Speaker 5: like material would be well some types of things, because
Speaker 5: like jeans.
Speaker 2: I don't really think that's as necessary as separating by color.
Speaker 2: The one exception is performance, where like yoga pants, running pants,
Speaker 2: biking shorts, that sort of thing. I think you should
Speaker 2: separate those out. And it's not because of the color
Speaker 2: or the fabric. It's because those fabrics have a characteristic.
Speaker 2: They're always polyesterone, they almost always contain lycra and they
Speaker 2: have this characteristic that when you wash them and then
Speaker 2: you put them on ten minutes later, they smell terrible.
Speaker 2: And that is because they're hydrophobic. They hate water, and
Speaker 2: they're oleophilic. They love oil, so they love all the
Speaker 2: oil from your skin and all the bacteria that's crapped
Speaker 2: in that oil. So you should kind of separate them
Speaker 2: out so that you can use like an oxygen bleach
Speaker 2: or a color safe bleach to break that down. And
Speaker 2: color safe bleach is not safe for wool or silk,
Speaker 2: so people say, well, I don't have wool or silk,
Speaker 2: but then they forget that they have smart wool socks
Speaker 2: or they have wool shirts that they wear when they run.
Speaker 2: It's not safe. So I think you should separate out
Speaker 2: that active wear, knowing that you're going to add color
Speaker 2: safe bleach every load.
Speaker 1: I didn't know hydrophobia existed in this world. Still, Yeah,
Speaker 1: people need to you know, rock in the mirror.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a big getting ridiculously enough is enough, one
Speaker 3: of you guys? Tell me what the what the takeaway
Speaker 3: from that is basically, the the hydrophobic clothes, it's harder
Speaker 3: to break down.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's not. It doesn't.
Speaker 5: It repels water to some degree, so you got to
Speaker 5: add this color to.
Speaker 1: Really get in there. It's not really cleaning it because
Speaker 1: because it's pushing stuff away, and that's the point obviously
Speaker 1: when you're un Then I asked about separating towels. A
Speaker 1: lot of people ask about.
Speaker 4: Tow Yeah, a lot of people. Did y'all do that
Speaker 4: growing up?
Speaker 1: No, I've never even heard of this.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: I also just asked like generally, like it seems like
Speaker 1: people have a I don't know if this is a
Speaker 1: towel thing, but people seem to have a hygienic concern.
Speaker 1: So like the towels are extra dirty, so I don't
Speaker 1: want them with my clothes.
Speaker 3: That I oh, yeah, that's when I was growing up,
Speaker 3: we separated socks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, crazy, So this doesn't This doesn't make sense to
Speaker 1: me because it just seems just the socks.
Speaker 3: You just socks, it socks, and like just washing rags
Speaker 3: like all the I don't know. I think it was
Speaker 3: actually less about hygiene, Like I remember my my mom
Speaker 3: basically feeling like the socks affected the smell of the
Speaker 3: other clothes when they came out, because we were dirty
Speaker 3: ass little kids, like we'd run outside with our socks on,
Speaker 3: like dirty muddy coming back in the house, and shouldn't
Speaker 3: She just wanted not to affect.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Ultimately, I think today I'm not running around with my
Speaker 3: socks outside in the streets of because but.
Speaker 4: When you go home, is your mom still washing just
Speaker 4: the socks by himself? Do you know how you noticed
Speaker 4: they're gone?
Speaker 3: I think it's I haven't noticed, which means she probably doesn't.
Speaker 3: It was because of the kids.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So I basically asked, is that a thing
Speaker 1: to be worried about, like dirt transfer from another while
Speaker 1: they're being washed with presumably soap, And yeah.
Speaker 2: That used to be a much bigger thing. Okay, if
Speaker 2: we were having this, I mean, we wouldn't have had
Speaker 2: a podcast in the nineteen seventies, right, we'd be doing
Speaker 2: the Paul Harvey Radio Hour. But in the seventies or
Speaker 2: the eighties that would have mattered. Technology has gotten so
Speaker 2: good with detergent and with washing machines, I don't worry
Speaker 2: about it. I mean, I've throw my towels in with
Speaker 2: my shirts. I mean I'm wearing a shirt right now
Speaker 2: that I washed with my sheets. You know, I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't think that's as important now as it used
Speaker 2: to be because of technology. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So basically you're saying just the detergents and other things
Speaker 1: have gotten better at actually getting rid of the germs.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean our detergents and are both detergents and
Speaker 2: washing machines have gotten so good and so efficient that
Speaker 2: our clothes are much cleaner than they used to be.
Speaker 2: You know. So because of that, I just don't really
Speaker 2: worry about the towels being sanitary anymore because I know
Speaker 2: everything's going to come out, you know, relatively sanitary now.
Speaker 1: So that does help explain though, why people of the
Speaker 1: past would have more been more concerned with that. So
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, people aren't just like macared dermophobes. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like you know, it's like, okay, there was more of
Speaker 1: a issue.
Speaker 3: And it seems like is passed down just like you
Speaker 3: behave your habits.
Speaker 1: Yeah, good phrasey, just give why do the machines tend
Speaker 1: to have, you know, like symbols and not words, do
Speaker 1: you know, I mean it makes them more universal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, as we become more multicultural, they still work.
Speaker 1: I mean, clothing labels did the same thing. It used
Speaker 1: to say machine wash cold, machine wash warm, and now
Speaker 1: you just see a little symbol. I actually like the
Speaker 1: little symbols. I think that in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: they're simpler. Washing machines used to say colors, whites, bedding, whatever,
Speaker 1: and those settings didn't really work, you know, because if
Speaker 1: you're going to wash the bedding with the colors, what
Speaker 1: do you do?
Speaker 2: You know, which one do you choose? So I kind
Speaker 2: of like the little symbols. But the truth of the
Speaker 2: matter is I live and die by the express wash.
Speaker 2: I think the express wash is the answer to all
Speaker 2: of life's problems. So if I could design my own
Speaker 2: washing machine, it would literally only have one cycle.
Speaker 1: There is a question about using a front loading machine
Speaker 1: versus top loading, which apparently is a big discussion.
Speaker 4: I've never seen this online.
Speaker 3: This is an extremely not in New York. This is
Speaker 3: like the rest of the.
Speaker 4: Country is.
Speaker 2: Front loader is going to be better than top loader
Speaker 2: because of the way that they were. Okay, top loader
Speaker 2: has gotten better. If you had asked this question in
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety, there was no question. Washing machine engineers spend
Speaker 2: a lot of time making washing machines better and better
Speaker 2: and better. But broadloading is always going to be better
Speaker 2: than top loading.
Speaker 1: Just because of the action of it.
Speaker 2: Yes, just because of the way it works. Because what
Speaker 2: really gets your clothes clean is the water forcing through
Speaker 2: the clothes. So the thing about a front loader, and
Speaker 2: you have to visualize this because it's podcast the clothes
Speaker 2: come up out of the water and fall back in
Speaker 2: the water. They come up out of the water and
Speaker 2: fall back in the water. When they fall in the water,
Speaker 2: that's the water forcing through them. You can achieve the
Speaker 2: force with a top loader, but it's never going to
Speaker 2: be as dramatic, right, Okay, that makes sense, you know,
Speaker 2: because the clothes don't really come completely out of the water. Okay, So, yes,
Speaker 2: a front loader is still gonna be better, but the
Speaker 2: difference isn't quite as dramatic, So.
Speaker 1: Don't worry about it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, front leader more rigorous clean, But basically this doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I asked about how how do you clean a
Speaker 1: washing machine in a dryer?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 4: Oh, a lot of conversation. We actually have to clean them.
Speaker 2: Cleaning a washing machine is super easy. You dump in
Speaker 2: a pound of borax and a gallon of vinegar and
Speaker 2: you run it. The vinegar breaks down the like detergent
Speaker 2: residue and that sort of thing, because vinegar will write
Speaker 2: down detergent, and then the borax almost acts like your
Speaker 2: scrubber because borax is granular and it basically is running
Speaker 2: around the drum sort of breaking everything loose. To clean
Speaker 2: a dryer, the best way to do it is to
Speaker 2: saturate a towel like a saturate a bath towel with
Speaker 2: vinegar and throw it in the dryer and then turn
Speaker 2: it on and let it run. It creates vinegar steam,
Speaker 2: but as the towel tumbles, it actually wipes it down.
Speaker 2: And then when it's done in both the washer and
Speaker 2: the dryer, just grab a towel and just a spray
Speaker 2: bottle of vinegar and water and just wipe everything down
Speaker 2: one more time.
Speaker 1: Now, this is probably one of the biggest toughest questions
Speaker 1: I've had to ask. Oh, breaking down hot water cold water? Yeah,
Speaker 1: what do you guys do?
Speaker 3: I just do everything cold because I've had shrinkage, And
Speaker 3: I don't know, I've never thought deeply about it shrink
Speaker 3: not that kind of shrinkage. And I've never you know,
Speaker 3: I just I'm afraid of, like any clothes shrinking.
Speaker 1: And you've always done this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I don't know if it's in the if
Speaker 3: it shrinks in the water, or if it shrinks in
Speaker 3: the dryer.
Speaker 4: I think both. I used to.
Speaker 5: I feel like everybody growing up you wash based on
Speaker 5: the colors. You know, you're white, you would wash hot
Speaker 5: hollered in your colored clothes. And I feel like, I
Speaker 5: don't know if it's a marketing thing, but they kept saying, like,
Speaker 5: you know, you can just use cold water, and like
Speaker 5: eventually it worked.
Speaker 2: Laundry.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's different.
Speaker 1: Patrick, this is a kind of a shocking answer. Just
Speaker 1: gonna prep you after the break. Can you break down
Speaker 1: when we should be using hot water versus cold water.
Speaker 2: I never used hot water or cold water. I only
Speaker 2: use warm. There Again, in the seventies, you needed hot
Speaker 2: water because you're denurgent in your your machine wasn't working
Speaker 2: as well, so you needed that hot water to sanitize
Speaker 2: your your towels and sheets. Now you don't really need it.
Speaker 2: Cold water there's this whole thing about cold water wash.
Speaker 2: What the industry doesn't tell you is they consider cold
Speaker 2: water sixty five degrees. Unless you live in San Antonio, Texas.
Speaker 2: Your cold water is not sixty five degrees. It's colder
Speaker 2: than that. You're not actually activating the detergent like you should.
Speaker 2: So warm water is warm enough to activate the detergent.
Speaker 2: But the reality is warm water isn't as warm as
Speaker 2: your bath got it. So, like, if you're somebody who
Speaker 2: takes a bath that's usually one hundred or one hundred
Speaker 2: and five degrees, warm water is going to be somewhere
Speaker 2: between seventy and ninety. To put your hand in it,
Speaker 2: it's going to feel tepid. Yeah, so warm water is
Speaker 2: not that warm. I use warm water for everything, including
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm wearing a cashmere cardigan right now, and
Speaker 2: I watch it in the washing machine with warm water.
Speaker 1: And then yeah, because my question was, like, when people
Speaker 1: are worried about things shrinking or other bad things happening,
Speaker 1: is that from more the washing side or the drying
Speaker 1: side the dryer. I think, yeah, that.
Speaker 2: Can happen with either. If you use the express cycle,
Speaker 2: you don't really have that that's you got another reason
Speaker 2: that I love head. Okay, I'm a two hours cycle.
Speaker 2: It's really the manipulation that causes shrinking. So two hours
Speaker 2: in the washing machine is always going to cause a
Speaker 2: little bit of shrink. Tumbling in the dryer also can
Speaker 2: cause shrink. Really, the best thing to do is usually
Speaker 2: express cycle and hang it out. If you're worried.
Speaker 5: That man is crazy Cashmere, I mean he's the laundry
Speaker 5: guy who are better than his expert.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I don't want to test it. What do y'all
Speaker 4: do it first?
Speaker 1: I mean when he was explaining the temperatures, I was like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: like we're thinking about it in human temperatures. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: this is just water nature temperatures. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And I didn't know that the water needs to be
Speaker 3: a certain temperature to act.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the determine that makes sense to me.
Speaker 4: I did hear that and that, but I thought they
Speaker 4: had just.
Speaker 1: If I'm just doing a spot washing, I would be
Speaker 1: using warmer water, like yeah, if you're trying to get
Speaker 1: out of stain or something, Yeah, I'm using hot water,
Speaker 1: like the hottest water possible.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: So it makes sense that there's you know, an alchemy
Speaker 1: going on there. You're not going to get from purely cool.
Speaker 5: You think about just cleaning your house, right, yeah, I
Speaker 5: mean because you're the bathroom, you're probably not I don't know,
Speaker 5: if you're washing your tub with freezing water, you're probably
Speaker 5: not getting in too clean. You get that little steamy then.
Speaker 1: Breaks it up quick, yeah, or just doing your dishes.
Speaker 1: I asked about when to hang dry and when to
Speaker 1: machine dry, and what should you be careful about.
Speaker 2: I would always take knits out, so sweaters, sweatshirts, pollos,
Speaker 2: you know, thrown across the drying rack, or lay them
Speaker 2: on a towel on the floor. I mean I take
Speaker 2: out my dress shirts and my jeans, not so much
Speaker 2: because of the shrink, but because it shortens their life.
Speaker 2: There was a study done in the late eighties that
Speaker 2: a quality garment would survive fifty trips through the washer
Speaker 2: and dryer. If you gave up the dryer, you've got
Speaker 2: one hundred and twenty trips through the washer. So you
Speaker 2: more than double the life of a garment by not
Speaker 2: putting it in the dryer. However, I also know, like
Speaker 2: I don't have a clothesline, so I don't even where
Speaker 2: to dry my sheets, so they have to go in
Speaker 2: the dryer. I'm not going to hang every sock and
Speaker 2: every pair of boxers I so I throw those in
Speaker 2: the dryer. But things I want to hang on to,
Speaker 2: I always hang them to dry or laym flat to dry.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So obviously hang dry is always gonna be safer, better
Speaker 1: for the clothes. So if you really care, do that otherwise. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: the European way. I asked a few things about detergent questions. Yes,
Speaker 1: this answer is mind blownk. I asked about how much
Speaker 1: detergent you actually need, and how to calibrate with load
Speaker 1: size and the different washers and all that.
Speaker 2: Okay, this is the biggest mistake everyone makes with their laundry,
Speaker 2: is too much detergent. The industry and things that you
Speaker 2: need a quarter to I have a cup of detergent.
Speaker 2: The reality is for a full load. So a full load,
Speaker 2: which is in a top loader, it's about seventy eight
Speaker 2: percent we'll say eighty because it's easier. In a front loader,
Speaker 2: it's about seventy five two percent full. A full load
Speaker 2: needs two tablespoons of detergent.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: When the load starts getting smaller, you start cutting it back.
Speaker 2: So half a load is one tablespoon, And there's a
Speaker 2: really good reason. One of the things the detergent does
Speaker 2: is it has this surfactin that floats on the surface
Speaker 2: of the water. The dirt comes out of your clothes,
Speaker 2: it gets trapped in the surfactin, it becomes heavier than
Speaker 2: the water, and it goes down the drain. If you
Speaker 2: use too much detergent, what happens is that surfact it
Speaker 2: can't rense out, so it settles back into your clothes,
Speaker 2: but it brings all the dirt with it. That's why
Speaker 2: you end up with dingy towels or laundry that smells musty,
Speaker 2: those sorts of things that happens from too much detergent.
Speaker 2: And I know that people have this idea that more
Speaker 2: detergent equals cleaner clothes. But here's a very realistic example.
Speaker 2: You go to wash your hands, You put a squirt
Speaker 2: of soap on your hands, you sing Happy Birthday twice,
Speaker 2: and you rense for ten seconds. Right, what happens if
Speaker 2: you're hands are really dirty, So you pour the entire
Speaker 2: bottle of soap on your hands, you sing Happy Birthday twice,
Speaker 2: and you rinse for ten seconds. The soap is still
Speaker 2: on your hands and they're just sticky and gross and dirty.
Speaker 2: That's what happens to your laundry when you're using too
Speaker 2: much detergect.
Speaker 3: It makes sense too, because when I do my laundry,
Speaker 3: it's like you get the little cup and it I
Speaker 3: fill the cup all the way up.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Then you look at it and it's like, oh, that's
Speaker 3: fine loads.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I'm like, well, who's who's counting?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm like, actually, I like really clean clothes.
Speaker 1: And also, to be frank, I'm loading that machine up
Speaker 1: yeah beyond. Yeah, it needs all the help I can
Speaker 1: get because the clothes aren't even moving in there. So
Speaker 1: this is just you know, so attactrick.
Speaker 4: Squeeze into.
Speaker 1: Draw like two drops of water.
Speaker 5: Wow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that blew my mind.
Speaker 4: Do we do we talk about detergent versus.
Speaker 1: Typods' that's literally next.
Speaker 4: Okay, I'm gonna save my I'm gonna save my question comment.
Speaker 3: Okay, I haven't even thought of this. I use so
Speaker 3: much liquid deterrement, but if it's a tide pod, I
Speaker 3: just throw one tide pod in there. Yeah, just doesn't
Speaker 3: make any sense. What's happening in my brain? Yeah, even
Speaker 3: that's probably too much. The one type pod.
Speaker 1: I think so based on his calculation, it sounds like it.
Speaker 1: But I'll play his dancing all right. But yeah, that
Speaker 1: was shocking to me. But obviously it's you know, because big,
Speaker 1: big Deterreentah, It's like they're not going to clarify this.
Speaker 4: Well, it's funny.
Speaker 5: I feel like sometimes they like try to be like,
Speaker 5: our detergent is better because it's more concentrated, so you
Speaker 5: can use less, but no one actually does it.
Speaker 3: And so it was like, use the cap, but the
Speaker 3: markers on how many loads you need to do is
Speaker 3: the same color as the cap. Yeah, so I'm like,
Speaker 3: all right, I'll fill the ship right up to next step.
Speaker 3: We had question about using tide pods versus liquid detergent
Speaker 3: versus powder. I asked what Patrick's ranking is, and if
Speaker 3: there's much of a difference, okay.
Speaker 2: Liquid or powder, I'm gonna call them even. There's enough
Speaker 2: detergent in most pods to do five loads of laundry.
Speaker 2: So since I told you to use less laundry, you
Speaker 2: can imagine that pods aren't gonna be my first pick.
Speaker 2: They're easy again.
Speaker 1: Yes, they're necessary, yeah, yeah, okay, And it's about the
Speaker 1: same for liquid and powder.
Speaker 2: Just a matter of yeah, two tables then, like, if
Speaker 2: you're going to the laundromat, just put you know, I mean,
Speaker 2: I don't want to carry that big box either, so
Speaker 2: just put some out into like a ziploc bag or
Speaker 2: into a little container and just take the amount you need.
Speaker 2: Could you only need two tablespoons per load? So for
Speaker 2: five loads, you know you're not even using a cup.
Speaker 5: That's fascinating change my life because I've been a tie
Speaker 5: pod guy since college. Wow, it's just like you said,
Speaker 5: it's easy. Yeah, of course, you just throw the pods
Speaker 5: in the in the bag. And I used to be
Speaker 5: a multi I just recently I'm like, why am I
Speaker 5: using more than one? I used to put more than one,
Speaker 5: and that I used to put two three the same
Speaker 5: same pot like a fabric. No, no, no, just like, okay,
Speaker 5: this is a big, big load on me, two three
Speaker 5: of them.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 4: And recently I said, if I just put one for.
Speaker 3: Everything, try it out.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I didn't notice it.
Speaker 1: And it sounds like, if anything, your clothes are cleaner now.
Speaker 5: So now I feel like maybe I should graduate to
Speaker 5: actually liquid because I'm running low right now on tide
Speaker 5: Pole is about to reorder them.
Speaker 4: Try Maybe I'll do the link try it out. Maybe
Speaker 4: I'll do the liquid and put even less.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that was shocking to me. I mean now
Speaker 1: I might try out powder even Yeah, it seems it
Speaker 1: does seem easier, especially if I do do what he's
Speaker 1: saying or buy a big thing and to just transfer
Speaker 1: a little bit into like a toper. Yeah.
Speaker 3: You know, Tie did a great job branding tide pods then,
Speaker 3: because it makes you think you need one for one load.
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course.
Speaker 3: And it and it's like so small and concentrated, doesn't
Speaker 3: look like that much, but yeah, fascinating.
Speaker 1: And obviously is much more convenient. Yeah, storage and anything else,
Speaker 1: so wild good good on them.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna cut them up.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they should make smaller ones.
Speaker 1: Hey that's a third of a pot over there.
Speaker 3: If they get smaller than people will really start eating
Speaker 3: them probably.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: They look like handling stains. Yes, And and also there
Speaker 1: is a question about you know, are there things that
Speaker 1: you would do that would like seal a stain in
Speaker 1: so then it's like there's no touch, like if it's
Speaker 1: gone through the dry or something like that. People are
Speaker 1: concerned that then like.
Speaker 3: You're not going back. Yeah, I guess if it's like
Speaker 3: if I spill Coca cola on me or something, I'll
Speaker 3: do like a little tide pen thing. But for ketchup,
Speaker 3: I'm like, i'd be.
Speaker 4: More about ketchup. Coke.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know, they just always come out. I've
Speaker 3: never had a coke much lighter.
Speaker 1: Than actually when it's poured on something.
Speaker 3: Yeah, trust me, a lot of coke. But in the
Speaker 3: in the event of like wanting to wear it, keep
Speaker 3: wearing it.
Speaker 4: So what what are you pre treating? Okay, coke?
Speaker 3: I'm not nothing. I'm not pre treating coke. I don't
Speaker 3: pretreat anything.
Speaker 1: You're just throwing the hamper.
Speaker 5: If you still oil on yourself or something, you're not
Speaker 5: pretreating it like olive oil.
Speaker 3: No, I don't pre treat anything. And I've never had
Speaker 3: an issue either. I mean, it always just comes out.
Speaker 4: That's crazy.
Speaker 3: Okay, maybe the Turgan's been, you know, doing great things,
Speaker 3: and you're over here throwing five toidepods in your line
Speaker 3: coming out launch.
Speaker 1: All right, let's let's find out what the experts is
Speaker 1: on that same tip tied to go and can you
Speaker 1: explain kind of how those work and like when best
Speaker 1: to use them or when you should avoid them if
Speaker 1: there's maybe certain stains that they're just not gonna help
Speaker 1: with or make worse.
Speaker 2: They're just a stain remover, you know, the way you
Speaker 2: see them work on TV as somebody colors the stain
Speaker 2: and it completely disappears. That doesn't really happen. There are
Speaker 2: lots of those little travel stain removers. There's another one
Speaker 2: I like better called Amdex. But what you do is
Speaker 2: you put them on and they're just like a little
Speaker 2: stain remover, like a little spot stain remover, And the
Speaker 2: best way to do it is to put it on
Speaker 2: and then like take a towel, you know. I do
Speaker 2: this in my hotel sometimes, put a towel behind the
Speaker 2: stain and then blot through with another wet towel with
Speaker 2: a wet washcloth and just basically you're just washing that spot.
Speaker 3: Yeah that makes sense. But because it's a pen, I
Speaker 3: like put the put the detergent on there and then
Speaker 3: just try to scratch it out. Yeah, yeah, just that
Speaker 3: nothing doesn't work.
Speaker 5: No, Just sometimes after using O'SE I was like, oh,
Speaker 5: I should have just left the stain.
Speaker 3: And then washed it.
Speaker 4: Normally it looks weir around with this wet ass.
Speaker 3: So they don't seem to dry for the rest of
Speaker 3: the day.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it's working. Here's a good one.
Speaker 1: People asked about if fabric softener is a scam.
Speaker 4: M hmmm. I gave up on fabri softener a long
Speaker 4: time ago.
Speaker 1: He did, Yeah, just no results.
Speaker 4: I was just like, why am I already?
Speaker 5: Guy?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I'm already putting ten typods in at
Speaker 4: a time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've only I've thrown it in. Like if I
Speaker 1: don't really don't even know what scenarios. If I'm staying
Speaker 1: in an airbnb or something in there, it's there. I'm
Speaker 1: like like a little treat.
Speaker 2: Fabric softener and dryer sheets and sand boosters. The way
Speaker 2: they work is they coat the fabric. It's kind of waxy,
Speaker 2: and it melts onto the fabric or it's fixed to
Speaker 2: the fabric and it leaves this fake texture. One of
Speaker 2: the problems with that is often they contain thallatees like
Speaker 2: a thalate ester, and thalate esters are indo crend disruptors,
Speaker 2: so they do a lot of things. None of them
Speaker 2: are you know, are things I want? Yeah, I think
Speaker 2: if you used lesser target are naturally soft cotton is
Speaker 2: naturally soft. When your cotton feels crunchy or when it's
Speaker 2: itchy or sticky, that's because there's too much detergent. Just
Speaker 2: get that out and your clothes are soft. They don't
Speaker 2: need anything else.
Speaker 4: Wow, indicate it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, don't use it.
Speaker 3: It's funny that it doesn't eat. It doesn't even actually
Speaker 3: make your clothes leaves like.
Speaker 1: It's like a very cosmetic effect, basically cover up. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so stay safe out there for your health. The next
Speaker 1: one was about dryer balls and dryer sheets.
Speaker 2: Dryer sheets are no go. Dryer balls I love. Yeah,
Speaker 2: those are good like wool dryer ball. I love them,
Speaker 2: and they speed up your drying time. It will actually
Speaker 2: shorten it. They also keep your clothes moving around the
Speaker 2: edge of the dryer, so they're actually a little bit softer.
Speaker 2: I think they're great, So use.
Speaker 1: The dryer balls, not the dryer sheets.
Speaker 3: I don't think I have.
Speaker 4: Someone who pays for their dry time.
Speaker 1: Yeah you notice this. It's good to know, because yeah,
Speaker 1: i'd pay for my dry time.
Speaker 5: Too, because the normal when I would just do it
Speaker 5: like similar to you, I do big loads. So when
Speaker 5: I would do it before, if I did not put
Speaker 5: more time on.
Speaker 4: It, yeah, with the dryer balls.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pick some.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Someone asked how to save T shirt collars in the wash?
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, any any tips.
Speaker 2: A shorter cycle will do it, because that they stretch
Speaker 2: out from those really long cycles. Okay, so a shorter cycle.
Speaker 2: And the other thing is, if that is something that
Speaker 2: happens to you, like it happens to me because I
Speaker 2: have a really big head, don't put them in the dryer,
Speaker 2: and they tend to They tend to return to their
Speaker 2: original shape a little bit better.
Speaker 1: How often should we be washing clothes?
Speaker 2: I try to wash my things as infrequently as possible.
Speaker 2: I wear my jeans nine or ten times before I
Speaker 2: wash them. Yeah, and you know, I'm a germophobe. I
Speaker 2: wear my shirts about three times. If I can, I
Speaker 2: usually spill on them. I can't always make it three,
Speaker 2: but I try. I wear my shirts about three times.
Speaker 2: Things that go immediately next to your skin, like underwear, socks,
Speaker 2: you should wash that every time you wear it, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 2: things that are your like I'm gonna call it the
Speaker 2: first layer. You need to wash more often. If you
Speaker 2: wear shirts and you don't wear a T shirt and
Speaker 2: you're very sweaty, you're gonna have to wash them more often.
Speaker 2: Bacteria does live there. You know, if you go commando
Speaker 2: in your jeans, you can't wear them as long.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So where do you guys stand on these jeans?
Speaker 1: And I really never wash It's like a need to
Speaker 1: basis most pants, honestly, but especially jeans.
Speaker 4: Like the only pants I wash some more frequently their sweatpants.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Longer. Yeah, any athletic where Yeah. Yeah. I like the.
Speaker 3: Concept of the first line, yes, which means, as you
Speaker 3: guys know, I most like to wear my hoodies with
Speaker 3: without any T shirt under it, So you should be.
Speaker 3: I got start washing those more often often if.
Speaker 4: You don't really sweat that often.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's true, you're not.
Speaker 5: Really sweaty guy. Yeah, I could never do. That's the
Speaker 5: reason I would never not wear a shirt under a
Speaker 5: hit like.
Speaker 3: Because of the sweat.
Speaker 4: Raw just my raw. But I want to wear a
Speaker 4: sweat I want.
Speaker 1: To preserve the sweatshirt.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's true. I'm putting that on raw. It's gonna
Speaker 4: have to go and wash. Yeah.
Speaker 5: The jeans, I don't even know how many times I want.
Speaker 5: He knows that, he said ten times.
Speaker 4: I don't. It's when God tells me there's not.
Speaker 3: A I don't wash it for jeans.
Speaker 4: And they're going right back in the pile.
Speaker 1: Yeah, to be weir yea. My only absolute one use
Speaker 1: is underwear and really yeah, and then like yeah, Jim.
Speaker 3: And sometimes like yeah, you know, but yeah, I always
Speaker 3: wear new socks if I leave the house.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll redo, I'll reado a software depending on what's
Speaker 1: going on. Someone asked about any tricks to get the
Speaker 1: mildew smell out of clothes that you've washed but forgot
Speaker 1: to put in the dry or without rewashing them all
Speaker 1: over again.
Speaker 4: Let me tell you this. I don't know this.
Speaker 5: This is crazy because when we put out this ask,
Speaker 5: the amount of responses that I got of like, I'll
Speaker 5: wash my clothes, Oh, I forgot to put him in
Speaker 5: the dryer. How do I get the smell out? How
Speaker 5: often are people doing this? Like it's happened to me,
Speaker 5: I've been that person. But it sounds like this is happening.
Speaker 1: For that long that it would. Yes, yeah, so this is.
Speaker 5: It seems like a big issue for people that they
Speaker 5: wash their clothes and then just leave it for a
Speaker 5: day or two.
Speaker 1: Is another one.
Speaker 5: Couldn't be me because my clothes will be on the
Speaker 5: damn ground, but I'll be arrested.
Speaker 2: I just run them through an express cycle with a
Speaker 2: cup of vinegar. I wouldn't put more detergent in. Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm just throwing a cup of vinegar and run them
Speaker 2: back through. Like you could even do just the rents
Speaker 2: if you want it, just the rent cycle, but just
Speaker 2: a quick cycle. I mean, yes, there are other things
Speaker 2: you could do, but honestly, it's not worth it. I mean,
Speaker 2: this is the fastest way. Just run them through an
Speaker 2: express cycle with some vinegar.
Speaker 1: Former guest Walt Hickey Okay, Franchise Movies episode from July
Speaker 1: that people sh listen to. He asked about that they
Speaker 1: heard that we shouldn't dry clean suits and we should
Speaker 1: get them steamed and pressed instead. Is this true?
Speaker 2: I have one hundred percent for that. Okay, suits are
Speaker 2: usually wool, They naturally repel dirt. Most of the time
Speaker 2: people want to dry clean things. It's just because they
Speaker 2: they're wrinkled, and you know you can steam them if
Speaker 2: you invest in a steamer, and you can save yourself
Speaker 2: so much money.
Speaker 1: Can you explain what what drag cleaners actually do?
Speaker 2: Yeah, drag cleaners, it's it's kind of a dry cleaning
Speaker 2: is dry because it's not water. It's still a liquid.
Speaker 2: There are a few depending on what drag cleaners you
Speaker 2: go to, there's a couple of are more common. They
Speaker 2: run it through a liquid and it's sort of like
Speaker 2: a wash. It's just a liquid that isn't water. Right.
Speaker 2: The one thing dry cleaners do that's tough for a
Speaker 2: lot of people at home is they have the really
Speaker 2: great irons. Okay, you know, they can do the great
Speaker 2: job at pressing that you can't really as easily achieve
Speaker 2: at home. You know, if you buy a good iron
Speaker 2: and you get a spray bottle so that you can
Speaker 2: build up some extra water, you know, some mist to
Speaker 2: create extra steam, you can do a pretty good job
Speaker 2: at home. I mean, I washed my suits in the
Speaker 2: washing machine, but I have a great iron, so I
Speaker 2: can stand, you know, I can iron them back and
Speaker 2: I recommend that. Like if somebody is like, oh, I
Speaker 2: wear a suit every day, I'm like, you need to
Speaker 2: buy a really good steam generating iron because you will
Speaker 2: save money.
Speaker 3: That is fascinating. I'm so a little confused. It's it's
Speaker 3: called dry cleaning because it's not water, but it is liquid.
Speaker 3: So it's not really dry cleaning.
Speaker 1: It's chemicals. Yeah, but I think they're doing a mixture
Speaker 1: of overall clean and I'm sure they do a spot
Speaker 1: clean yea. I imagine lots of people are because.
Speaker 3: So will you wash the washer suits?
Speaker 1: And that's scary.
Speaker 3: That's a little scary.
Speaker 1: I think if I think if I was if I
Speaker 1: had to wear a suit every day for work, yeah,
Speaker 1: like when I get my promotion at A P. Morgan,
Speaker 1: then I'll do it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, then I would watch it like then, but like I.
Speaker 1: Wear a bulk wash them about three times a year, yeah,
Speaker 1: liberally yeah, yeah, so for me, I can drag lean
Speaker 1: your wedding.
Speaker 3: Was the only time I wore a suit this year?
Speaker 1: I think that was maybe one of two times I ever
Speaker 1: won one, and the other time was another one.
Speaker 5: But sometimes see something like that, right, I got wear
Speaker 5: exactly and it'll be like, okay, like this is not
Speaker 5: really dirty, yeah exactly. I want to the next time
Speaker 5: I wear it for it to be like look fresh. Yeah,
Speaker 5: which is like he's saying, it's mostly just like an
Speaker 5: ironing situation.
Speaker 4: I didn't realize.
Speaker 5: Okay, so I guess between why wears, you know, I'll
Speaker 5: just iron it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, especially Yeah.
Speaker 1: There's nothing major happening now. We just have a few
Speaker 1: more shorter ones. He mentioned he has, you know, a
Speaker 1: Culture Club T shirt he bought back in the day
Speaker 1: that he really loves. I asked, what's the best way
Speaker 1: to maintain a printed graph on a T shirt?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, lip it inside out. Never use fabric softer
Speaker 2: because it will actually cause the print to separate from
Speaker 2: the garment. And do not put those in the dryer.
Speaker 2: So I mean thing about it. They're set with heat,
Speaker 2: so if you put them in with heat, it's going
Speaker 2: to set them just like it's set them.
Speaker 1: I asked, just what are the most common mistakes or
Speaker 1: misconceptions people have when it comes to washing clothes class
Speaker 1: In case you missed anything, Yeah, in this list of
Speaker 1: thirty questions.
Speaker 2: It's the idea of too much, too long of a cycle,
Speaker 2: too much detergent in both cases less as more or
Speaker 2: shorter cycles moless detergent and you're better off.
Speaker 1: And then lastly, he left us off with two tips.
Speaker 2: Number one is for things that you put in the
Speaker 2: dryer that will get static. I'm thinking I live in Minnesota,
Speaker 2: so polar fleece, you know, or fleece is a big
Speaker 2: one for me. You can use a ball made of
Speaker 2: aluminum foil. Take a one yard piece of aluminum foil,
Speaker 2: make a ball the size of a softball, and throw
Speaker 2: it in the dryer. You can use it as many
Speaker 2: times as you can until it gets the size of
Speaker 2: a wallet. But it will remove static better than anything
Speaker 2: you've ever used. That's another way you can ditch dryer sheets,
Speaker 2: because that's the reason people like them. The other one
Speaker 2: that's really funny, and it depends on who you are.
Speaker 2: But if let's say you're standing with a group of smokers,
Speaker 2: or you go to a restaurant and you leave and
Speaker 2: you smell like the restaurant. The shirt's clean, but it
Speaker 2: has some sort of odor, or your coat in January
Speaker 2: smells kind of stale because it's the middle of winter
Speaker 2: and you don't want to clean it. Everything else is clean,
Speaker 2: it just the odors off. You can spray it with
Speaker 2: really cheap vodka. Vodka will remove the odor from anything,
Speaker 2: and when vodka drives the unique characteristic to it, it's
Speaker 2: odorless and colorless. So you can spray it on and
Speaker 2: then it's dry and it's over. There's no washing, So
Speaker 2: if you smell like cigarette smoke, spray it with vodka,
Speaker 2: let it hang for twenty minutes and then the odor's gone
Speaker 2: and you can put it back in your closet.
Speaker 3: This is something we needed growing up, you know, in
Speaker 3: an East African household. Food the food I would get
Speaker 3: my ass fried at school every day. It's just like
Speaker 3: the garlic and the stews, like it really sticks onto
Speaker 3: the clothes. It doesn't matter how much you wash them.
Speaker 3: But now and I know, I could just break viegar.
Speaker 1: Next time you stumble home, you know, late from the bar,
Speaker 1: to tell your wife, you know, cleaning.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly is that is that.
Speaker 1: My clothes are really clean? What you think? So let's
Speaker 1: do some takeaways. What's the the biggest thing you learned
Speaker 1: from this?
Speaker 4: All right?
Speaker 1: Is this going to change your habits?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 3: Well, someone who pays someone to come pick up my laundry, what.
Speaker 4: He's doing you're doing?
Speaker 3: You should maybe shoutow them once and be like, I
Speaker 3: do want to see what's going on back there?
Speaker 5: Now, I kind of I'm I think I'm gonna separate.
Speaker 5: Next week, I'm gonna separate. I'm gonna wash.
Speaker 1: While separating is tough, separating because everything else I'm I'm
Speaker 1: good to its separating.
Speaker 5: Issue with separating is then my load sizes are all exactly.
Speaker 5: I will separate if it works, or it's.
Speaker 1: Like, okay, maybe I have to do a white week
Speaker 1: and then a colored week.
Speaker 4: I do do.
Speaker 5: I do do white weeks, brock white weeks with my
Speaker 5: sheets because I have pairs of white sheets. Saw wait
Speaker 5: two weeks to do all of the white sheets at once,
Speaker 5: and then I'll put any other whites with them, socks
Speaker 5: and shirts. So I'm washing on warm, warm warm next Monday,
Speaker 5: my washday, I'm gonna wash on warm.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna amount of detergent was a huge.
Speaker 1: That's my big yeah, which is great.
Speaker 5: I think I'm gonna ditch the tide pods. I think
Speaker 5: I'm gonna do powder to try powder next because I
Speaker 5: already said I always already do my baking soda, so
Speaker 5: I can just add my detergent to that. I have
Speaker 5: my baggage that I use, so I'll do each two
Speaker 5: baggage for my two loads. I already do it upstairs.
Speaker 5: So I'm gonna do two baggies with my bake and soda,
Speaker 5: and then I'm just gonna put in my detergent in
Speaker 5: there and a lot less than.
Speaker 4: Yeah, go along with Yeah, I'm gonna have that deterreeent forever.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have some dryer.
Speaker 3: Balls probably have to last so much longer. I'm gonna
Speaker 3: play this episode for the guy who.
Speaker 1: Does my laundry.
Speaker 3: Hey, have a you might want to hear some of this. Hey,
Speaker 3: before you take this stuff.
Speaker 1: Give me your phone. So I hope we answered all
Speaker 1: your questions. If there's anything we missed, please shoot us
Speaker 1: an email or a voicemail and we will try to
Speaker 1: get an answer for you to the best of our ability.
Speaker 1: We'll put a video of what dry cleanings actually do
Speaker 1: on our substeck. You can just tell people to google it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, go for a video.
Speaker 3: Actually, do Google Google.
Speaker 1: Check out this website called YouTube dot com.
Speaker 4: We should win a Nobel Peace Prize for this poet.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're handing those two fucking anybody.
Speaker 1: So yeah, no, no.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 1: Such thing as a production of Kaleidoscope content. Our executive
Speaker 1: producers are Kate Osborne and Mangeshkur. The show is created
Speaker 1: by Manny Fidel, Noah Friedman, and Devin Joseph. Themeon credits
Speaker 1: song by Manny Fidel, mixing by our boy Steve bone
Speaker 1: big thanks to Patrick richardson our wonderful guest Is It
Speaker 1: No Such thing? Dot show? To subscribe to our newsletter
Speaker 1: and see how dry cleaning works. If you have feedback
Speaker 1: for us, or a question laundre related or otherwise, our
Speaker 1: email address is Manny Noah Devin at gmail dot com.
Speaker 1: You can also leave us a voicemail by calling the
Speaker 1: number in our show notes below. We'll be back next
Speaker 1: week with a new episode. Thanks for listening such things