Student Life.

Separate clothes. You’ve heard stories about that red sock being mixed in with that white shirt, and you wouldn’t want that to be you, so separate lights from darks. If a shirt is light, but has darker designs on it, you should probably just keep it with the lights. The same goes for dark clothes with light designs. Oh and if you have a never before washed pair of really dark jeans, its best to put them in the wash on their own.

Check the tags. Some clothes are made of thin fabrics or have delicate patterns woven into them; these clothes should not be washed in the washing machine. Most clothes are OK to machine wash, but if you are unsure, check the tag to see if it says “hand wash only” or “dry clean only” and set these clothes aside.

Set the water temperature. If you are washing cotton or very dirty clothes, you might want to use hot or warm water. If you are washing things like silk, then you should keep the water temperature lukewarm to cool. As a general rule you should be fine to wash at 30 degrees.

Set the time. A lot of washing machines do this automatically, but you may have to do it by hand. You should set the time for about an hour to an hour and a half, depending on how dirty the clothes you are washing are.

Add the clothes. This is pretty simple–just dump your clothes in, but be careful not to add in any of those other clothes you separated earlier.

Pour in detergent. If you have a liquid tablet this can go on top of the clothes. Powder and other liquids go in the pull out draw in the top of the machine. The amount of detergent needed varies by brand of detergent and type of washer, so check the back of the detergent box and also look for any labels on your washing machine.

Turn on your washer. Ahhhh, sweet success, now all you have to do is hit that on button and you’re ready to go