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In the quest save money, one often overlooked expense is laundry, both dry cleaning and regular wash. Maintaining your clothes is an important lever in saving money from two perspectives. First, it’s absolutely important to take great care of your clothes to save money. The better care you take of your clothes, the longer they will last which means you save money by not having to replace them. Second, it’s important to watch your maintenance expenses closely so you don’t spend so much money maintaining your clothes that it negates the savings of not having to purchase new items. This article will show how you can achieve both of these goals for maximum money savings.
Undershirts Are Key In Saving On Dry Cleaning Expenses
Do you wear undershirts? If not, I highly recommend it because it allows you to wear your dress shirts more times before cleaning them. If you wear an undershirt, you will be able to wear your dress shirts several times before getting them dry cleaned or washed. You win here because you are reducing dry cleaning and wash costs by reducing frequency and you also elongate the life cycle of your garment (fewer cleaning cycles equals a longer shirt lifetime).
Avoid Purchasing Dry Clean Only Items
Dry cleaning is a lot more expensive than washing your own clothes. Not only do you need to pay the dry cleaner but you also have to spend time transporting your clothes to and from the dry cleaners. This takes your valuable time and also adds up in gas costs if you have to drive far. Certain items will always be dry clean only, however there are many more options these days that are machine washable.
Buy Laundry Detergent In Bulk For Savings
Laundry detergent is expensive and can quickly eat into your savings. Like many items, you can save some serious cash if you purchase laundry detergent in bulk. Conversely, you will waste a lot of money if you don’t buy in bulk. I highly recommend buying bulk size containers of detergent at a warehouse superstore such as Costco. Similarly, purchase your fabric softener, bleach, and other necessary items in bulk as well. Buying in bulk is one of the top levers of the money saver, but don’t get lured into purchasing items you don’t need when shopping at the warehouse superstore (it’s often very tempting to do so).
Save Money By Preserving Detergent
When you wash your clothes, only use the recommend amount of detergent posted on the bottle. It is often tempting to use extra detergent if your clothes are extra dirty but you will want to avoid this for two reasons. First, the more detergent you use the sooner you will have to purchase more and this will eat into your savings. Second, if you use too much detergent you will harm your clothes and reduce their lifespan.
Avoid Running The Dryer Too Long
Keep a close eye on how long you leave your clothes in the dryer. If you leave your clothes in too long, you could end up damaging them. A key in saving money is preserving the lifetime of your clothing. It’s better to take your clothes out when they’re slightly damp and let them hang dry than leave them in too long and watch them shrink along with your wallet.
Using Too Much Water Can Cost You
Washers have several load sizes: small, medium, and large. These determine how much water goes in the washing machine and you will want to choose the appropriate load size for maximum water cost savings. To save time in addition to water, why not wait until you have enough dirty clothes to run a full size load? I don’t like running small and medium loads because these create inefficiencies that waste time rather than getting more washing done at once with a large load.
There are many things you can do to save money while washing and dry cleaning your clothes. Rules are meant to be broken and there is no use in saving a ton of money but not enjoying the journey. Pick and choose which money saving tips work for you. The key in saving money is to make incremental progress and save more money that you currently are.
write by Gwyneth