How to effectively save on washing, drying and ironing clothes? How to reduce your electricity and water bills? Here are the most important tips:
1. First and foremost – wash less often. Every wash uses energy and water. More washing also means more ironing.
2. Lower the temperature of the wash – especially as new laundry detergents are becoming more effective and can cope with dirt at lower temperatures.
3. Long, eco-friendly washing programmes are the most economical.
4. If you are dealing with stubborn stains, it is a good idea to soak the clothes beforehand and wash them by hand. Hand-washing or washing one stain is cheaper than washing the whole laundry at a higher temperature.
5. Lower the spin speed to save on electricity consumption. In addition, your clothes will be less creased and therefore you will not need to iron everything.
6. Fill the washing machine drum. It is much more economical to put in the laundry less often, but with a full drum, than to switch on the washing machine more often and thus pay more for electricity and water.
7. Verify the hardness of the water – the ‘softer’ the water, the less detergent is needed for washing.
8. Use the right amount of detergent – always follow the manufacturers’ guidelines and do not use detergents at a rough guess. In modern washing machines you can find systems that dose the detergents themselves, i.e. the washing machine has a built-in scale.
9. Buy larger packs of detergents, following the principle: the larger the pack, the lower the price per kilogram. Also look for price promotions.
10. How about changing your electric rate? Check what times your electricity supplier offers a cheaper rate – G12 (usually between 10 pm and 6 am). If you can do your laundry at night, it’s worth doing so.
11. Dry your laundry outdoors. No tumble dryer will dry your laundry for free.
12. Hang up your laundry properly – then fewer clothes will need ironing, which will also save you on electricity consumption.
13. The iron uses the most energy to heat up to the set temperature. One 20-minute ironing is much cheaper than 2 ironings of 10 minutes each. Reduce ironing – in fact, not every piece of clothing needs it.
14. Take care of your domestic appliances. Every electrical appliance requires some maintenance. It is worth reading the instructions and following the maintenance recommendations. Repairing an appliance or replacing it with a new one is always another expense in our household budget.
This article was written in collaboration with Finanse Po Domowemu [Finances at Home]
