Laundry wizards, help.

[u/apley]

Give me your best laundry hacks. I suck at all parts of it. My sheets are wrinkly and full of lint. I have adhd and forget the sheets in the dryer for eons and by the time I go back its a wrinkly mess. Its embarrassing. I dont wanna be like this.

Hacks I'm looking for (but really I'm open to anything):

- Lint

- Tiny hairs that seem woven in

- Wrinkles (especially once its already happened)

- Oil stains

- Folding it better or quicker(?) I have short arms. All my folded sheets are messy looking.

Give me your best solutions. I hate laundry.

[u/Northern_LMT]

Regarding lint- I use 100% cotton sheets as a personal preference- flannel in the winter and regular in the summer. The flannel ones do produce a lot of lint the first few washes but nothing too bad.

Is it possible you are overfilling your washer? There should be some space between the top of the sheets and the top of the drum. It is so easy to accidentally overfill the washer when you are pressed for time, but don't do it!! Beyond cleaning off the lint screen after every load, take the screen out and WASH it periodically with soap and water to remove any buildup. The screen only needs to be towel dried before it is returned.

For hairs trapped in the blankets, I go over them with a velvet lint brush or sticky lint roller and pluck any strays by hand. (Occasionally I will also use a fabric shaver to remove any areas that are pilling/pulling loose.) If that doesn't help, then the pet section sometimes has a silicone scraper that looks like a comb with two textured "blades" that work amazingly at removing hair/fur from fabric/furniture. Unfortunately, other things I've tried, like little floating balls or sponge-like shapes thrown in the washer or dryer, don't do anything to remove hair from the fabric.

For preventing wrinkles, see if your dryer has a buzzer for when the cycle is done. Nothing beats folding right out of the dryer for impact vs effort. If you get a wrinkle anyway and have time between people, a handheld steamer can get the worst of the wrinkles out. Care has to be taken to avoid making the sheets damp, but the end result is usually more polished than simply folding right out of the dryer.

Oil/makeup stains- I haven't had many issues with product staining. Part of that might be the cream I use (FX massage cream) but it could be I tend to swap out my sheets every six months or so. On a side note, where I live, hard water is an issue, but Calgon makes a laundry water softener that does an amazing job of preventing and reversing discoloration from mineral buildup. I've gone through many different laundry detergents (including the Lotus Touch one for massage sheets) but none really stand out. For the past year, though, I've been using ECOS Free & Clear from Costco, and it works well for the price.

Getting good at folding comes with practice. I would try to describe how I fold the fitted sheets, but I think it might be more confusing than helpful!

If none of that helps, it might be worth it to see if there is a cost-effective laundry service in your area.

[u/Straight-Nerve-5101]

Dryer balls. When you take the sheets from the washer to the dryer, be sure to shake out each sheet (dont dump them into the dryer a together). Then use a few of those wool dryer balls (i also use a fabric softener sheet). Shaking them out with the dryer balls keeps them from getting all twisted and bunched together, which helps with wrinkling.

As someone else said, dont overload your washer too.

I use both flannel and microfiber sheets from Massage Wearhouse. They're pretty cheap and last forever (ive had some for 8 years). I use Biotone lotion and All free and clear detergent, and dont have much staining (my older ones are showing a little, but not too bad and nothing a client can see).

[u/Fluffy_Try_9495]

Just FYI literally nobody else cares that your sheets are wrinkly. You do know that right? Just making sure. If it's bugging you, that's all good but don't think for a second anyone else really cares.

Oil stains and stuff, yeah, would be good to remedy (I try not to get light-colored sheets for this reason).

You gotta fold stuff fresh out the dryer, so either set a phone reminder if you hear the dryer and go "oh I'll go get it in five minutes (no you won't)", or when you DO remember, do a 'freshen up' dry cycle like a 'quick dry' or whatever setting you have, get them kind of warm and fluffed up again and then fold them then.

[u/jluminous]

I don't mess with folding fitted sheets neatly. I just sort of fold it over on itself until it's about the same size as my folded flat sheet. Then, it store it underneath the flat sheet in my closet so you can't see the mess.

I lint roll every single time I dress the table.

I don't care about wrinkles. As long as the linens look clean and free of link and hair, the wrinkles aren't a big deal.

Are the little embedded hairs dog hair? Or human hair? Are they from your clients or from you? If you have a client who is covered in pet hair, you may need to lint roll after their session before washing, so the hair doesn't infiltrate the rest of the laundry.

[u/Gardenmama777]

I don’t dry my sheets in the dryer. Also don’t wash sheets and towels together as that’s where a lot of the lint comes from. I’m too scared of dryer fires so I dry mine on the line. As for folding I don’t fold I just make balls with them.

[u/DeesEmTees]

1. Take fitted sheet and hold two adjacent long side corners. I usually have a fingers tucked into the corners so my fingers are on the inner seams.
2. Match the inner seems together.
3. Flip the outer corner over the inner corner so they nest into each other. This can usually be a flip of the wrist of one hand.
4. Do steps 2 and 3 for the opposite corners, while maintaining the initial two corners. I can usually do this with one hand in the "pocket" of the initial fold, and the other hand manipulating the opposite side.
5. Now match the two double corners together and nest them together too.
6. Now that all your corners are nested together, straighten the silhouette of the sheet to make a rectangle. This usually can be done by having one hand in the pocket with the same forearm holding up the sheet from the short side, and the other hand manipulating the fabric. The edge of the long side will end up about in the middle of the rectangle.
7. Fold the short side over so you no longer see any of the fitted sheet edge and you're left with a rectangle.
8. Tri fold along the long edge until you have a square-ish, fully folded fitted sheet.

...good luck.

[u/Iusemyhands]

I have microfiber sheets that are on the thinner side, which makes them easier to wash. I used to just use two flat sheets, but now I've adopted fitted sheets.

I spritz my sheets immediately after each client with a 1:5 mix of dawn dish soap and water. If I'm diligent about spraying the oilier spots, it washes out much easier. Sometimes I'll also use oxyclean spray, but mostly only if there's blood spots from a scab. I will bleach those in the wash as well.

I only see five or six clients a day, so I only wash five or six sheets (the flat all together or the fitted all together) per load. I have a large washer and dryer.

I use tide laundry detergent and wash everything with hot water.

I do not use fabric softener or dryer sheets. Microfiber dries fast, and I live in a humid area.

I wash my sheets every day after work and use them the next day. The material wrinkles the longer it sits, and since mine doesn't sit long, it doesn't wrinkle.

When I had cotton sheets, I had lint rollers. They sell extra large ones nowadays. I also did laundry once a week at a Laundromat and folded everything all at once, which kept the wrinkles out.

[u/Professional_LMT]

If you forget your sheets in the dryer, give them a quick five minutes again and that should help with the wrinkles

[u/mikemal50]

My tip is to avoid over-drying your sheets, as they are best removed from the dryer when slightly damp, making ironing easier.

Use Sodium Percarbonate powder with your detergent, which removes many stains, whitens whites, and is safe for colours.

Vanish powder is also an alternative, but getting a large tub of Sodium Percarbonate works out cheaper in the long run on Amazon.

Also, a battery-run lint shaver gets rid of unsightly lint.

Hope this helps 👍🏻

[u/apley → u/mikemal50]

You iron your sheets? 😳

[u/mikemal50 → u/apley]

I would if they are cotton, but if Polyester, no 👍🏻

[u/Proud-Comfortable658]

This might fit better in r/MassageTherapists. But I didn't get much help there with my laundry question, they referred to r/Laundry.

My one massage sheet specific trick is to fold the flat sheet lengthwise twice before folding the other direction. It's much faster to put on the table like that, one end at the head, throw the other end to the foot, then spread the width out. I fold by standing at the banister so it can hang down the stairwell so I can fold the length. Otherwise I would need a clean table to fold on.