Applying laundry procedures by hand and by machine

24 min

Divine has two plastic basins, a bucket, a bar of laundry soap, some detergent powder and a pile of clothes: two white school shirts, a navy skirt, a red T-shirt that has never been washed, a wool sweater, a pair of muddy socks and a kitenge dress. If she throws everything into one basin, the red T-shirt may turn the shirts pink, the sweater may shrink, and the mud from the socks will settle on everything else. If she follows a set order of steps, the same water, soap and hour of work give clean, undamaged clothes.

A laundry procedure is that order of steps. It is the same for every item; what changes from fabric to fabric is the water temperature, the cleaning agent and how hard you handle the cloth.

Definition

Laundry procedure: the ordered steps of laundry work: sorting, preparing, pre-treating, washing, rinsing, removing water, drying, ironing, folding and storing.

Soaking: leaving items in water, with or without a cleaning agent, before washing, to loosen dirt. Example: soaking muddy socks in cold water for 30 minutes.

Agitation: the movement that pushes water and detergent through the fabric: rubbing, squeezing, kneading or the turning drum of a machine. Wool and silk need very little agitation; cotton can take a lot.

Felting: the matting and shrinking of wool when it is rubbed, especially in hot water or with sudden changes of temperature.

The nine steps

Sort into piles: whites; light colours; dark colours; delicates (wool, silk, lace); heavily soiled items. Wash a new, brightly coloured item alone the first time, or test it: press a damp white cloth on a hidden part and see if colour comes off.
Prepare: empty pockets (a forgotten pen can ink a whole load), close zips and hooks so they do not snag, mend small tears before washing makes them larger, turn printed and dark items inside out, and shake off loose dirt.
Pre-treat stains (Lesson 4) and soak very dirty items. Use cold water first for blood, egg and milk: hot water cooks the protein into the fibres.
Wash at the temperature on the care label with the right agent (Lesson 1). Wash in this order: whites, light colours, dark colours, then the dirtiest items, changing the water when it becomes dirty.
Rinse two or three times, until no foam or soap is left. Soap left in the fabric makes it stiff, yellow and itchy. Add blue, starch or softener in the last rinse if needed.
Remove water: wring cotton and linen by twisting; squeeze wool and silk gently, or roll them in a towel and press.
Dry: whites in the sun, which also bleaches them a little; coloureds inside out in the shade, so the sun does not fade them; wool flat on a towel, away from direct heat, so its weight does not stretch it.
Iron cotton and linen while slightly damp; iron dark colours on the wrong side to avoid shine; finish collars and cuffs first, then the large parts.
Air, fold and store only completely dry items. Damp clothes in a cupboard grow mildew, a black or grey mould that stains and smells.

Procedures for different fabrics

Fabric	Water	Agent and agitation	Drying and ironing
White cotton and linen (sheets, shirts)	hot (up to 60 °C or as labelled)	soap or detergent; rub and scrub firmly; bleach or blue if needed	sun; iron hot (three dots) while damp; starch for crispness
Coloured cotton (kitenge, T-shirts)	warm, 30–40 °C	detergent; rub gently; no chlorine bleach	inside out, in the shade; iron on the wrong side
Wool	lukewarm, about 30 °C; rinse at the same temperature	mild wool detergent; squeeze, never rub or wring	roll in a towel, dry flat in its shape; iron warm under a damp cloth
Silk	cool to lukewarm	mild detergent; swish and squeeze quickly; do not soak long	roll in a towel, hang in the shade; iron warm on the wrong side
Synthetics (polyester, nylon)	warm, 30–40 °C	detergent; gentle cycle or light rubbing	drip dry on a hanger, so few creases form; iron cool if at all

By machine. The steps are the same. Sort, prepare and load the drum about three-quarters full so the clothes can move; add the measured detergent to the drawer; choose the programme (temperature and cycle) from the care labels; and take the clothes out as soon as the cycle ends, so creases and smells do not set.

Clean My Space: how to hand wash delicate items, including some labelled "dry clean only". Watch how the cleaner presses water out by rolling the garment in a towel instead of wringing it. Follow the care label: a cross through the washtub means the item must not be washed at all.

Worked example

Worked example 1: planning Divine's wash. Using the pile in the opening, plan her work with two basins and a bucket.

Sort: (a) the two white shirts; (b) the kitenge dress and navy skirt; (c) the red T-shirt, alone; (d) the wool sweater; (e) the muddy socks.
Pre-treat: soak the socks in cold water and shake out the mud; rub soap on the shirt collars and cuffs.
Wash in order: shirts in the hottest water and soap; then the dress and skirt in fresh warm water with detergent; the red T-shirt on its own; the socks last. Wash the sweater separately in lukewarm water with wool detergent.
Rinse each group until the water is clear; blue in the shirts' last rinse.
Dry: shirts in the sun; dress, skirt and T-shirt inside out in the shade; sweater flat on a towel.

Worked example

Worked example 2: why did the sweater shrink? Habimana washed a wool sweater in hot water, rubbed it hard on a washboard, rinsed it in cold water from the tank and hung it on a line in the sun. It came out two sizes smaller, stiff and long in the body. Explain each fault.

Hot water plus rubbing plus a sudden change to cold water made the wool fibres lock together: the sweater felted and shrank.
Hanging it wet let the weight of the water stretch it downwards, so the body became longer.
Strong sun and heat made it harsh and stiff.
Correct method: lukewarm water and wool detergent, gentle squeezing, rinsing at the same temperature, rolling in a towel and drying flat in the shade.

Warning

Safety during laundry. A child can drown in a few centimetres of water: never leave a filled basin or bucket where a baby or toddler can reach it, and empty it as soon as you finish. Bend your knees, not your back, when lifting a full basin, or carry water in smaller loads. Dry your hands before touching a machine's plug or switch. Wear gloves when working with bleach or washing soda, and rinse any splash off the skin with plenty of running water.

Tip

Exam tip. When a question asks for the "procedure", give the steps in order and give a reason for at least one step for each fabric, e.g. "dried flat because wet wool stretches under its own weight".

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Practice

List the nine steps of the laundry procedure in order.
Give three things you should do when preparing clothes for washing, and why.
Why are whites washed before dark colours in the same water?
How do you test whether a new coloured garment is colourfast?
Why should blood stains be soaked in cold water rather than hot?
Write the procedure for hand-washing a silk blouse, from sorting to storing.
A hostel washes all students' clothes together in one hot machine load to save time. Evaluate this practice and suggest a better system.

Show answersHide answers

Sort; prepare; pre-treat (and soak); wash; rinse; remove water; dry; iron; air, fold and store.
Empty pockets (a pen or tissue can spoil the load); close zips and hooks (so they do not snag other items); mend tears (washing makes them bigger); turn prints and dark items inside out (less fading and wear). Any three.
Whites are the least dirty and show any dye or dirt; dark items may release dye, so they go later.
Press a damp white cloth on a hidden part, such as an inside seam. If colour comes off, the item is not colourfast and must be washed alone.
Hot water cooks (sets) the protein in the blood into the fibres, making the stain permanent; cold water loosens it.
Sort it with other delicates; check pockets and fastenings; treat any stain gently; wash quickly in cool to lukewarm water with mild detergent, swishing and squeezing; rinse in water of the same temperature; roll in a towel to remove water; hang in the shade; iron warm on the wrong side; air and store on a padded hanger.
It saves time, but hot water shrinks wool and fades or runs coloured items; white shirts turn grey or pink; delicates are damaged; and it spreads the dirt of the dirtiest items. Better: sort into whites, coloureds, delicates and heavily soiled; wash each at its own temperature; label each student's laundry bag.

Sources and credits

Lesson text, Figure 3, table, worked examples and practice: written by Ganzaa.
Child drowning risk: Drowning, fact sheet, World Health Organization, 2024. Skin splash first aid: European Resuscitation Council Guidelines 2025: First Aid, Djärv T. et al., Resuscitation 215 (2025). Summarised in Ganzaa's own words.
Photo: Clothes washing in Namibia 01, Justina Panduleni, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Video: Dry Clean Only? Maybe Not! How to Hand Wash Your Clothes, Clean My Space, embedded from YouTube.

1The nine steps

2Procedures for different fabrics

The nine steps

Procedures for different fabrics