I don’t know about you, but when I first started doing my laundry, every weekend I was muttering “oh, not again”. There isn’t one single person among us who has never made a laundry mistake. We’ve all had a few due to equipment problems or carelessness. Luckily, most mistakes can be easily fixed.

You can have the greatest and latest equipment in washing/drying technology, and still make rookie laundry mistakes that can ruin your clothes and waste your energy and time.

Although laundry seems like an easy chore, it might surprise you how many disastrous mistakes you’re making with each load without even realizing it! Don’t worry; we’re here to fix that. Following are some of the most common mistakes we all make, from overfilling the washer to using way too much detergent.

1. Forgetting your clothes

It doesn’t matter whether you’re washing or drying them; leaving your clothes in the machine for too long is not good. If you leave your damp clothes to sit in the washer, the smell will be terrible when you take them out.  The conditions in your washer are a perfect breeding space for mildew and mold. If you leave your clothes in your dryer for too long, prepare to do a lot of ironing because your clothes will come out from the dryer with tons of wrinkles.

2. Shrunken clothes

How many “extra large” shirts of yours can now fit your family’s petite members?

In theory, a shrunken garment restoration to its original size is possible by washing your clothes in warm water and hair conditioner. However, instead of looking for the cure, you should prevent this problem from happening in the first place. Fabrics can shrink because of too much heat, which means you washed your clothes in hot water or you dried them for too long. The solution: colder water, as well as line-dry can solve the shrunken clothes problem.

3. Overloading the washer

If you think that by putting every dirty garment in the washer will clean all your clothes, you’re so wrong. Overloading the machine is a common mistake many people do. This only leads to excessive wear on clothes, more wrinkles, and poor cleaning performance. Soil and dirt from clothes can redeposit in other garments.

4. Using too much detergent

Another common mistake people do. They put too much detergent, thinking that their clothes will be cleaner, when in fact, they’re left with worn out and dingy clothes. That’s why you must read the instructions on the detergent you’re using so that you can measure to the correct line. Don’t be a lazy laundry-doer; don’t just pour what looks “quite right” and hope for the best.

5. Lost socks – the socks mystery

Keep your socks together. In order to be sure that they will stay in pairs, pin them together. Binder clips and safety pins both work well. You can also use a small mesh bag as a specific hamper for socks and toss the bag into the washer when it’s full. If your dryer eat your socks, you can keep a separate hamper for socks. However, whatever you do, you are still going to lose a few socks, so creating a lost socks orphanage is a good idea.

After all, getting all the benefits from your equipment and reading your washer and dryer manual is highly recommended because you might find great time-saving features you’re not using.