Soaking Clothes In Detergent: What You Need To Know


Living alone and doing all the home tasks yourself is kind of hectic, especially if you don’t have the right knowledge to perform the tasks. Washing and soaking clothes are hard enough and can damage your clothes, too, if you don’t soak and rinse them right, but you don’t need to be worried. We got you!

This article will guide you thoroughly to ease down all your concerns about how you can soak clothes in liquid detergent or powder detergent to wash them correctly without damaging any of your clothes.

For soaking clothes in detergent, you have to put your clothes in water mixed with laundry detergent and let the clothes soak for 25 – 30 minutes to allow the clothes to loosen up all the dirt away. After a good soaking, you have to wash the clothes to make all that dirt-challenging stains vanish from the clothes.

We have guided you on how you can soak your clothes and make the dirt and stains vanish, but this won’t entirely clean your clothes as your clothes don’t just have the dirt, but the body oils the clothes soak up. Also, soaking up for too long is not an ideal way to wash, so let’s know more about how you can get freshly washed and scented clothes in no time.

What is sort laundry and why you should do it?

Laundry Sorter

The very first thing that you need to do is sort laundry. You might be thinking about what sort laundry is. Right? Throw all your concerns away as we will tell you what it is, how it helps, and how you can do it.

Sort laundry means choosing clothes differently and washing them accordingly; for example, you have gym clothes on one side, and on the other side, you have the bedsheets. Now you can’t wash your gym clothes and bedsheets together as your activewear will ruin the bedsheets.

The activewear you have used in your gym has many body oils and sweat-soaked up already. This is the reason you should do sort laundry to avoid ruining any of your garments or fabric-made things. Next time you are washing your clothes, make sure you are sorting out all the clothes to prevent wasting your garments.

In case you need a Laundry Sorter, we recommend THIS ONE at Amazon.

How does soaking clothes help and does it clean the clothes entirely?

Once you are done with sorting your laundry, you need to know what soaking clothes really mean and how it helps the clothes loosen up the dirt and stains. Soak functions are to dip clothes in a liquid detergent or powder detergent mixed in water to help the challenging fatty stains and dirt loosen up as they are stick to the clothes. The detergent has the components which work efficiently in doing the following task.

Remember, soaking garments does not mean you are washing them.

AllAboutDetergents.com

However, soaking clothes does not help clean entirely as the stain marks, dirt, and germs are possibly sitting on the fabric, and to make all of them vanish, to get clean and scented clothes, you need to rub and clean the stains yourself; if you are doing it yourself. However, if you are doing it in an appliance, you should not be worried about the rubbing factor as the machine will do it.

Is soaking clothes necessary?

Yes, soaking up your clothes before washing them is as necessary as eating your dinner because it helps loosen up all the body oils your clothes have soaked up along with the dirty stains, which won’t be removed if you wash the clothes directly without soaking them up.

To get clean, bright, and scented clothes, you should always consider soaking up your clothes before washing them.

Why you should not soak up clothes for a longer time; How does it affect the fabric?

Now, as you have learned what soaking clothes really do, let’s talk about what happens when you soak your clothes for too long? However, this might sound an easy thing to you, but washing your clothes for a more extended period can seriously damage your garments’ color, fit, and size. The liquid detergent and powder detergent have acidic components that help fight heavy stains and germs; once they have helped clothes loosen up all the dirt, they start to react to the fabric resulting in shrinkage and color loss.

What things should you avoid while soaking clothes?

It would be best if you avoid several things while soaking up your clothes in a liquid detergent or powder detergent that might ruin your clothes’ fabric, fit, and color. Let’s dig deep and find out what those factors are and how do they damage your garments.

Avoid twisting up your clothes while soaking

The first thing that you should not do is twist up your clothes; in other words, you should not mix or twist the clothes together in a bucket while soaking them as the detergent might ruin the fabric, size, and color of the clothes.

Don’t wring your clothes

wring clothes
Please, don’t do it.

After a good 25 – 30 minutes soaking, avoid wringing your clothes instead, remove them from the water and squeeze as much H2O as possible to prevent shrinkage and wrinkles. To get the maximum number of water out from the clothes, you can also use a towel to roll up the clothes one by one to squeeze the rest of the water out.

Avoid soaking white and multi-colored clothes together

Washing white and multi-colored clothes all in one go can ruin your garments, as when you are soaking them together, the detergent might react with the fabric and color, resulting in the transfer of dyes from one garment to another.

Washing or rubbing clothes for a longer time

Sometimes the clothes have embroidery and designs, and rubbing or washing them in an appliance for an extended period can damage the color and design printed on the garments. When you rub them hard or wash them for longer in a machine, the detergent reacts and removes the designs along with the stains.

Don’t wash your clothes in the water which you have used for soaking

People make the most common mistake by washing their clothes in the same water they have soaked up their clothes before washing. It would be best if you don’t do it because the water you have used for soaking already has a lot of dirt and body oils present, which can leave stains on your garments permanently.

Don’t add borax if you are using a store-bought detergent

Borax is a component that helps in loosen up and cleaning your clothes just like the detergents do. However, sometimes people add borax and liquid detergent or powder detergent to soak up their clothes which is not ideal. The aftermarket detergents already have their own components that help fight the germs, challenging greasy stains and dirt.

What water temperature is ideal for soaking clothes: cold water or warm water?

Many people wash their clothes in warm water, but you should always consider washing your garments and fabrics in cold water. It is an ideal way to remove all the dirty stains and marks from the clothes. Most greasy stains do not respond or vanish correctly when you are washing them in warm water. Moreover, extremely warm water can also be somewhat dangerous to clothes as it can destroy sensitive stuff and decolorize the clothes to some extent. However, a little warm water can be used for good mixing of detergent.

Moreover, the warm water might cause shrinkage to your clothes, whereas the cold water does not affect or damage any of your garments in any manner. Also, cold water helps remove the wrinkles from your clothes and helps straighten them up.

It has been proven that the detergents also respond and clean your clothes correctly if used in cold water compared to warm water.

Lastly, after reading this entire guide, you can wash your clothes with ease without worrying about damaging the fabric, color, or size.

Just sit back and let your clothes soak and make those dirty clothes look new again.

AllAboutDetergents.com

Vanessa Clean

I used to be a maid, now a full-time mom. I have A LOT of experience with cleaning and detergents. Just trying to help those searching for real-life tips.

Recent Posts