We wash our clothes to keep ourselves, our families, and our favourite items smelling and feeling fresh, but there is actually such a thing as washing too much or too little! There are downsides to both: laundering your clothes more than necessary can shorten their lifespan and ultimately wear them out more quickly, and washing them too infrequently can be unhygienic and lead to bacteria growth. Yuck! When to wash? We’ve got you covered. Keep reading for our general laundry guidelines for you and your family!

For your clothes

Bras: After three to four wears
Underwear: After every wear, of course!
Stocks and stockings: After every wear
Sports and swimwear: After every wear
Jeans: five to six wears, although some advocate washing as little as possible
Tops: One to two wears
Dresses: One to two wears
Pants, skirts, and shorts: Three to four wears
Jackets and blazers: Five to six wears
Coats: Once every two months of wear, and before storing away for the season
Pajamas: Three to four wears
Get your clothes fresh and clean, but don’t sacrifice your health and the environment! Wash clothes (and towels, bedding, etc.) with Nellie’s Laundry Soda, and remove tough stains with the WOW Stick. If your clothes need some extra brightening or whitening, choose Nellie’s Oxygen Brightener instead of resorting to harsh and toxic bleach.

For your kids’ clothes

Washing your kids’ clothes doesn’t need to be a massive chore! Many experts say you can wash their clothing along with yours anytime you see stains or they don’t pass the sniff test. The problem is that kids tend to get dirtier more often than adults do, so those stains and smells come up more frequently. Here’s a handy guideline: the lighter and softer the fabric, and the closer it hugs the body, the more you need to wash it. But as long as you don’t notice dirty patches or stains, kids can wear clothes multiple times before they’re ready for the laundry pile, just like you.

Whether you’re looking to extend the life of an investment piece or give Grandma’s hand-me-down a loving boost, regular cleaning (ideally once per season) can grab dirt before it truly becomes part of the furniture. Here’s our quick and easy plan for keeping upholstery fabric fresh and stain-free.

What You’ll Need

A vacuum
A few clean white cloths
A can of compressed air
Nellie’s WOW Stick Stain Remover and/or the Oxygen Brightener
A small bucket
Carbonated water (optional)

The How-To

Using the upholstery attachment, vacuum left to right in short, overlapping strokes, starting at the top of the piece of furniture and working towards the bottom. This left-to-right method is especially important for materials that hold onto dirt, like suede, velvet, and corduroy. Switch to the crevice nozzle (if you’re worried about sucking up coins, cover it with a piece of old nylon pantyhose secured with a rubber band); vacuum under cushions and around seams. Then grab the can of compressed air to blast dirt from tufting and buttons.
Attack stains on linen, cotton and polyester-acrylic blends with the WOW Stick Remover or the Oxygen Brightener.
For the Oxygen Brightener, create a solution using 1tbsp per 16oz (500ml) of water for upholstery (also works for counters, trash cans, and all over water-washable surfaces). Apply solution to stain with a cloth, wait 1 to 5 minutes, and scrub with sponge or blot with a towel. Rinse thoroughly and allow to dry. Do not use on leather, silk, or wool.
Alternatively, use the WOW Stick Stain Remover on any stubborn stains. Simply wet the stained area (you can use carbonated water here to help lift old stains), rub the WOW Stick onto the stained area, and agitate the stain underwater. Repeat until the stain is removed, and let air dry. The WOW Stick is ideal for removing grass, makeup, wine, and blood stains.

Like most things in life, laundry can come with a learning curve! If you’ve ever shrunk a shirt in the dryer or discovered detergent residue on your favourite jeans, you know what we’re talking about. What’s the deal with laundry detergent stains? Keep reading to find out!

Can Detergent Stain?

Technically speaking, no. Laundry detergents are formulated to leave clothes clean (some with more chemicals than we think necessary, you can read about that here). However, some detergents can leave spots or residue on clothes, especially with improper use. The good news is you can get those spots out relatively easily if you wash the garment immediately!

How to Remove Detergent Residue from Clothes

If you have a detergent mishap and the spot doesn’t come out after re-washing the item, you’re not hooped just yet. Try this six-step routine:

1. Rise the spot under hot water to remove as much residue as possible.
2. Gently wring out the excess water from the item and lay it flat.
3. Apply household rubbing alcohol to the spot, being sure to cover the entire affected area. We recommend spot-testing on an inconspicuous spot of the fabric first though!
4. Let the spot soak for at least 10 minutes. The longer the better!
5. With warm or hot water, rinse the fabric. This should remove the spot. If not, repeat the above steps!

How to Prevent Laundry Detergent Stains

The short answer – switch to Nellie’s Laundry Soda! Thanks to our highly-concentrated and quick-dissolving formula, you're not likely to run into this kind of issue. If you're still using a conventional detergent, here's the long answer: while laundry detergent doesn’t technically ‘stain’ clothes, the spotting that comes with overuse or washing issues is totally preventable. Using your detergent, whatever brand, as intended is the best route. For complete instructions on how to best use the Nellie’s Laundry Soda, click here.

One sheep, two sheep, three… Introducing the brand-new Flyerballs! Sheep all over New Zealand are lining up to strip down for the newest addition to the wool dryerball family.
Soft, silent, and undeniably adorable, Flyerballs are the wool dryerballs you know and love, reinvented. Made of pure New Zealand wool (as always), Flyerballs have added wings to float through your dryer and help separate fabrics, cutting down on both static and drying time – saving you money and looking cute while doing it!

How to Use

After washing with Nellie’s Laundry Soda, place three Flyerballs in the dryer with your fabrics. Nellie’s Flyerballs shorten drying time, soften fabrics, and reduce wrinkles, all without the use of nasty chemicals. Separate natural fabrics from synthetics to help reduce static.
No sheep are harmed in the making of the Flyerballs or Lamby Wool Dryerballs.

By spending just 15 minutes a day, you can have a presentable house pretty much all the time! It’s almost like your home will clean itself. We’ve created a weekly cleaning schedule that will help you out majorly, but first we’ve got a few rules to make it work…

Good Enough is Great

Don’t be too thorough. Aim to keep each task to just 15 minutes. Do what you can in that amount of time. It doesn’t have to be perfect; you’ll get to it again next week! Just get it done.

Keep Supplies Nearby

We’ve talked about this on our blog before. The trick to a quick clean is having things nearby and in-reach. If it takes you 5 minutes to gather up all your cleaning supplies, you’re wasting time you could be using to actually clean! Keep rags and cleaning products in each bathroom so you can easily grab and clean, and house kitchen cleaning supplies under the sink. Use an inexpensive caddy to keep it all neat and tidy.

Plan Strategically

In addition to smartly storing products where you use them, save time by thinking about how you use them. For example, if you whip out the WOW Mop to clean the floors in the bathroom, make that the day you mop all the bathroom floors.

Keep Yourself Accountable

Make a lamenated list and cross of items, use a tracking app, or simply create a list on your phone. However you do it, just make sure you know exactly what you need to do every day, and you’ll feel accomplished crossing items off.
Now, here’s our cleaning schedule! Use it as a starting point, and within a week or two you’ll have a good sense of where you’ll need to make tweaks and adjustments.

Schedule

Monday

Vacuum bedroom carpets
Wash bathroom towels
Clean common area floors

Tuesday

Master bathroom
Dust surfaces and clean glass doors

Wednesday

Clean common area floors
Outside pruning, sweeping, etc.
Wipe kitchen chairs

Thursday

Guest and kids’ bathrooms
Deep clean fridge, sort through fridge

Friday

Clean common are floors
Pick up desk, laundry room, mudroom
WOW Mop the kitchen

Saturday

Strip beds and wash linens
Pick up closets

Sunday

Rotate toys and books