My Four Favorite Laundry Hacks

Sometimes, you come across a solution to a problem that doesn't really exist. Viral videos would have you believe you should mix an abundance of chemicals in your toilet or fill your air fryer with water to clean them. You should do neither of those things, namely because they're dangerous; other cleaning hacks might not be dangerous, but are unnecessarily labor intensive or questionable in their effectiveness. After a few run-ins with these so-called tricks, it's easy to start being suspicious of all viral tips. There are several laundry hacks I use, though, that really have saved me time or maximized my results.

The easiest way to clean your washing machine

Before delving into the actual laundry hacks, you need a clean base from which to start-a dirty washer won't be great at cleaning clothes. I've messed around with a few methods and prefer sprinkling some baking soda in the drum, then adding a cup of vinegar to the detergent tray and running an empty load. This hack is all over social media, and it's one that works. Clothes smell fresher after a wash, the machine looks newer, and it has no ill effects. Vinegar can't replace all the store-bought cleaners you need in your home, but it replicates what washing machine cleaning tablets do for much less money.

Always keep your towels separate from your clothes

Once the machine is freshened up, it's time to get those clothes going. The first tip I swear by-but only recently came around on-is never washing towels with regular clothes. I used to think this was an arbitrary rule that would cost me double the time and money by forcing me to do two washes for no reason, but there is a reason. Actually, there are a few. The first is that washing them all together can result in towel lint on your clothes. The second is that drying them together can be a real problem. I was noticing that my clothes had an odd scent after coming out of the dryer lately but couldn't figure out why until I saw someone on Reddit mention that because towels hold so much more water than clothes, drying them all together means you'll be over-drying your shirts and pants, essentially burning them a bit while they spin around, waiting for the towels to dry. When I started doing a separate laundry load for just towels, the smell went away. As we move into fall, I'm going to start washing my heavier items-sweaters, sweatshirts, sweatpants-in their own load, too, for the same reasons.

Toss white tennis balls in the dryer

It's long been recommended to toss a tennis ball or two into the dryer to help soften your fabrics and even speed up the drying time. What isn't always mentioned, though, is that some tennis balls-particularly newer ones-can transfer their neon dye to your clothing. To be safe (and still achieve that coveted softness), use white tennis balls instead.

The best tips for de-wrinkling laundry

Frustrated with my clothes coming out of the straight out of the dryer all wrinkled, I went searching for a hack and landed on what initially seemed like a dubious suggestion on TikTok: When the dryer finishes up, toss two ice cubes in and run it again for 10 minutes. The idea is that as the ice melts, it will serve to steam your clothes-and it does. I noticed a wrinkle reduction when I did this; you can also do this with any clothes that need a quick sprucing up before being worn, whether you've just washed them or not.

You can also use an iron, of course-but I don't own a tradition cloths iron. I do have a straightening iron for my hair, however, and I've been using it to de-wrinkle my clothes in a pinch for years. It works great, as long as you treat it like a regular iron, monitoring the temperature, adjusting based on the label's care instructions, and placing protective rags between the plates and the garment when necessary. This is especially helpful when you're traveling, because a flatiron takes up very little space in your bag (and you may have planned to bring it along anyway).