5 laundry tips and tricks to make your life easier

What’s life without a little mess? Whether you’ve been out in the garden, got muddy on a bike ride or let the kids loose in the kitchen, a bit of dirt shows you’ve been busy being productive – or simply having fun.

Fitting the laundry into your busy schedule is often easier said than done. But don’t hang up your hiking boots and mixing bowls just yet – read these easy laundry cleaning tips to make the laundry process quicker than ever before.

1. Sort your washing to streamline the laundry process: If you need to squeeze in a quick wash, laundry can be sorted beforehand for a stress-free, easy laundry operation. Have several baskets on the go – one each for coloured, whites, delicates and heavy items such as towels and fleeces. If you have kids, or a job where your clothes get dirty quickly, have a basket for moderately and heavily soiled items. It can be easy to let laundry pile up and leave yourself a mammoth task when you need to put a wash on. Pre-sorted laundry can go straight in the machine – minimal effort, minimal stress.

2. Use a fast-acting detergent: Of all the laundry tips and tricks, investing in a high quality, fast acting detergent is one of the most important. There’s nothing more annoying than taking your clothes out of the wash and noticing they’re still a little grubby, especially when you’re in a hurry. Eliminate this problem by using a reliable detergent you trust to do the job well first time, like OMO. That way, if you’re short on time and set your machine to do a quick wash, laundry will come out brilliantly clean and smelling great.

3. Wash clothes in cold or lukewarm water: While towels and bed sheets should be washed in hot water to eliminate germs and bacteria, clothes should be washed in either cold or warm water. Why? Hot water can actually set in stains, making them harder to remove. The heat can fade clothes too, so opt for cold water and save yourself the time you would have spent scrubbing at stains and shopping for new, non-faded garments.

4. The easiest way to iron clothes quickly: What’s the quickest and easiest way to iron clothes? Speed up the process by covering your ironing board with shiny side-up foil. When you iron, it will do both sides at the same time- hallelujah! Use hair straighteners on shirt collars or between buttons to reach those awkward places. And if you notice a crease in your outfit but don’t have time to get the ironing board out, slightly dampen the wrinkled area, set a hairdryer on low and blast air from 3 - 5 centimetres away until the creases straighten out.

5. Get your family involved: A problem shared is a problem halved, as they say. Depending on how many people there are in your family, laundry tasks can be split many ways and save you lots of time. You could even get the kids involved – children as young as two can fold towels and even their own clothes. Tired of sorting through your family’s socks? Get them to fasten pairs of dirty socks together with a peg before putting them in the laundry basket.

We can’t make laundry go away, but our easy laundry cleaning tips can ease hamper-sized headaches. The great thing about being able to clean clothes and remove stains quickly is that you suddenly have more time to spare. So put the kettle on, fire up the braai or do something fun with your family – the messier the better!

Using a reliable from the OMO Auto range, it’s bound to get the job done fast in just one wash – no matter how dirty your clothes are.

• Sort your washing as it goes into the laundry basket

• Use a high quality, fast acting laundry detergent you trust to get the job done.

• Wash clothes in cold water to prevent stains from setting in

• Use hair straighteners to iron collars and awkward creases.

• Get the whole family involved! A great hack – but probably not one your kids will thank us for