The Laundry Mistake You're Making That's Ruining Your Dryer

Though it seems simple at first glance, doing your laundry properly comes with a minefield of rules and mistakes that can leave you with damaged clothes or a banged-up dryer. Thankfully, however, you're not alone in your confusion. There are certain things that everyone gets wrong when drying their clothes, but with a simple switch, you'll be able to ensure that all of your pieces come out fluffy and soft without putting extra stress on you or your appliances. As it turns out, all you need to do is pair like with like, just like you do when you're separating your laundry to wash.

Most people are accustomed to sorting their items by color, especially on the first wash, but it's also a good idea to sort your laundry by weight before tossing it into the drying machine. Your t-shirts and bath towels might both be white, but this difference in weight can throw off the balance in your machine and impact the quality of your personal items. Pair similar materials together, and you'll be able to decrease the chances of this happening.

Sorting your laundry both by the weight of the material and the color might seem like overkill, but it can help to ensure that the entire process runs much more smoothly. Towels mixed with delicate fabrics can result in more jostling and friction than necessary, and fuzzy fabrics combined with smoother materials can leave you with pilling and lint on your freshly dried clothes. Additionally, sorting fabrics by weight can serve as a reminder to pull out and air dry the things you should never dry in your dryer, like silk and workout clothes, and can help to reduce the size of your loads so your machine can work as efficiently as possible.

Most people aren't the biggest fan of laundry day and want to get through this chore as quickly as they can, but one or two extra loads in the dryer can help extend the life of both your machine and your clothes.