8
Preparing clothes for washing
Always follow the advice on the garment care label. It will tell you about the fabric of the
garment and how it should be washed.
Sort the laundry according to type of fabric, colour, degree of soiling, and allowable
water temperature.
Check and empty pockets. Coins, safety pins, etc can damage both your machine and
your clothes.
Remove any metal attachments, or place the items in a laundry bag, pillowcase, or something
similar (bras, or garments with metal buttons or belt buckles). The metal attachments may cause
damage to the machine.
Close zippers, hooks and eyes. This is to make sure that these items do not snag on other clothes.
Place small items like infants’ socks and nylon stockings, etc in a laundry bag, pillow case or
something similar. This will also save your laundry from getting lost.
Do not wash single items as they may cause out of balance. Add extra similar items to balance
the load.
Wash trousers, jeans and delicate clothes turned inside out.
Wash “machine washable” or “hand washable” labelled items with an appropriate programme only.
Do not wash colours and whites together. New, dark coloured items may release a lot of dye. It is
recommended to wash them separately.
Pre-treat heavily soiled areas with stain remover if necessary. Apply these away from the machine
as contents of the stain remover may damage plastic parts of the machine.
Use only dyes/colour changers and lime removers suitable for machine washing. Plastic and
rubber parts of the clothes washer can be stained by dyes. Always follow the instructions on
the packaging.
Initial preparations for washing