The 5 steps for laundry care

Mid-season period requires, it is time to swap light sheets for warmer and more enveloping bed sets . But before carefully storing your household linen that is no longer in season, why not do a big clean? Here are some of our grandmother's tips for linen care ... tested and approved by Les pensionnaires!

Removing stains from your laundry​

The formidable Marseille soap will prove very useful in pre-washing for any type of material. By gently rubbing the stain with lukewarm water, it is a safe technique, which does not damage the colors.

For organic stains (blood, sweat or food), moisten with cold water and add a teaspoon of sodium percarbonate. Then let it sit for half an hour before putting the bed linen or household linen in the machine. Recommended for light colours only. No more panic about fruit accidentally crushed on your double cotton gauze tablecloth !

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Choosing the right temperature to wash your laundry

Prefer washing at 40 degrees to preserve delicate materials such as cotton gauze . For cotton percale sheets it is possible to wash up to 60 degrees, always adapting the program to the material.

To soften your new bed linen , forget about industrial fabric softener and replace it with washing balls. Slip them into the drum before starting your program, the balls will then beat the household linen like the washerwomen did at the time, which will have the effect of softening it.

Little extra tips for maintaining your laundry

No need for excessive doses of detergent that force the accumulation of soap on the laundry and in the machine, we have better!

• For whiter than white laundry, our tip is to add two tablespoons of sodium percarbonate to the detergent in the drum of the machine. It will restore shine to graying fibers and sanitize your fabrics while reducing the risk of allergies.
• For vibrant colours, white vinegar is the star remedy; a colour fixative, it restores character to linen that appears faded.

It is preferable to let the laundry dry in the open air so as not to damage the fiber of the household linen (a quick run in the dryer, however, restores all of the fluffiness to the double cotton gauze).

Iron tip

If you are a fan of ironing your cotton percale sheets ( cotton gauze sheets are not ironed!) and start to notice white marks on your bed linen or limescale deposits in the reservoir, it is time to take action!

Here is a 100% natural and effective tip to avoid clogging: a mixture of white vinegar and water that is poured into the tank will do the trick very well. Then simply plug in the beast and let the steam come out several times vertically. Turn it off, then let the product act for a good hour. Then empty the tank, and rinse it to find it as good as new.

Putting away your laundry

Once all that fuss is over, the clean linens are finally ready to be put away!

We can finally let our summer sheets and duvet covers sleep peacefully during the winter by slipping a few drops of a scent that we like into them. Even more practical, the use of an essential oil that keeps moths away: rosemary, true lavender or Atlas cedar.

Good tidy up, we have to leave you, we have a machine to run!

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