With your laundry separated into like-minded groups, it’s time to roll up those sleeves and put your magic hands to work!
Step 1: Read the label
As always, your clothes’ care label will provide key details for best cleaning practices. Be sure to do a separate wash for clothes that need a different temperature or detergent than the rest.
Optional: Pretreat stains
Like you would for your normal laundry load, be sure to pretreat any pesky stains you’ve been glaring at, particularly in white clothes. To pretreat a stain, you can use a commercial stain remover, a bit of detergent, hydrogen peroxide, or a baking soda-and-water paste.
Step 2: Fill your tub or sink with water
Fill a clean tub, sink, or other large basin with water. For most standard garments, room-temperature water is the way to go. But, always check your care tags for details, since fabrics like wool, cashmere, and silk should only be washed with cool or cold water.
Step 3: Add the detergent
For most clothes, your go-to liquid laundry detergent will handle the job nicely. You are only going to want to use about a teaspoon of detergent — much less than you would normally use in your washing machine.
For delicates like wool, cashmere, and silk, consider a specialty detergent formulated for that fabric — or at the very least, choose a detergent that’s free of scents, fabric softeners, dyes, and other potentially damaging chemical add-ins.
Step 4: Submerge and soak
Place your sorted batch of clothes in your water basin. Use your hands to swish your clothes through the water, mimicking a gentle washing cycle. This will help activate the detergent and effectively clean your clothes. Water discoloration during the wash is normal — that’s just all the dirt and a little dye coming out of your clothes!
For a deep clean, press clothes against the bottom of the basin, like you’re kneading them. But avoid any twisting, wringing, or scrubbing, which can stretch and damage the fabric. You might be washing in a sink, but that doesn’t mean you can treat your clothes like dishes. Once you’re done swishing or kneading, let the clothes soak for 15 to 30 minutes.
Step 5: Rinse and repeat
After the soak, drain the sudsy water, and refill your basin with cool water. Rinse the now-sudsy clothes, swishing them around and occasionally pressing non-delicates against the bottom of the basin. Drain the water, and repeat this process until the water — and your clothes — are suds-free.
Step 6: Rinse again for good measure.
Drying clothes that still have detergent on them can be damaging to the fabric. It won’t hurt to give them one last rinse before drying to make sure they’re free from cleaning agents.
