Raleigh Laundry | Coin Laundry Raleigh NC

December 15, 2013
by Laundry Expert
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Winter Washing Tips!

Winter Washing Tips From Our Raleigh Laundromat Can Help Brighten Your Day!

With cold weather here, it’s hard to wash your laundry with a spring in your step. There aren’t many days you can hang laundry to dry in the sun and there’s no sunlight bursting in the laundry room window to help cheer you while you carry on your chores. Thankfully there are a few ways to reinvent your laundry routines so that you can sprinkle in a bit of cheer in with your next load of clothes or towels. Our Raleigh Laundromat shows us how, here:

Reduce Your Load

Of course reducing the amount of laundry is obviously a day to day goal. But, oftentimes we wash clothing that isn’t exactly dirty. Children tend to try on several different outfits and throw the discarded ones on the floor; spouses use a towel once and throw it in the hamper. It’s very likely that most of those clothes or towels could be used again. Try sifting through the clothes on the floor or getting your children a second, non-dirty clothes basket to help to lessen laundry. Also, be sure to ask your spouse and children to reuse their towels at least once. Invest in a towel rack with several hooks, rather than one with a bar. Making the towels easier to hang can help keep them from ending up on the counter or floor.

Follow the Weather

As we said above, there aren’t many nice, sunny days in winter that are made for hanging clothes and towels to dry in the breeze. If you’re a bit more strategic with laundry day though, you can take advantage of the sunny, breezy days. Though it’s probably still cold outside, you’ll at least have the sun warming and drying your wash!

Also, if you want to spend nice days outdoors, plan your laundry days around rain and snow. Keeping a check on the weather will allow you to plan your laundry days in advance so that you can enjoy the rare nice, sunny days for leisure time.

Laundry chores are never one’s favorite thing to do. It is something that must be done, though. If you’re in need of a bit of help to get yourself caught up on that mountain of laundry lurking in your wash room, be sure to consider Laundry Express. Our Raleigh Laundromat offers all types of laundry services from dry cleaning, stain removing, large item laundering, and more. We even have top of the line coin laundry in Raleigh for the days you need to get a ton of laundry done, all at once! For more information, visit our services page or contact us!

Also, be sure to check back with our Raleigh Laundromat blog soon, for more winter laundry tips!

December 10, 2013
by Laundry Expert
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Eco-friendly Laundry Tips!

Raleigh Laundromat: Did you know that laundry can effect our environment?

If you didn’t (as most of us don’t), be sure to follow these few tips, our Raleigh Laundromat offers, below. They will help you be as Eco-friendly as possible, while you launder!

Watch the temperature. A tremendous amount of energy goes in to the washing machine and dryer while they’re working. Be sure to use hot water only when it’s needed. Also, use less heat while drying, when possible. If you really want to save energy, try using a clothesline outside when the weather is nice and sunny!

Always wash full loads. Refraining from washing small loads will help save water, money, energy, and time.

Energy Efficient washers and dryers do help. If you’re in the market for a new washer and dryer, do spend a bit extra and get the energy saving models. They help cut down on extra water, heat, and energy.

Use natural cleaning products. There are harsh chemicals in laundry detergents that can really hurt our environment. Natural products are a great alternative. Make sure they’re bleach, perfume, synthetic fragrance, dye, and brightener free. Most of the time, your clothes look better and feel better after replacing your old detergents with natural ones. If you miss the fragrance of the old products, try using a bit of baking soda in the wash. It’ll give clothes a nice fresh smell!

Purchase Eco-friendly dryer sheets. Many of the chemicals–including synthetic fragrances—found in conventional dryer sheets can be questionable for human health and the environment. We know how hard it is to eliminate them totally, but try finding ones that are natural and more Eco-friendly.

Eco-friendly laundry habits are good ones to pick up. If you’re interested in learning more about Eco-friendly laundry detergents, visit our post, here. Also, if you need help keeping up with your laundry, or help laundering your larger items such as bedspreads, pet beds, and more, contact Laundry Express. Our Raleigh laundromat will help you get the laundry mountain in your home cleaned in no time!

December 1, 2013
by Laundry Expert
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Remove Rust Stains with “Green” DIY Cleaners!

Fluff and Fold Raleigh NC: “Green” DIY Cleaners

Rust stains are one of the worst stains to try and remove from any type of fabric or material. At times it’s even impossible. Thankfully, there are a few trusty things to try, when all else fails. The rust stain removers below are DIY and green, two things that rarely come to mind when we think of cleaning products. Usually full of chemicals and something we purchase at the store, cleaning agents of all kinds are very harmful to our environment. Luckily, there are a few Eco-friendly ways to launder stains! Our fluff and fold in Raleigh NC offers tips below:

Cream of tartar has an acidic quality that enables it to break down rust. To use it as a stain remover on fabric:
Cover the rust stain with cream of tartar.
Tie up the area surrounding the stain, making the fabric into a pouch.
Soak the entire pouch in very hot water for about five to ten minutes, then untie it.
Launder as usual.

Fluff and Fold Raleigh NC | Salt and Vinegar

Combine salt and vinegar into a thin paste.
Spread the paste onto the stained area of the fabric.
Lay the item out in the sun to bleach it.
As an alternative to the sun, stretch the fabric over a bowl or pan. Secure it with a rubber band or something else effective. Pour boiling water over the stained area.
Allow the fabric to dry. (Whichever method you use)
Run the item through a rinse cycle in your washing machine or give it a hand rinsing.
If any of the stain remains, repeat the treatments.
Do not dry the fabric until you are satisfied with the removal of the stain.

For stubborn rust stains, try this this:

Mix equal parts white vinegar and lemon juice in a laundry tub or dishpan.
Drop the stained garment in and let it soak for 30 minutes to an hour.
Check the stain and launder as usual.
After washing, check the stain again.
If any stain remains, repeat the process above.
Again, do not put the item into the dryer until the fabric is clean. Heat will set the stain.

Our fluff and fold in Raleigh NC believes that DIY cleaners aren’t as rare as you think. It’s easy to whip up a “green” DIY cleaner for fabric anytime. For more laundry tips, be sure to visit back with us soon!

In the meantime, if you’re looking for a great fluff and fold in Raleigh NC, be sure to visit Laundry Express. We offer a full service Laundromat, as well as, dry cleaning, stain removal services, and more!

November 20, 2013
by Laundry Expert
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“Green” Ink Stain Removal DIY Options

Wash-Dry-Fold Raleigh NC: Use “green” DIY stain removal options to help improve the environment!

With the vulnerable state that our planet is in, it’s important to eliminate toxins in our cleaning products. This goes for laundry products, as well. These cleaning products, however effective they are, have an effect on our children, health, and planet. While it might be impossible to totally eliminate toxins used to remove stains from our laundry, it is possible to use some “green” alternatives. Chemically laced products aren’t always the answer to everything. Below, our wash-dry-fold Raleigh NC Laundromat offers a few really great stain removal alternatives for laundry, that are sustainable and easy to use:

Ink Stains

What you’ll need:

salt
baking soda
lemon juice
milk
cream of tartar

In the past, we’ve used aerosol hair spray to make ink stains dissolve and who knows what else that is bad for our environment. Thankfully, there are a few DIY options that work great and also happen to be “green”.

Three options to remove ink stains from colored fabric:

Sprinkle a fresh stain with salt and then soak the entire garment in milk; afterward, launder as usual.
Make a paste of lemon juice and cream of tartar. Test the fabric for colorfastness: Paint the mixture onto a hidden area of the fabric and let it sit for 20 minutes. If the color is fine, cover the stain with the paste. Allow it to sit for 20 minutes. Once the stain has been removed, launder as usual.
Cover the stain with cream of tartar and drizzle a little lemon juice onto it. Rub the mixture in and let it sit for a minute or two, then brush off any excess cream of tartar. Launder the item as usual.

Option for removing ink from white fabric:

Apply a cream of tartar and lemon juice paste and lay the fabric flat outside, in a sunny spot. The paste will remove the stain, and the sun will brighten the white fabric. Launder as usual.

Wash-Dry-Fold Raleigh NC | Eco-friendly Stain Removers

If you’re out with no way to prepare a lemon juice and cream of tartar mixture, find a bit of club soda to rub on the ink stain. Plain club soda will help to keep the ink stain from setting in. Once you’re home, you can use the lemon juice and cream of tartar mixture, as normal.

For more great stain removal tips, be sure to visit back with us on our next few posts! It’s important to take care of stains; otherwise, you’ll risk losing the garment or fabric.

Laundry Express is a wash-dry-fold in Raleigh NC that offers dry cleaning, stain removal, and wash fold and dry services for all types of materials. We will even wash your large, hard to launder items like pet beds, sheets, comforters, and more! Contact us for more information!

November 15, 2013
by Laundry Expert
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Remove Paint From Your Clothing

Fluff and Fold Raleigh NC: Remove paint from your clothing with ease with this DIY tip!

Do you ever get wrapped up in a DIY project and forget to take your “good” clothes off before you start painting? Almost all DIY-ers have been guilty of this at one time or another. It’s so easy to convince yourself that you just plan to do a little painting, so there’s no need to go to the trouble of changing into work clothes. It’s fine, until you get that dreaded spot of paint on your favorite jacket or pair of shoes.

Fluff and Fold Raleigh NC | Remove Paint From Your Clothing

Below, you’ll find a detailed list of all the things you can do when trying to remove dried paint from your clothing. This list, courtesy of askannamosely.com, will come in handy at some point, so be sure to save it!

1. Lay the painted clothing item flat on a clean surface such as the kitchen counter, dining room table, etc.

2. With short, quick motions “shave” the paint off of the clothing item.

3. Repeat the “shaving” motion, being careful to not press too hard, until all the paint is gone.

4. Once the paint is gone remove the paint debris with your finger or a damp cloth.

The reason this technique works so well is because it shaves off the paint layer off the clothing surface. So, the next time you forget to change into work clothes before getting geared up for a DIY painting project and end up wearing more paint that you intended to, don’t beat yourself up over the oversight, just use this little trick to remove the paint!

This tip was actually derived from the technique for getting lint off of sweaters. It’s a great time to try this out on your sweaters, as the weather is much cooler now! Instead of getting rid of old, unsightly sweaters with lint “pills” all over them, revamp them and give them new life!

Laundry Express is dedicated to helping you keep your laundry under control. Our fluff and fold services in Raleigh NC are available for anyone who needs them. We have a stain specialist and dry cleaning service available, also!

Contact our laundry specialist for more information about our services.