Education

Doing laundry is the household chore that never ends. And depending on what you're washing, like your bed sheets or jeans, it can be confusing to know which laundry cycle to choose to preserve your clothes best.

Suddenly you’re second guessing whether that lace item needs to use the “delicates” cycle, or the “hand wash” one, or what exactly merits a “permanent press” cycle. And now, you’re wishing for that bygone bucket just to take away the mental rigamarole.

Turns out, there’s only one setting you actually need. At least according to one laundry expert.

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While appearing on HuffPost’s “Am I Doing It Wrong?” podcast, Patric Richardson, aka The Laundry Evangelist, said he swears by the “express” cycle, as “it’s long enough to get your clothes clean but it’s short enough not to cause any damage.”

Richardson’s reasoning is founded in research done while writing his book, “Laundry Love,” which showed that even the dirtiest items would be cleaned in the "express" cycle, aka the “quick wash” or “30 minute setting.” Furthermore the laundry expert, who’s also the host of HGTV’s “Laundry Guy,” warned that longer wash settings only cause more wear and tear, plus use up more water and power, making express wash a much more sustainable choice.

Really, the multiple settings washing machines have more to do with people being creatures of habit, and less to do with efficiency, Richardson explained.

“All of those cycles [on the washing machine] exist because they used to exist,” he told co-hosts Raj Punjabi and Noah Michelson. “We didn’t have the technology in the fabric, in the machine, in the detergent [that we do now], and we needed those cycles. In the ’70s, you needed the ‘bulky bedding’ cycle and the ‘sanitary’ cycle ... it was a legit thing. You don’t need them anymore, but too many people want to buy a machine and they’re like, ‘My mom’s machine has “whitest whites.”’ If I could build a washing machine, it would just have one button — you’d just push it, and it’d be warm water and ‘express’ cycle and that’s it.”

Richardson's laundry tips

Use less detergent

Regarding detergent, Richards says that while detergent companies urge you to fill up those little caps to the line, you actually only need two tablespoons—which not only makes your detergent last longer, but your clothes as well.

"What happens is there's less detergent, so your clothes rinse cleaner," Richardson explains. "So when they rinse quicker, the fibers don't wear as quickly."

And the news shook viewers. One commented, "I’ve been lied to my entire life 😱", while another added, "Big Laundry is NOT gonna like this …"

Dry your clothes on "warm"

According to Richardson, the way you dry your clothes can also help them last longer. But if you don't have time to air or hang dry your clothes, he recommends putting them in the dryer on "warm".

"Use the shortest cycle that you can, and set your dryer for 'warm'. It's going to take 5 more minutes than 'hot', but your clothes are going to tumble more evenly and they're gonna dry more evenly," he says. "The other thing about it is, take them out as soon as they're dry. So when you're 40 minutes through the cycle, reach in the dryer and whatever is dry, go ahead and take it out and leave what's damp. Once your clothes are dry and they continue to tumble, that's when you have all the problems."

He notes that one obvious example of this is when the edges of your towels start to get "ratted".

"That's because your towel is still wet and the edges are dry, and so those dry edges are continuing to tumble and they're wearing away," he says. "That's how you end up with lint in your lint trap. Lint is just your clothes dying."

This article originally appeared two years ago. It has been updated.