If you’re not doing this already, a few changes to the routine can add to your savings:
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Something which also adds to savings is wear cloths until they are dirty (soiled or starting to smell). In winter, unless one works in a dirty workplace, clothes can be worn many times before needing a wash. Even in summer, clothes can often be worn more than once.
It is surprising how many put their clothes in the dirty cloths pile when taking them off at the end of the day/when changing, rather than thinking and then checking if they can be worn again.
Less clothes going into the dirty clothes pile each day, means less washes over a year.
For a household of three, we do a 10kg wash of clothes every 4-6 days in winter, and 3-5 days in summer following this practice. We do towels weekly and bed linen fortnightly. Towels will easily last a week between washes if they are allowed to dry after use (hand on clothesline in the sun or drying rack in front of the fire).
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Wow, sign me up to save $500!
We only spend about $20 max on laundry per year, a couple of 1kg boxes of Ecostore laundry powder @$8.25 each, and a Sard soap, which has been in use for years. Washing machine powered by Off-grid solar, free water from the roof complete the package. Solar radiation does the drying, except in cold wet weather when the wood heater does the work.
The washing machine gets used almost every day when I wash my cycling clothes, and we do a few washes per week of other items.
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You got my attention!
Certainly ‘A great way’ to promote the benefits of supporting and joining Choice.
A good guess is avid Choice fans are already following many of the tips. Perhaps ‘how to cut your laundry costs by Up To $500 a year’ might be more on trend. 
Also a little closer to the Mark, given we can boast some of @gordon ‘s savings of having only roof water and no reticulated sewage services to pay for. On that YMMV depending on LGA and regulations.
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Hmmm. We change bed linen and towels at least weekly. We also change clothes daily, ie those that are against our skin. The only time we don’t is when we are 4WDriving and travelling remotely and need to conserve our water supplies. We rarely use our dryer; prefer the sun. We also have a line under cover and things dry on it even in what we have thought was non-drying weather. I would never want to wear clothes until they began to smell!
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Slightly off subject----I am retired, live alone and do one cold water wash per week in my 8.5kg top loader LG washing machine. What I can’t get my mind around is the ‘fuzzy’ logic control----I am assured it weighs my clothes, decides how dirty they are and washes them accordingly.
How can this be?
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The weight determination controls how much water is used, at least that’s how it works in my Bosch front loader.
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When I had to purchase a new washing machine ( a few years ago now) I shopped around and asked if they had a machine that returned the suds. I was told that they don’t make them any more. So I purchased a machine made by Electrolux (not sure what brand it came under). Electrolux bought out a few other brands.
It had an automatic water level depending the amount of clothes in it. After using it the clothes came out dirtier than when they went in. A rep from Electrolux came and checked my washing out and agreed that was the case. In the meantime I had dirty washing while waiting. Then I was told that I could only exchange it for the same size washing machine. In the meantime I found out that they did make a washing that returned the suds but it was larger. As I needed to wash doonas etc I decided on the one that was larger and returned the suds, (I had already owned a return suds machine before) but was told that went against Company Policy and I had to chose one that was the same size. I ended up going to Fair Trading, saying that I didn’t want to be stuck with a machine for the rest of my life that I wasn’t happy with just because of unfair Co Policy. Within a couple of days of Fair Trading getting in touch with them I was then allowed to get the machine that returned the suds. I had to pay the difference of course, but I had already offered to do that when they refused me. That way I can wash all the dirty rags in the last wash, which save suds and water.
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What a difference a day, and some consumer action, makes.
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I am a millennial and I wonder the same thing.
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I haven’t heard of the term you mention, returning the suds. Can you please expand? Is it better for the environment in some way?
There are transducers or similar on the tub hubs that essentially weigh the clothes (pressure of deflection from the weight), and sensors that detect clarity of the water, machine dependent during the wash, and rinse cycles. That data is fed into a program that attempts to optimise the length of the wash and rinse within the bounds set by the design engineers.
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A washing machine that saves and returns the suds. When you wash there is a setting on the washing machine to say you want to save the suds. Then the water goes into the tub instead of through the waste water. When you are ready there is another setting to return the suds to the machine. You can’t do this with a front loader (as far as I know).
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Hello! I was wondering if you could tell me the make and model of the washing machine with the suds return. My Mum hung on to her old washing machine (that sud saved) for years as she was told they weren’t made any more. I know she would love to get another one. Thanks in advance.
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The washing machine I have now that returns the suds, is a Simpson. I have had it now for about four years. I believe Electrolux now owns the Simpsons Brand.
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