How do I remove curry, turmeric and tomato stains?
Turmeric and tomato are oil-carried dyes, so they need degreasing first and then sunlight — which does more to a yellow curry stain than any product sold for it.
beginner25 min3 min read
Clothing & Laundry
Washing, drying, stains and making clothes last.
109 guides in Lifestyle
How often should I change and wash bedding?
Sheets weekly, pillowcases twice weekly if skin is a problem, duvets and pillows two or three times a year — and the pillow protector is the part everyone forgets.
beginner20 min4 min readWhich duvet tog should I use in summer?
Tog measures insulation, not weight or quality, and the filling decides how the same tog actually feels. What to use in a British summer, and why a low tog can still sleep hot.
beginner10 min5 min readWhy do some fabrics pill and others do not?
A pill forms when short fibre ends work out of the yarn and roll into a ball. Whether it stays depends on the strength of the fibres anchoring it — which is why polyester and blends bobble forever and good wool does not.
beginner10 min4 min readWhy does my gym kit still smell after washing?
Synthetic fabric holds body oil in a way cotton does not, and fabric conditioner seals it in — which is why activewear smells the moment it warms up.
beginner30 min4 min readHow do I get stains out of a school uniform?
School uniform collects four stain types at once on fabric that is usually a polyester blend, and the polyester is what decides how much comes out.
beginner30 min4 min readHow do I stop clothes fading, bobbling and losing shape?
Washing inside out, cooler and less often — the three changes that most extend the life of clothing.
beginner20 min2 min readHow do I wash a bra so it keeps its shape?
A bra is an engineered garment held together by elastane, and elastane is destroyed by heat and by hard agitation. Hand wash cool, never wring, never tumble dry, and rotate three of them.
beginner15 min4 min readHow do I wash a garment made of blended fibres?
A blend is washed according to its most fragile fibre, regardless of how small a percentage that fibre is. Two per cent elastane decides one hundred per cent of the care.
beginner8 min4 min readHow do I wash trainers?
Most trainers can go in the machine, but the ones that cannot are the expensive ones — and heat is what destroys the glue holding a shoe together.
beginner40 min3 min readWhat is the difference between bio and non-bio detergent?
Biological detergent contains enzymes that digest protein, starch and fat; non-bio does not. That single difference decides which stains come out and which fabrics survive.
beginner10 min3 min readWhy does my washing machine leave marks or residue on clothes?
White powdery marks, greasy grey smears and dark specks are three different faults with three different causes — and only one of them is actually about the detergent.
beginner30 min5 min readHow do I wash a duvet and pillows?
How to wash bulky bedding without ruining it, whether your machine can handle it, and how to dry it fully — which is the part that matters.
beginner5 hr3 min readWhat do the symbols on clothing labels mean?
The five symbol families and what each actually restricts, so you can decode any label without looking it up.
beginner10 min2 min readWhy does my washing machine cycle take so long?
Long cycles are usually the machine working correctly — but a cycle that keeps extending itself past its estimate is telling you something about the load, the water or the drain.
beginner15 min4 min readHow do I get grass stains out of clothes?
Grass is a dye rather than dirt, so it needs an alcohol or enzyme attack before washing — and washing it first is what makes it permanent.
beginner25 min3 min readHow do I start hand sewing?
The five-item kit that covers most repairs, threading and knotting without frustration, and the two stitches worth learning first.
beginner30 min3 min readHow do I tell if clothes are well made before I buy them?
Eight checks you can do in a shop in under a minute — composition, weight, grain, seam allowance, stitch density, pattern match, buttonholes and interfacing — that predict how a garment will look in two years.
beginner10 min5 min readHow do I wash jeans so they last?
Jeans are damaged more by washing than by wearing, so the answer is less often, cold, inside out — and never in a hot dryer if there is elastane in them.
beginner20 min4 min readHow do I wash wool and delicate clothes?
Washing knitwear and delicates without shrinking, felting or stretching them out of shape.
beginner45 min2 min readWhat does fabric conditioner actually do, and when should I skip it?
It coats fibres with a waxy film that feels soft and reduces static — and that same film ruins towels, activewear, waterproofs and flame-retardant nightwear.
beginner10 min3 min readWhat is viscose, and why does it go limp and shrink when wet?
Viscose is wood pulp dissolved and re-spun into fibre. It loses roughly half its strength the moment it gets wet, shrinks badly and water-spots, which is why so much of it is labelled dry clean only and means it.
beginner12 min4 min readWhy does my iron leak or spit brown water?
Clear water leaking and brown grit spitting are two different faults — one is usually the plate being too cool to make steam, the other is limescale breaking loose inside.
beginner30 min6 min readDo cooling pillows and mattress toppers actually work?
Three different technologies are sold as cooling and only one of them keeps working all night. Which is which, and the cheaper changes that beat all of them.
beginner12 min6 min read