访谈录 2010-03-26&03-28 洗衣服（在线收听）

Actually we have secrets that can save your time and money thanks to Elisabeth Leamy who is joining us with those. Good to see you.

Thank you. Home ec class is in session.

This is important stuff, so let’s talk what’s first, laundry detergent?

Yes, most people use way, way, way too much, the truth is most laundry would get plainly clean if you just wash it in water. But what we do? We fill up these dispensers to the very top. Some experts say we are using ten times more detergent than we need to and that can wreck your machine in the long term, make your clothes stiff in the short term. So you should be reading the packaging. How’s that for a concept?

But isn’t the packaging essentially they’re ought to sell more detergent? So they’re telling you…

Well, they say that they have carefully figured out how much you really need and there are actually multiple fill lines which most people don’t notice for different size loads. Hot tip: mark them outside with a pen to make it easier to see. And yeah, experiment was using even less than the soap manufacturers suggest. And here’s how you can tell by the way. If you are over soaping if your guilty is charged, throw some towels in your washer with no detergent. Run it on hot for about five minutes then take it out and squeeze and (Oh, soapy water) if you see suds that’s coming from your towels from the last time you washed them could also explain why you are itchy every time you get out of a shower.

Ok. Now what about water temperature? I was remembering you know wets and hots colors and cold does that make sense?
Right. Well, my mum is not gonna be happy about this, but once again, most laundry will do fine in just cold, except for something say oily stains. But the thing is you know the machine 90% of the energy it uses is to heat up the water. You can actually cut your cost a half just by switching from hot to warm. So that’s an improvement.

That’s a great way to save some pennies just energy cost also. The mildew smell that some machines get. How do you get rid of that?
Well, using less soap is gonna help cause it’s that soap scum that forms that breeds the bacteria that creates that smell, but check your owner’s manual. There’s a concept read your owner’s manual. And some recommend running some bleach with no clothes through your machine about once a month to get rid of the smell. So washing your wash machine.

OK, in interest of equal time we shift to Mr. Dryer here. What should we know about this machine?

Well lint is the enemy and it’s hard enough isn’t it just to get people to clean the lint trap if you are living in an apartment building. It’s probably your pet pee. But there is another place that lint forms that people need to know about. Every dryer has one of these vents to take hot air outside your house. That can be thirty or forty feet long and those clogged up with lint makes your dryer stop drying and little thing could set your house on fire. Yeah, so you need to use a brush like this or shop that once a year at least once a year and be cleaning that out and one more no-no a lot of people throw an entire handful of dryer sheets in the dryer but they really should be using just one because if you use too many you end up with not only lint but sticky.

Yeah, and as long as we talked about cutting energy savings, what about drying clothes? You know I know it’s unsightly to have the stuff hanging around your apartment, but if you got a clothes line, right?
Well, actually, what I really recommend is going modern people tend to you know use the time dry function that our mums told us and keep checking to see if things are dry. Well, what a revolution. Once again read the manual most modern dryers have a sensor that stops drying when the clothes are dry. How about that?

There you go. Yeah. Take advantage of all the bells and whistles, save you some money.
Alright, Eliz really appreciate it. Coming up tomorrow more household advices.