10 Laundry Habits That Wear Out Clothes Faster Than You Think

Keeping clothes looking decent is hard enough with kids, dirt, and real life. The last thing you need is your laundry routine secretly ruining everything faster. A few small habits can fade colors, stretch fabric, and make shirts look tired after only a handful of washes.

Here are common laundry habits that are tough on clothes and what to do instead so your favorite jeans, towels, and T-shirts last a lot longer.

1. Washing Everything on Hot by Default

Hot water has its place, but using it for every load is rough on fabric. It can fade colors, weaken elastic, and shrink anything even slightly sensitive. Over time, clothes start feeling thin and stretched instead of soft and sturdy.

Save hot water for heavily soiled items, towels, and bedding that need a deep clean. For most clothes, warm or cold is plenty. Cold water detergents are strong enough now that you still get a good wash without beating up your fabrics every single cycle.

2. Overloading the Washer

Stuffing the washer to the top feels efficient, but it keeps clothes from getting truly clean and beats them up in the process. When there’s no room to move, fabrics scrape against each other and the drum, which can cause pilling and worn spots.

Try leaving a little space at the top of the drum so clothes can move freely. It may mean one extra load, but shirts will come out cleaner, less wrinkled, and less stressed from the constant friction inside an overfilled machine.

3. Using Way Too Much Detergent

It’s easy to think extra soap means extra clean, but it usually means extra residue. Detergent buildup can make fabric feel stiff, dull the color, and even trap odors. Over time, it can also be hard on the washer itself.

Use the measuring cap, not a guess. Adjust for load size and soil level, not emotion. If your clothes come out feeling coated, try cutting your detergent amount in half for a few loads and see if they actually feel softer and cleaner.

4. Skipping the Delicate Cycle Completely

Delicate cycles exist for a reason, and not only for lace and fancy blouses. Lightweight knits, leggings, sports bras, and anything with stretch last longer with a gentler wash. A normal or heavy cycle can twist these fabrics and stretch them out.

If you don’t want to babysit every label, make a small bin for “gentle” items. When it fills up, run a quick delicate load. It’s a simple habit that keeps you from constantly replacing the same pieces over and over.

5. Ignoring the Care Tags

Care tags are annoying, but they’re basically the owner’s manual for your clothes. Ignoring “line dry only” or “cold wash” eventually shows up as shrinkage, rough fabric, or seams that don’t sit right anymore.

You don’t have to treat every item like it’s precious, but it helps to glance at tags when something is new. If several items need similar care, store them together or toss them into a mesh bag so you remember to treat them a little better in the wash.

6. Drying Everything on High Heat

If the dryer is your “set it and forget it” appliance, you’re not alone. High heat is fast, but it’s also harsh. It weakens elastic, roughens fibers, and can permanently shrink certain fabrics. Towels, socks, and jeans might handle it, but your stretchy clothes won’t.

Try using medium or low heat for most loads. For things like leggings, sports bras, and T-shirts, consider taking them out slightly damp and letting them finish drying on a rack. It takes a tiny bit more effort and saves a lot of replacement money.

7. Skipping Sorting and Washing All Colors Together

Tossing everything in one load is tempting on a busy day, but dark jeans and white shirts do not belong in the same wash if you want them to last. Color transfer and lint can make lighter clothes look dingy fast.

Set up simple sorting baskets: darks, lights, and towels at minimum. That way, sorting happens as you toss things in, not at laundry time. Even this basic level of separation keeps whites brighter and prevents fuzz and dye from wrecking everything else.

8. Never Cleaning the Washer

A dirty washer can’t give you clean clothes. Detergent buildup, hard water deposits, and trapped lint can leave residue on fabric and even cause discoloration over time. Clothes can start to smell “off” even right out of the wash.

Run a cleaning cycle once a month using washing machine cleaner or plain white vinegar, depending on your machine’s manual. Wipe the door seal, detergent drawer, and around the drum. It’s one of those boring jobs that actually pays off in how your clothes look and smell.

9. Leaving Wet Clothes Sitting in the Washer

Forgetting a load in the washer is basically a parenting rite of passage. The problem is that wet clothes sitting for hours start to smell musty and can grow mildew. Rewashing over and over is hard on fabric and still doesn’t always fix that smell.

Set a timer on your phone when you start a load. If you do forget and they smell sour when you open the washer, rewash with a little vinegar in the rinse instead of more detergent. Catching it early helps keep the fabric from picking up a permanent odor.

10. Skipping Stain Treatment and Hoping for the Best

Tossing stained clothes straight into the wash without treating them first almost guarantees faint marks that never fully disappear. The more you wash and dry that stain, the more it sets into the fibers.

Keep a stain spray or bar where you sort laundry. When you see a spill, hit it quickly and toss the item into a “stain bin” or straight into the washer. Taking 10 seconds to treat it now keeps you from scrubbing at old stains later or retiring clothes before you’re ready.