Simplify your laundry!

Posted on 11/01/2013 by admin

One of our resolutions for 2013 is to give our customers and followers the best tips to make your laundry easier and more effective. If you’re still one of those people who loves to do your laundry at home (really?) here’s some straightforward advice to help you save time and energy – by sorting your clothes correctly before washing.

First, check the care labels. Put any garments that need special treatment (hand washing, no tumble dry, delicate fabric, etc) in their own pile. For the rest of the laundry, sort it by colour. Make sure that you separate white garments (if you want to keep them white!) from reds and bright colours, as these can leak into the rest of your clothing. In addition, to avoid getting fluff on your garments consider washing towels in a separate load.

Turn all the clothing right side out, unless the label instructs otherwise. Do up all the buttons to avoid damaging other garments and check the pockets – to avoid nasty surprises (like pens), and you may even find some extra cash!

Check each item for stains – to pre-treat them before laundering or clean them further before drying. If not, you risk setting the stain forever. If you find any rips or loose threads, it’s better to fix them before cleaning as it could get worse in the washing machine.

Of course, the LR team is more than happy to help make your laundry easier, simpler and greener – so if all this sounds like a chore, let us take care of it for you!

£10,000 raised for Scope with our clothes recycling scheme

Posted on 20/12/2012 by admin

Thanks to your generosity, we have collected 1,700 tonnes of donated clothing for our charity partner Scope in 2012, raising nearly £10,000 from sales in their charity shops. Tom Hall, Director of Philanthropy and Partnerships at Scope, said: “LaundryRepublic’s innovative clothes donation scheme has been a tremendous success, making a real impact on the lives of disabled people across the UK”.

Scope supports disabled people and their families, providing residential care, supported independent living schemes, short breaks, and employment and training. You can find out more about our work with Scope on their website, here: http://www.scope.org.uk/how-you-can-help/corporate-partnerships/our-corporate-partners/laundryrepublic

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM LAUNDRYREPUBLIC!

Posted on 13/12/2012 by admin

Were having a short break over Christmas. Our final day of deliveries before the holiday will be Saturday December 22nd, and well start up again on Wednesday January 2nd. To ensure your order is back before the break, please place your order by Wednesday December 19th with Standard Service, or by 11am on Friday December 21st with Next Day Service.

New video and website facelift

Posted on 06/12/2012 by admin

LR video We’ve created a new video that explains how to use our service check it out on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cT8TPvsR6l8

This will form part of a series of improvements to our website, to make it easier to use and understand. Youll start to see these coming through over the next few weeks, beginning with a facelift to our home page!

Give a boost to your laundry with baking soda!

Posted on 29/11/2012 by admin

In previous posts we have talked about the natural cleaning qualities of lemon and vinegar, which help us take care of our laundry without harming the environment. Today we’ll talk about the special properties of baking soda – useful for more than just baking!

Thanks to its alkali qualities which raise the pH balance of water, adding 125 ml of baking soda to your washing machine’s rinse cycle will boost the detergent’s ingredients resulting in cleaner and whiter clothes. It will also act as a a deodoriser to remove unpleasant odours, and as a natural fabric softener – ideal for those that are sensitive to chemicals. You can combine the baking powder with warm water to create a paste which will help to remove grease and heavy tea and coffee stains. Simply rub the paste onto the stain and let it sit for an hour before washing the garment as normal.

Switch to baking soda, lemon juice and vinegar for a greener way to do laundry!

Say goodbye to the fuzz on your clothes!

Posted on 22/11/2012 by admin

How many times have you pulled a sweater you loved out from the last season and it’s full of fluff and bobbles? Especially underneath your arms! Not nice, is it?

One effective method of getting rid of fabric pilling quickly is to use a disposable razor. Simply lay out your garment flat on a table, extend the sleeves and hold the fabric taut. Then, carefully shave off the fuzz on the garment – moving the razor in the same direction as the weave. Remove the accumulated pill from the shaver as you go. Just one important tip: never press down on the fabric and shave very carefully, especially around buttons and seams, as you could accidentally cut into the fabric.

Care for your clothes with lemon juice!

Posted on 16/11/2012 by admin

We’re always looking for eco-friendly alternatives for your laundry and today we’re going to discover how lemons can help to fight stains and whiten your clothes.

The citric acid in lemon juice can act as a natural stain remover, helping to break down stains such as fruit juice, rust and mildew. Simply pour some lemon juice onto the stain and rub with salt. Leave the garment in the sun to dry for a few hours and then wash as normal, preferably in hot water. You can also use lemon juice as an effective whitener, in place of chlorine bleach; just add half a pint of lemon juice to your cycle along with your usual detergent. If the garment is very dingy, you might want to soak it in a sink with some hot water and lemon slices and leave it overnight. Then wash as usual and allow it to air dry. Your whites will be brilliantly white and lemony fresh!

Vinegar, an eco-friendly laundry softener

Posted on 09/11/2012 by admin

Not only is it great with chips, white wine vinegar makes an excellent alternative to commercially available fabric softeners! Standard fabric softeners work by coating your clothes with a layer of chemicals to reduce static and increase the smoothness of the fabric, but you can use vinegar to achieve the same effect in a low-cost, eco-friendly way.

Adding about 100ml of white vinegar to the rinse cycle will soften your laundry and remove soap and detergent residues. It also prevents yellowing on the clothes, attacks mildew and the acidity should help to reduce static on your clothes. The vinegar smell will disappear as the clothes go through rinse and drying cycle.

Restore your down coat to its puffy glory!

Posted on 01/11/2012 by admin

As the temperature plummets, we’ve started to see lots of padded down coats and fleeces from our customers. These are fantastic for keeping warm in, but once they’ve been washed it can be tricky to puff them back up to their former fluffy selves – the down filling gets wet and compacts into a dense layer, leaving the coat looking thin and sad, and reducing the insulation it provides.

Our secret weapon for re-puffing up your down coat? Tennis balls! After squeezing out the excess water, we place a clean tennis ball in the dryer with the coat and dry on a low heat. The ball bounces around inside the dryer, fluffing up the feathers inside the coat and restoring it to its lovely, puffy glory. Game, set and match LaundryRepublic!

And we continue growing!

Posted on 26/10/2012 by admin

We’ve been working very hard during the last few months and we’re starting to see the fruits of our efforts.

We’ve started serving nearly 1,500 more apartments – developments in Clapham, Battersea, Highbury, Farringdon, Stratford, Canary Wharf and Woolwich are now part of our laundry revolution! And since July, we’ve added five new LR team members, who have been helping us to raise standards even higher.

We’ve stepped up our social media presence and now have Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn profiles! It’s a great way to keep our customers up to date with our news, the latest promotions and discount codes, stain removal tips and the occasional funny stories from the world of dry cleaning and laundry.

Talking about promotions: LR is now serving gyms, allowing our customers to combine their trip to the fitness club with a visit to the dry cleaners. If you would like us to start serving your gym, get in touch! We’ll even give you the equivalent of a month’s gym membership in credit as a thank you when we start serving it.

Also this week, we’ve launched a new discount voucher – 10% off your second order when you use the voucher code at the bottom of your receipt. This allows recent joiners to continue to try the LR experience for less! Check your receipt for terms and details.

And to finish, we’re always grateful to our customers for their clothes recycling donations on behalf of Scope. We have helped them to donate 1,500 kg so far this year, raising more than £7,000 (and counting) to support Scope’s projects for disabled people!