Washing machines or hand-wash are two ways to sort laundry matters. But here’s a surprise …did you know that by sticking stuff in your freezer, you can solve quite a few stubborn issues. Here’s how it works:

Furry sweaters

Some sweaters shed a lot of fur clumps behind. To stop that from happening, you can put your cardigan in a plastic bag, all nicely folded up and stick in the freezer. As the cold temperature draws the sweater’s fibres together, they are locked in place and no more shedding takes place. Now you want find clumps from your sweater sticking to the car seat or couch when you lounge around.

New shoes

With winter approaching, a lot of us will be wearing closed shoes. But sometimes one can be miserable when it becomes difficult to wear a new pair even for an hour without blisters and bruises. To end the tyranny of the new shoe, just toss it in the freezer. What you need to do is to fill some plastic bags with water and stuff them inside your shoes, especially the tighter, tyrannical parts! Put the shoe in the freezer, As the water freezes and expands, it will stretch the material so that when you stick your foot in now, you will not feel pain. This is one up on the old trick of sticking wet newspapers to expand tight khussas.

Chewing gum

It is so annoying when you find a yucky, sticky glob of gum on your clothes. Start pulling it and you will create a bigger mess with messy fingers as well because gum sticks strongly to fabric. The easiest thing is to put it in the freezer for a few hours. As the gum become cold and hardens, it will come off, way more easily. If gum is stuck on your shoes, it would be a better idea to wrap it in a plastic bag for hygiene purposes and then put in the freezer. Cold temperatures do kill off bacteria, however.

The freezer is not just for freezing, it can help with laundry too

Toughen up your nylons

Fancy tops, lingerie and tights are often made of flimsy material that is easily torn while wearing. Did you know that storing flimsy material in the freezer will do it good once and for all. All you have to do is run water through the item of clothing, squeeze out water gently, place in a plastic bag and put it in the freezer for a few hours. The intense cold will toughen up the fibres of the material. When you want to wear it, just leave it out at room temperature. This will take a little while. One intense cold spell is enough to toughen up the delicate, thin material.

No water

If you just discovered that the scarf, top or tee that you wanted to wear in particular for an occasion smells unfresh because you have not worn it for sometime. But either there is no time to wash and dry it or there is n’t any water. But there is a way that you can still wear it. Just leave it in the freezer for an hour or two and then leave it out for a bit. You will be surprised how the cold can de-stink your clothes. The bacteria that may have collected in your clothes over a period of time is killed in the cold temeperature, leaving your item of clothing refreshed.

Compiled from various sources on internet

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, October 25th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play