Patric Richardson, aka The Laundry Evangelist, is
pretty passionate about laundry. At Mona Williams, his
clothing-and-more store in Minneapolis’ Mall of America,
he leads six “laundry camp” classes a week. He even
makes his own laundry flakes. We asked him for the dirt
on keeping kitchen linens clean. By Nichole AksamitTEA TOWEL
TIPS
FROM THE
HOW DID YOU BECOME THE LAUNDRY EVANGELIST? I wanted to carry
laundry products at the store so people could take care of the clothing they
bought from me—and then I discovered that people are obsessed with laundry.WHAT’S YOUR LAUNDRY PHILOSOPHY? There’s no fabric you can’t launder.
It’s fabric! And you can clean almost everything naturally.ANY ADVICE FOR STAINED TEA TOWELS OR OTHER KITCHEN LINENS?
I treat every textile in my house the same. Whether it’s an Armani jacket or a
tea towel with a carrot on the front, you should clean it well so you can keep
on using it. That starts with pretreating stains right before you wash a load.HOW DO YOU PRETREAT? For oily things,
vinegar and water (a 50-50 blend) is always my
first trick. The second is liquid hand soap—just
a couple drops before you put it in the washer.
Red wine stains have to be pretreated with an
enzyme. And then there’s red food coloring.
(I like to make red velvet cakes, and red food
coloring is tough!) I spray it with vinegar and
water, wait a few seconds, and then go after it
with laundry soap and a brush.CAN YOU ACTUALLY SET A STAIN BY
PUTTING IT THROUGH THE DRYER?
“Set stains” are a myth: You can make a stain
harder to get out, but you can still get it out. For
stubborn stains, I lay a cooling rack in the sink,
lay the stained item over it, and pour boiling hot
water through it from a good height.WHAT IF YOU JUST HAVE NO IDEA WHAT
THE STAIN IS? Start with a good laundry
soap and a brush. (I use my own soap blend,
but there are others.) And if that doesn’t work,
try vinegar and water. And if that doesn’t work, go to an enzyme. And if that
doesn’t work, go to liquid hand soap and boiling water.HOW ABOUT COFFEE OR TEA STAINS? They should wash out in the washer.
If they don’t, you’re using too much detergent. It sounds counterintuitive, but if
you use too much, it doesn’t rinse out. It just sits in your fabric and attracts the
debris of the day. To get extra detergent out, run a load in your washer with
1 cup vinegar and ¼ cup baking soda. And then you can start anew. You’d be
surprised how many things turn around after you get the extra detergent out.BEFORE
The drawer was overfilled. We had to dig
to find anything. And we ended up using
the same few towels—the ones on top.NOW
With items filed like folders in a hanging
file drawer, everything’s in view and in
reach, making it easy to rotate among all
our kitchen towels. And because
everything has a designated place, this
drawer has retained its order for months!HOW WE DID IT
We emptied the drawer and weeded out
a few towels that no longer “sparked joy.”
Then we folded all the remaining towels
to drawer depth and filed them vertically
in rows grouped roughly by color.Taking our cue from organizer
Marie Kondo, we tidied up a kitchen
linen drawer—for good!laundryevangelistLaundry Flakes
Use a teensy pinch
for stains or a
tablespoon for a whole
load. $22 for 1 lb. at
laundryevangelist.comHOW TO
KONMARI
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