Easy Clean Up Solutions for Every Room

In the Laundry Room

Bad Habit: Letting Clothes Sit in the Dryer

They’ll wrinkle, forcing you to embrace the rumpled look or do extra ironing.
Good practice: If you won’t be there when the beeper goes off, put the dryer on extended tumble, which periodically tosses clothes, without heat, for a preset amount of time to prevent wrinkles. For dress shirts and pants, select permanent press, a setting that dries slowly, with low heat, and finishes with a cool-down period to minimize creases. (Some machines add an extended tumble to the end of the permanent-press cycle.) If your dryer doesn’t have these options, or if you forget to use them, fluff a wrinkled load by throwing in a damp towel and restarting the dryer, says Steve Boorstein, the author of The Clothing Doctor’s 99 Secrets to Cleaning & Clothing Care ($5, amazon.com).