The smell of fresh-laundered clothing can be refreshing, but all that work reading labels and sorting, turning shirts outside-in, and lugging baskets around the house is tiresome. Then there’s carefully monitoring multiple loads to make sure every item is washed and dried at the correct temperature. That’s why we’re delighted to share that you can wash everything in the laundry in cold water—and there are major benefits when it comes to saving energy. Below, we explain the reasons why you can wash all your clothes in cold—and the circumstances when warm water is better.

The Benefits Of Washing Clothes In Cold Water

We all know that delicates last longer when you wash them in cold water, but there are real benefits to washing the rest of your clothes in cold, too. Warm water can make fabrics shed fibers, bleed dye or fade, and slowly (or dramatically) shrink. Cold water reduces those problems for all your clothes and linens, giving them a longer lifespan. Cold water even works better at removing organic stains like grass stains, blood, and urine.

Washing everything in cold also makes your home more energy-efficient. According to Energy Star, 90 percent of the energy used to operate a clotheswasher is due to heating water. Even just switching from hot water to warm will cut your energy usage for that load in half. Cold Water Saves, an initiative by the American Cleaning Institute, says you can save $200 a year by making the switch. That’s not a massive savings, but when you consider that you could also save on your clothes budget and benefit the environment, it seems well worth it.

When You Should Use Warm Or Hot Water

There are still situations when you should use warm or hot water. Warm water is more effective at removing oily stains, cleaning heavily soiled clothes, and removing odors. Your bath towels and stinky socks should probably be washed in warm. And you’ll want to use hot water to sanitize clothing and linens if someone in the house has been sick. Cloth diapers should also get the hot-water treatment.

Finally, many detergents don’t clean effectively in very cold water—you’re really looking for closer to room temperature to activate those stain-removing enzymes. If your water is below 60 degrees Fahrenheit, use warm water for the wash cycle and cold to rinse.

Tips For Washing In Cold

To get the best results when washing your laundry with cold water, follow these tips:

• Use liquid detergent: Most powdered detergents require warm water to properly dissolve.
• Use cold-water detergent: If the temperature of your home’s water regularly dips to around 60, buy detergent specially formulated for cold water.
• Pre-treat stains: Pre-treating (and soaking, if necessary) will help those stains come out in the wash.
• Pre-soak: If you choose to wash heavily soiled fabrics in cold, use the pre-wash or heavy soil cycle.