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Jul 23, 2023

Susannah Constantine's 7 top tips to save money and do your laundry better

What Not To Wear host Susannah Constantine gives her guide to making the most of your washing - and how to minimise energy use Susannah Constantine is changing her style on giving clothing advice, by

What Not To Wear host Susannah Constantine gives her guide to making the most of your washing - and how to minimise energy use

Susannah Constantine is changing her style on giving clothing advice, by sharing tips on doing laundry more cheaply and effectively.

“If you put your sheets on at 95C for two hours, you’re burning through energy – it’s as bad as driving your car from London to Scotland. It’s insane,” declares Susannah, 61, who rose to fame alongside Trinny Woodall on TV’s What Not To Wear.

“But I found if you put the machine on a 20-30C cycle, it washes just as well, it’s shorter and it saves money. And because it’s a cooler wash, it makes your clothes last an awful lot longer too.” Smart Energy GB points out that washing clothes at colder temperatures, with fuller loads, and using more efficient drying habits, could save households up to £165 a year.

Yet 42% of householders only use two settings on their washer, and three-quarters don’t fully get the symbols on laundry labels, a survey found. Mum of three Susannah says: “I am one of those people. It’s like these labels have been devised at Cape Canaveral – we’re just talking about washing clothes! So most of the time, I just cut them out.” Here are Susannah’s top tips on how to get clothes clean and save energy.

Colder washes are just as effective as warm/hot washes, stresses Susannah, who advises using a 20-30 degree wash when possible - adding it was only when she got a smart meter recently that she realised how much energy she was using with hot washes.

“And so now I don’t use them,” she says. “I haven’t used a hot, hot wash for a long time... Laundry can be quite a minefield, especially when you’re dealing with two daughters and their clothing,” she adds. “So I’ve used cooler washes and it’s absolutely fine - and nothing gets dyed by a black sock, or shrinks.”

Colder washes can also protect materials like denim and delicates, while preventing colour bleeding. Constantine adds: “There’s a lot of synthetic fabrics and fast fashion around now, but even those last longer if you put them on a cooler cycle.”

Most of us are guilty of washing clothes when they’re not really dirty - particularly if there are children in the family, who just chuck clothes in the laundry basket because it’s easier than putting them away. But you can, of course, get more than one wear out of clothes to help reduce laundry loads - Constantine says the ‘sniff test’ is a good way of telling if something truly needs washing.

“It’s like, ‘Oh, I can’t be bothered to put that away, so I’ll just put it in the wash and mum can wash and iron it and put it away for me’,” she observes. "I just say, for goodness sake, just have a sniff. And if they don’t look dirty but they smell dirty, fair enough. But if they look clean, and they smell clean, I ain’t washing it.

“My kids sort of get it, and they’re certainly more conscious now about the amount of electricity that’s being used. The younger generation are so much more conscious about the environment and the damage we’re doing, so often they’ll be telling me put on a cool wash.”

You don’t necessarily need to use a hot wash to get rid of stains, either. Constantine points out you can often treat stains the old-fashioned way by pre-soaking garments overnight in a bowl or bucket, before washing them on your preferred laundry cycle.

“There are some stains you do need the traditional hotter wash for, but often you can just go back to the old-school way of doing a pre-soak,” she explains. “So if you’ve got a dodgy stain on your sheets, you just get the sheet, put it in a little bowl of water with quite a lot of soap suds, soak it for at least an hour and then put it in the washing machine - job done on a cooler heat.”

If you’re able to air-dry laundry, this is obviously the most cost-effective approach. Constantine says: “We’re lucky to have a garden, so I’ll hang the washing out. I find when you put towels in the dryer they go crispy and hard, so I hang them out on the washing line.”

If you do need to use your tumble dryer, Constantine recommends adding a dry towel to the load to help clothes dry faster. “If it’s raining, I will put the wet clothes in the dryer, but I put a dry towel in as well and that helps soak up the moisture so they dry quicker.”

If the weather’s bad or you don’t have any outside space to hang out your washing, try placing a drying rack next to an open window to speed up the process, rather than putting clothes on radiators. “I don’t do radiators,” says Constantine. “But I have got one of those little clothing racks, so I’ll open the back door and put it there.”

A dehumidifier, which helps absorb moisture, can speed up drying times when it’s placed next to a drying rack, as a substitute for more energy-consuming appliances. Constantine says: “I have a dehumidifier which I put the other side of my drying rack, and that dries clothes pretty quickly. Dehumidifiers are much, much more economical than a tumble dryer.”

* Susannah Constantine has teamed up with Smart Energy GB on their Super Smart Home Hacks campaign to help Brits reduce energy usage and save money by using a smart meter.

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