When doing laundry, you can wrinkle your clothes at any time. For instance, if you fail to separate your loads by fabric weight, the heavy clothes will crush the light ones. In the dryer afterward, these wrinkles can become deeply set and impossible to iron or hang out.

Similarly, stuffing the washer or dryer full results in wrinkles. The less room your fabrics have to move, the sharper their creases. Not to mention, your clothes will emerge less clean and the machine will have worked harder than is necessary.

What to Do with Your Clothes after the Washer or Dryer

The caution put in packing and sorting your laundry will be undone if you scoop your wet or dry clothes into a basket. Instead, place your basket on top of the machine and fold your clothes one-by-one as you retrieve them from the drum. Although a longer process, it will save you from having to iron later.

Ideally, you won’t have much to pull from the dryer. Hanging your clothes is always preferable, plus gravity helps to pull out wrinkles. To prevent your fabrics from stretching, though, you should shake your clothes before hanging them. Doing so sheds any excess water retained by the fabric.