The easiest way to cut laundry costs is boring, which is exactly why it works: make cold water your default, not your exception. Most people keep treating hot or warm washes like the safe choice, but for everyday clothes, that habit usually burns extra energy without giving you meaningfully cleaner laundry.
Here’s what most people get wrong: they think laundry costs mainly come from the machine running. It doesn’t. The expensive part is heating the water. According to ENERGY STAR, “Water heating consumes about 90% of the energy” it takes to run a clothes washer. That is the whole game. If you want a simple rule that actually sticks, use cold for about 80% of loads, and only switch to warm or hot when there is a clear reason.
Think of it like cooking on high heat all the time. Yes, the pan gets hotter. No, that does not automatically make dinner better.
A cold-wash rule works because most laundry is not truly filthy. It is lightly worn, slightly sweaty, or just lived in for a day. For that kind of load, cold water is usually enough, especially with modern detergent. ENERGY STAR says the average American family does about 300 loads of laundry per year, so small savings per load add up fast. The same source also notes that certified washers use about 20% less energy and 30% less water than regular washers, but even before you replace a machine, changing the temperature setting is the easier win.
There is also a clothes-last-longer angle that people forget. A 2020 study in Dyes and Pigments found that warmer, longer wash cycles caused more color loss, more color transfer, and significantly more microfiber release than a cold, quick cycle (Cotton et al.). In plain English: hot washing can be rougher on your clothes. If you keep washing your favorite shirt in hotter water “just to be safe,” you may be paying more to wear it out faster.
That is why the cold-wash rule is less about being frugal and more about using the right tool. Cold is the default tool. Hot is the special tool.
Now, situationally, hot water still has a job. ENERGY STAR notes that consumers may want to switch to hot water temporarily when someone in the household is sick. The CDC also notes that, in healthcare settings, drying temperatures and ironing add important germ-killing action, and the choice of hot or cold washing depends on the setting and standards involved. For home laundry, that means the answer is not “always cold no matter what.” Towels, heavily soiled items, greasy work clothes, or laundry from a sick household member can justify warm or hot.
But if that does not fit you, use this simpler filter:
- Cold for everyday clothes, darks, delicates, mixed loads, and anything you want to keep from fading or shrinking.
- Warm or hot for oily messes, heavily soiled loads, towels, bedding during illness, or items that need deeper cleaning.
- Pretreat stains instead of turning up the temperature.
That last part matters. People often use heat to compensate for poor stain treatment. That is backwards. Some stains, including blood, grass, and makeup, are actually better handled in cold water because heat can set them. The American Cleaning Institute notes that some stains should only be washed in cold for exactly that reason.
There is a behavior piece here too. In a 2025 ACI survey, 41% of respondents said they wash in hot water most of the time, even though cold washing is usually enough for healthy households and everyday loads. Nathan Sell of ACI put it simply: “By adopting cold water washing, we can collectively make a positive impact” on the environment and on our clothes (ACI).
If you want the Monee version of this, it starts with knowing your actual numbers. Track how often you do laundry, how many small loads you run, and which settings you default to. Awareness is the foundation. Then the rule gets easy: cold first, exceptions second.
The memorable takeaway is this: stop asking, “Should this load be cold?” and start asking, “What is the reason this load should be anything else?”
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