While some people-mostly in developing countries-continue to clean their clothing in a lake or river, most people clean their clothing in a washing machine.

Washing machines enable you to do a better job of keeping your white clothes white and your bright clothes bright than would be possible by washing your clothing in a stream.

All you have to do is load your clothing into a washing machine, add the detergent, set the temperature and you're ready to wash a load of clothes.

In terms of functionality, washing machines are all over the map. You can find simple washing machines, and you can find multi-featured washing machines. The latter might enable you to select the drying temperature based on the fabric types. It might also have a compartment to put in the fabric softener so that the machine would automatically apply the fabric softener at the appropriate cycle-so that you won't have to stand guard at the machine and apply it yourself.

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