If you're doing your laundry on a regular basis, you shouldn't have that build-up to begin with if you're doing it properly,' Ek said. 'It can be really helpful, it's not always necessary. If you have hard water, she says doing it once or twice a year might be beneficial.
She calls it a 'harsh way to do laundry,' so her advice is to do it as rarely as you can. If you choose to strip your laundry, it would replace a regular wash cycle on that day, but Ek advises against doing it on a regular basis. Built-up residue can occur from having hard water, using too much laundry detergent or fabric softener or years of grime build-up, she told us. 'Laundry stripping is the process of removing built-up residue,' Ek explained.
Shop How often do you really need to replace your pillows? It may be sooner than you think What is laundry stripping?