Washing clothes once involved a body of fresh water, a washboard and a lot of elbow grease. Today, you can simply dump your detergent into the washer, fill it with water, and let the machine wash your clothes. Liquid detergent is no more difficult to use than powder detergent, and can be dumped directly into the body of the washer itself or into a filter at the top of a washer that comes equipped with this feature.

Sort your clothing. Make a pile of dark clothes, light-colored clothes and whites.

Pour a drop of liquid detergent directly onto any tough or dark stains. Rub the detergent into the stain and let the detergent sit for 10 minutes before washing.

Set the color and water temperature settings for whichever pile of clothes you plan to wash first. If you do not have color settings, wash dark clothes in cold or cool water, and light and white clothes in cool or warm water.

Uncap your liquid laundry detergent and look for the fill lines inside the cap. Most liquid detergents have a "Regular" fill line for regular-sized loads and a "Large" fill line for large loads. Fill the cap to the appropriate level. If there are no fill lines, fill the cap just below the top.

Pour your liquid detergent into the liquid detergent filter, or directly on top of your clothes if your washer does not have a filter. Front-loading washers come with a filter, as soap cannot be poured evenly over clothes in this type of washer.