Maintaining your clothes – how to keep your clothes looking new
I don’t know what it is that is so frustrating about damaging a great article of clothing but it really gets to me. It drives me nuts when something I love wearing changes colour or gets shrunk. Great articles of clothing don’t come cheap and when you splurge on something you want it to last for those special occasions when you wear it.
I’m useless at washing, utterly useless. This means that I am often destroying things. I won’t wash anyone’s clothing because I’m so scared of messing their clothes up too.
More than that, I’ve realised that considering how much we spend on clothes should I not be looking to maintain our clothes. Should I not be trying to keep them looking new?
Kindly, Amilia from 10exposed.com has done some research and put together a great post on Maintaining your clothes. In this piece she talks about general care instructions as well as suggestions for common items of clothing.
Thank you so much Amilia for this post.
Maintaining your clothes – tips and tricks
Different Fabrics means using different techniques
As you know there are a host of different fabric materials used in manufacture of clothes. These include cotton, linen, polyester, wool, silk and nylon. Due to this diversity, there are lots of tips and tricks to maintaining your clothes depending on the material the clothes are made of.
Clothes manufactured from natural fabrics such as cotton and wools are easily maintained due to their durability.
Clothes manufactured from synthetic fabric such as nylon and polyester require additional attention. I’m going to start out with one of the most commonly worn items of clothing.
Maintaining your clothes: How to look after your jeans
Jeans have different fabric density however care procedure apply to all jean types. Among the tips is cleaning procedures; while cleaning jeans, one should pay attention to various tips. Prior to cleaning jeans, one should ensure he or she has the following requirements in close proximity; iron box, washing machine and vinegar.
Step 1: soak them
The first step entails soaking jeans in cold water mixed with vinegar. The purpose of this is to curb the fading process. Soaking jeans in this mixture helps the color to set in.
While washing, you should wash them inside out to maintain that new look.
Step 2: the drying process
For the best results, you should remove your jeans from washing machine when they are still damp. From there you should air-dry them to prevents shrinking.
If you want to use the drier or tumble dryer make sure it is set at a low temperature to prevent them shrinking.
Step 3: Ironing
Surprisingly, its best to iron your jeans when they are slightly damp. You should also try to keep the original creases when ironing.
Maintaining your clothes: How to wash women’s shirts and blouses
When dealing with women’s clothes such as tops; it is wise to follow some instructions.
The vast majority of cloths wear out due to poor washing protocols.
The first step is the easiest and most often overlooked – always follow the instructions on the label. This is actually the best way to make sure you are looking after your clothes and maintaining your clothes in a manner that keeps them looking new.
Some clothes such as blazers can only be dry cleaned. Ignoring these labels will lead to you damaging the item – regardless of whether that damage is noticeable immediately or whether it is only noticeable at a later stage.
Maintaining your clothes: What to do with PJs and Sweats
PJS and sweats are often made of a thick fleece. This type of fabric is actually really easy to wash so maintaining your clothes made of fleece is quite simple.
You can simple throw these all in the washing machine and put it on normal wash on cold.
I would advise against a hot wash in case you have any stains on the item as this will set the stain.
General tips and tricks to maintaining your clothes
1. Treat stains before washing.
2. Seperate your clothes before washing. Do not mix clothes with fast colors with other cloth types. Mixing leads to discoloration thus interfering with cloth appearance.
3. Make sure your washing machine is balanced. An unbalanced machine will create creases in clothes. On some occasions, an unbalanced machine will even over stretch the garments causing them to lose density. This ruins their appearance and eventually their durability. This is key to maintaining your clothes.
4. Don’t wash heavyweight clothes like denims khakis and even thick skirts or corduroys materials with warm up pants with other thin fabrics. The heavyweight items will soaks up all the soap leaving the thinner items unclean.
I hope you find these tips useful, if you have any question feel free to comments below.
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AllThingsMomSydney has had some great guest posts on housekeeping and how to make life a bit easier. Below are the links to some of these posts.
