When it comes to our clothing, for most of us it is a great point of concern and even pain. Each of us can probably remember a garment that was ruined by the wrong wash or improper ironing/tumble drying, etc.
Fortunately, we know how to take care of your clothes so that they remain wearable and good-looking much longer!
And believe us, it won’t take much time and effort!
General Care Suggestions
You probably already know that certain basic wear-care instructions exist that can be applied to any garment in your wardrobe.
Being aware of such hints will let you avoid the small repair of the nearly new garments only because some thread is out of order.
- After you bought new apparel with buttons and brought it home, dab the central part of each button with the transparent nail polish. It will protect the threads and seal them.
- To take off some small amount of lint, don’t go for the sticky roller. Just wrap an ordinary tape around your finger with the sticky side out and work on the needed area.
- Need to free the garment from lint but you have no lint-remover? Make your own for a minute! Just take a newspaper, roll it up, and wrap with the adhesive tape with its sticky part out. Done!
- If your clothes have zipper teeth, we’d recommend treating those with wax regularly. Like that, they will work smoothly all the time.
- When you’re in a hurry and need to get rid of wrinkles on the garment, fill the bathtub with hot water and hang the wear over it. The steam will do everything for you.
Related: Does Rayon Shrink?
How to Keep Clothing When We Don’t Use It. Hints For Seasonal Wear
All of us know how troublesome it is to store seasonal wear when it is not needed anymore. Woolen sweaters and hats/scarfs/mittens must be protected from moths and stock properly in a wardrobe so that they won’t get that unpleasant smell next season.
To have ready-to-wear clothing next autumn/winter, just follow several simple hints.
1. To scare the moths off, choose one of the following methods.
- Put special mothballs into the wardrobe with the woolen items
- If you stock the clothing in a cedar wardrobe which naturally repels moths, sand its walls to make them smell of cedarwood again
- For storing freshly laundered clothing, try to use new garbage cans! Those with the airtight lids will be just perfect!
- Remember to launder all the items before putting them to storage since there is no other way to kill the moths’ eggs
- If you’re using any moth-repelling products, place them on the upper shelves of the wardrobe since their fumes go downward
2. Another frequent issue with seasonal clothing is mildew. However, a couple of tricks can be used to save your belongings from getting too moist during the storage.
- To protect leather purses and other bags from mildew, fill them with crumpled paper and store unfastened
- If you live in a humid climate, go for corrugated boxes. When covered with shellac, they can perfectly protect any items, not only leather, from getting moist!
Top Tips That Will Save Your Wear
Rather than wasting time on repairing clothing, why not take care of it in advance and prevent any possible problems?
We suggest you look through several handy hints that will definitely be able to extend the lifespan of your apparel!
- Choose durable fabrics at once
When you’re going to buy new wear, go for those that require minimum care, are sustainable, last longer, and are naturally durable. Cotton, wool, linen – all these fabrics are naturally made and they are far more long-living compared to synthetic fibers. In addition, natural wear is much more pleasant to the skin.
- Don’t launder too often
Yes, many people believe that the more they wash their clothing the longer it will last. However, the truth is that frequent laundering makes the fabric degrade. Soon, your apparel will lose its look and quality, and it will happen much faster than you expected.
It’s not that you should wear dirty clothing but try to change it more often.
- Maintain the shape
Nobody pays attention to how they fold their clothing. Nevertheless, for avoiding unwanted creases, as well as for keeping the items’ shape, we’d recommend folding wear along the seams.
- Know the basic repair hints
Yes, it may be boring but knowing the simplest methods of clothing repair will allow keeping the items good-looking longer. Besides, it will save you tones of money that you would otherwise spend on professional repair services.
- Skip ironing
No, we don’t want you to wear wrinkled garments but frequent exposure to heat is not good for clothing just like frequent laundering. What you could do is to stem the apparel over the hot water (or with the steamer if you have it).
- Pockets out!
Before laundering, always empty the pockets. Any papers, tickets, and other debris will make a mess and can ruin other clothes washed in the same load. We hope you don’t want to scrape off a piece of candy wrap stuck to your freshly washed dress, right?
- Mind your strings and sashes
Before loading the new wash, loosely tie the strings to prevent them from tangling. Also, it would be very helpful if you close all the zipper locks on your wear, too, since it will help to prevent snagging.
- Get rid of odors
Do your jeans smell weird? No worries, just hang them in the bathroom while taking shower so that the steam could do its work and delete the odor. As an option, why not freeze them?!
- Dry less
The tumble dryer is a great thing to have at home but it tends to ruin some fabrics, for instance, cotton, if they are being dried too often.
Instead, replace the machine drying to the air drying. It will definitely save the strength of your garments!
- Let the elastics rest
Since elastics do have a shelf life and they are not eternal, giving them some time to ‘breathe out“ is a good way to keep them wearable longer.
What About Your Shoes?
Let’s confess that we seldom take proper care of our footwear. At least compared to how we bother about our dresses, pants, and skirts!
However, shoes also need our attention! And in fact, caring for them is not that difficult.
- Do your shoelaces have frayed ends? That’s not a problem! Just dip them into the transparent nail polish, and the problem will be solved!
- If the footwear has scuff marks, baking soda paste will help to remove them easily
- To make leather footwear shiny, use petroleum jelly. When applied with a soft cloth, it makes miracles!
- To prepare the new tennis shoes for wearing, apply spray starch on them. Such a protective cover will prevent dirt from sticking to the canvas
- Did you know that rubber parts of the sports shoes can easily be cleaned with baking soda and a sponge?
- Black and/or tan leather footwear is easy to clean and make shiny again with the help of lemon juice and a soft cloth
- To fight the salt traces on your winter boots, mix water and acetum, 200 ml and 1 tbsp respectively, and wipe the footwear with a cloth dipped in this solution. Works perfectly on vinyl and leather
- If some oil shoes of yours start smelling, sprinkle them with salt, and leave for several hours. Salt will hold the moisture back
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