While the apparel industry has grown tremendously over the years, the cost of clothing is still high. To access the latest fashion, you’ve to pay top dollar. If you’re keen to lower your cost of living, saving on clothing is a good start. The way you wash your clothes has a big effect on how long they last. With the right laundry tips, your clothes can last longer.
You can save money by maintaining your favorite items of clothing for a long time. If you have a family, proper care for clothes saves you a lot of money every year. Read on and find simple tips that can help your clothes last longer.
Sort Your Clothes
In the rush to get done with laundry, it’s common for people to throw everything into the laundry machine. It might look like a time-saving tactic, but you end up ruining your clothes. Sorting your clothes allows you to choose different cleaning cycles for different colors and fabrics. You can also choose different water temperature levels to suit specific loads.
When you mix all the clothes into one load, there’s a risk of physical damage to delicate clothing. Worse still some garments run color and damage the rest. If you mix delicate items and harder fabrics like denim, there’s a high risk of snagging and other forms of damage.
To protect every item of clothing, sort the delicate items, lights, darks, whites, jeans, and heavy fabrics. Consider the items with accessories that can damage delicate clothes. When you wash similar clothes in one load, you can tailor the machine settings for a perfect wash.
Pretreat Your Clothes
Pretreating is another crucial step when preparing your clothes for washing. If you have a stain on any garment, don’t throw it into the washer before you work on the stain. Always pretreat the garment immediately after it gets stained.
The first defense against stains is cold-water soaking, which can loosen some stains. There are special pretreating detergents on the market to remove stains. You can also rub ordinary detergent on the stain to break up food stains and ease stain removal. Other techniques of pretreating the stains include the use of vinegar and baking soda, or a commercial pre-treater.
Examine Every Item
After sorting the clothes, go further and check the pockets, remove bits and bobs, close zippers or hooks and other closing attachments. When you check every item, you reduce the risk of damage caused by accessories, metallic objects and other things in the pockets. While at it, turn the pockets inside out, unfurl socks, and unroll cuffs. All these tricks protect these garments from abrasion, snagging and other forms of physical damage.
Choose the Right Detergent
The detergent is an essential tool for proper cloth care, but most people don’t appreciate its importance. When you buy detergent, consider the effect it has on your clothes. Strong detergent might sound like a good idea for effective washing, but it can damage delicate fabrics. You might end up with faded clothes if you choose the wrong detergent.
Light duty detergents are ideal for baby’s clothes and delicate clothes. Power detergents work best to remove tough stains. Avoid using too much detergent because it becomes hard to rinse out. The residue attracts dirt and grime and affects the quality of your clothing.
Avoid Hot Water
Hot water can cause colors to fade on your clothes and also affect the fabrics. The heat can break down the structure of the fabric and cause your clothes to wear out fast. Synthetic fabrics such polyester, nylon, and vinyl are vulnerable to damage by hot water. Some fabrics also shrink and you might have to throw them away.
These laundry tips can save you a lot of money by protecting your clothes. Looking for an easier way to do your laundry? Visit our Laundry Unlimited stores in Charlotte, and Greensboro, NC. You can use our self-service for washing clothes or let us take care of all the work for you with our full wash & fold services.