Clothes, Textile and Clothing Tips and Tricks

While it may seem simple to wash your clothes, it’s a little more complex than you would think. You want dark clothes to retain their colors, white clothes to remain bright, and stains to magically go away without worrying about them. Properly caring for your clothes means reading the manufacturer’s labels carefully and following their recommendations for the best way to wash them.

No one’s favorite pastime is to hand wash clothes. However, if you accidentally bought a “dry clean only” item or your washer is broken, you will need to hand wash your clothes. It’s important not to scrub or twist delicate clothing, as you can damage it. Delicates should also usually not be put in the dryer.

Have you ever gotten ready for work and are about to put on your favorite white shirt and it looks dingy, dull, gray, yellowed, or has stains on it? If you don’t know how to wash white clothes, they will not remain white. In the laundry, separate your whites and wash (most of them) in hot water with some type of bleaching agent, whether it’s chlorine bleach or a natural whitener like lemon juice, white vinegar, Borax, or hydrogen peroxide. Address stains when they occur, so they don’t set in. The one time your spouse decides to do the laundry is when you have an item that requires special care and shouldn’t be put in the dryer. Yes, you can unshrink that cashmere sweater! Heat and agitation are the enemies of some fabrics. To re-stretch or for how to unshrink shirts, wash it by hand with baby shampoo or hair conditioner, remove the excess water, and lay it flat to dry.