10 Ways To Take Care Of Your Clothes And Make Them Last Longer

You don’t have to be a fashion-freak to buy good clothes. It is one of the most basic human desires to portray a decent outlook of his personality. And, needless to say, clothes play a key role to accomplish this objective.

But as soon as fabric goes through wear and tear and can’t regain its lost glitter even after being washed in a self service laundromat, it inflicts an adverse effect on your appearance. Resultantly, you can’t help investing in a new wardrobe, which puts a reasonable burden on your overall budget.

Well, you may go on cursing the brands for not living up to their tall promises. However, many a time, it is a series of your own unconscious acts that damage your favorite t-shirt or expensive jeans. You can effortlessly increase the lifespan of your clothes by gluing to the following instructions:

1. Pay Attention To Tags

Typically, people discover a simple method and apply the same technique to wash all their clothes. You may save time and energy that way but it will greatly contribute to the depreciation of the clothes.

There is a variety of garments available in the market. Since they are all made differently, you can’t use the one-dimensional pattern for their cleaning.

That’s where the tags come very handy. They contain all the details regarding how the respective piece of cloth can best be cleaned. Make it a point to thoroughly read them before purchasing. If a certain jacket, dress shirt, or t-shirt does not go with your style of washing, it would be better to ignore them. Unless, of course, you are willing to walk the extra mile for its care.

Lastly, try to use hot water for laundry only when it is absolutely mandatory to do so. Because the majority of the fabrics are extremely vulnerable to it.

2. Know Basic Repairs

It is always a small and negligible hole before it transforms into a titanic tear. Therefore, be it a lost button, missing fastening, loose thread or any minor fault, it should be dealt away right from the get-go.

If you don’t have somebody to rely on for these tasks, you can do them on your own. All you need is a decent sewing kit and there is a truckload of videos that will help you to master the art of sewing.

3. Adopt The Rotation Policy

Generally, people don’t frequently change the setting of their wardrobe. In other words, the shirt or jeans that occupy the first row stay at the same place until they give up their charm. By doing so, you grab clothes that are only visible to your eyes and ignore the ones inhabiting the backside of the closet.

The rotation policy will make it easier for you to wear all the clothes for an equal number of times. This balance will keep the strength of all the garments intact for a long period. So, replace the front row with the back row of the wardrobe every time you wash the clothes.

4. Be Careful While Ironing

Well, nobody likes to wear a wrinkled shirt. But that does not mean you should run the iron on it for too long. Rest assured, uncalculated ironing will have a daunting effect on the clothes.

As with the laundry, you have to take the type of material into account before giving a go to the iron. There is a great chance that your clothes will hold up for an extended period if you press them in accordance with the following temperatures:

• Silk - 300°F

• Cotton - 400°F

• Wool and polyester - 300°F

• Lycra - 275°F

• Linen - 445°F

• Nylon - 275°F

Another pre-requite of ironing is to confirm whether a certain piece of cloth is damp or completely dry. Depending on the material, you will have to iron accordingly.

5. Buy Good Hangers

As folding takes more space in the closet, hangers are given the first preference for the purpose of storage. Among all types of hangers, plastic ones are the most common primarily because they are cheap. That said, they are not the best in the business.

In fact, more than anything else, plastic hangers are responsible for stretching out shirts from shoulders. Once the shoulders are overgrown, they can’t be reverted to take the old size.

The best way to avoid putting yourself in such awkward satiation is to go for wood hangers. Indeed, they are a little expensive but definitely worth it.

6. Invest In Stain Removal Pens

As a rule of thumb, the longer a mark stays on clothes, the harder it becomes to get rid of it. This sums up that stains should be curtailed at the earliest. You can easily deal with this challenge by carrying a stain removal pen.

The purpose of this tool is to diffuse the severity of stains so that they can easily be wiped off in the washer. For the best results, you must navigate through the usage instructions.

7. Don’t Be Too Frequent With Washing

From the surface, this point may seem absurd because washing is always touted as the most important thing for clothes. By any mean, we are not trying to advocate that you should wear dirty clothes. But frequent washing is the biggest culprit behind the breaking down the fibers of garments.

Knowing that only a marginal number of homes have the luxury to dry clothes in open spaces, after washing you will be compelled to use dryer. And it is a well-stated fact that regular usage of a dryer will further weaken the fiber. The takeaway message being, don’t indulge in the laundry just for the sake of it.

8. Zip It And Close Buttons

Do you often face the problem of snagging? It could be because you are too lazy at zipping and buttoning. Also, when you don’t zip and button the clothes, they are more likely to integrate inside the washer and hinder the cleaning process. This may look like a negligible factor but holds great significance in the bigger picture.

9. Avoid Overloading The Washer

Stuffing the washer will save time but at the expanse of harming your clothes. You may have the most expensive washer but, by its very nature, a washer simply can’t perform efficiently when it is overloaded. Worse, it will cause adverse effects on clothes for multiple reasons. For example:

1. Due to the lack of space, the detergent does not reach out to the respective clothes in even proportion. Thus, cleaning is compromised.

2. Overloading slows down the pace of washer which can cause zipper and suchlike accessories to get hooked up with other garments.

10. Pay Attention To The Quantity Of Bleach

In the face of some serious spots, you may be triggered to pour a whole lot of bleach. That’s not a wise thing to do because, if overused, bleach can itself leave ugly marks. Always apply it in a measured proportion. Following the guidelines on the bottle will hold the key.

Conclusion

Since children are always growing up, one can’t help buying new clothes for them. But that’s not the case with grownups. They can hold on to their favorite clothing stuff for a reasonably good time by subscribing to the above-mentioned turns and tricks.

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