Tips on Taking Good Care of Your Clothes to Make Them Last Longer

If you know how to wash your clothes properly, they can last a long time. In washing, you need to take away all the dirt, spots, and stains on your clothes. It only takes a few minutes each day to take care of your clothes. But there are ways you do occasionally and others seasonally.

Here are some steps for you to follow:

Daily Care

1. Hang clothes on hanger and air them out.
2. Brush off lint and dust. Check if there are any loose buttons, split seams, spots and stains. Repair or fix it right away.
3. Sort clothes that need to be washed or dry-cleaned.
4. Treat spots and stains as soon as possible.

Machine or hand wash your clothes. It is necessary to learn how to launder your clothes. These are the steps:

• Sort clothes. Separate the white clothes from the colored ones.
• Loosen dirt by soaking the white clothes in cold water.
• Wash with soap paying attention to the collar and armholes.
• Rinse well and wash with soap again. Bleach if necessary.
• Wash the colored clothes with the second solution of soapy water. Rinse well and wash with soap again.
• Rinse the colored clothes twice or thrice until the soap is removed.
• Hang the colored clothes in the shade to dry.
• Rinse the white clothes as well.
• Wash with soap once more and rinse twice or thrice.
• Hang to dry.

Iron or press your clothes at one time to save energy and effort.

Make necessary repairs such as sewing on loose buttons, snaps, and hooks and eyes.

1. Make sure that clothes are clean, dry, and free of stain when you store them.
2. Use mothballs as repellent in woolen clothes to prevent pests, especially rats and cockroaches, from eating the fabrics.
3. Make sure that clothes are completely dry when you store them to prevent stain caused by mildew from producing.
4. Store clothes in garment bags or boxes.

Here are some of the common spots and stains that stick to clothes, and the ways you can do to clean them:

• Chewing gum - Harden by rubbing with an ice cube. Then scrape off gum using a dull knife.

• Blood - Pre-soak in cold water and detergent. Use bleach if safe for fabric.

• Soft drink - Sponge or soak in cold water. Use bleach if safe to the fabric.

• Ink - Spray with hair spray and sponge with rubbing alcohol. Rinse, then rub stain with detergent and wash.

• Chocolate - Soak in cold water. Rub stain with detergent and wash.

• Cosmetics - Rub stain with detergent and wash.
  

•  Do not dry them in a dryer unless you have to. Dryers wear out fabric quickly. They also set stains and make seams twist and make some hems turn upwards.

•  Do not wash them more often than necessary. Some clothes need not be washed every time they were worn, unless spots and dirt are visible. Washing is damaging to them, especially when twisting, heating, beating, and forcing water and soap through the fabric. There is no way around it. Air them between washings.

•  Do not wash them in water that is too hot. Do not use harsh detergent soap unless it is necessary to remove dirt. Usually, it is not.

• To care for knits, wash inside out to avoid surfaces from rubbing against other pieces. This will minimize pulling of yarn or thread.

•  Do not pull or stretch any article of cothing when wet. You wil stress the fibers and some fabrics will stretch out of shape completely.

•  Soak dirty clothes overnight rather than wash them on a longer cycle to get them clean.

•  Dry knits and other stretchy or hard-to-iron items flat until they are almost dry, then finish them off in the dryer. They will snap back into shape and don't need ironing.

•  For jeans and heavier materials, use the dryer first, for 10 minutes or so, then remove and hang to dry. The material will have more body instead of being limp, but it will dry smooth.

•  You may not like to iron, but ironing gives you the chance to notice loose buttons, loose seam stitches, and worn areas that need to be taken care of before they get worse.

•  Set aside clothes that need mending when you iron and fix them before they are worn again. This saves more work on ruined garments.

•  Care for your clothes according to the type of fabric. Wash, dry, iron and store according to what is best for the type so they could last longer.

•  Use quilting thread to sew on buttons. It is stronger and lasts longer.

•  Lead pencils are graphite and can be used to make a sticky zipper slide smoothly. Use it on troublesome snaps.

•  Vinegar sometimes remove scorch marks. Put a cloth, dampened with vinegar, over the scorch mark and iron dry on a warm (not hot) setting.

•  If cuffs or other knitted borders have stretched out from wear, but the garment is still clean enough to wear, dampen the area and dry it with hair dryer.

•  Shampoo or dish detergent can be used to remove greasy or oil areas, dirt around the collar, kitchen splatters, and dirty work clothes. Work a little well into the area before washing in the hottest water you can for the fabric.

• Remove tarry or gummy substances with egg white. Just rub it on and most gummy things will harden up and break into small pieces. If that fails, put the garment into the freezer and when the gummy spot freezes, you may be able to remove it.