how to care for your clothes - laundry, stains, dry cleaning, storage, etc

[bismarck]

^
Agreed. There was this one story on the GQ podcast where a guy wore the pants half of a suit a lot, and so drycleaned them often. When he finally wore the whole suit, his pants and jacket were a completely different color because of the drycleaning! It's not the answer to all laundry conundrums.

...but it still is to some. I shrank my mom's floor length skirt to knee-length when I was younger and had just begun doing the laundry as a chore. I wear a lot of natural fibers though, and all of my clothes are fine. haha, poor mom. She wouldn't let me near her clothes after that, even though I promised to be careful.

Also, about post #4, I always thought hot water set stains, instead of helping get rid of stains. When you dye clothes, the instructions are to wash them in hot water, to maintain color fastness, right?

 

[PrinceOfCats]

Red wine/white cotton: the age old question...

any ideas?

 

[Melisande]

^
Also, about post #4, I always thought hot water set stains, instead of helping get rid of stains. When you dye clothes, the instructions are to wash them in hot water, to maintain color fastness, right?

Different stains require different treatment...as far as I know, hot water sets protein stains, but with oil stains and fruit/wine, hot water works better...but it depends on the fiber too.
there are many online stain charts we can google.

I recently got a clothes brush with natural bristles.
Brushing your sweaters gently from up to down before/after each wear aligns the fibers so they pill much less and look very smooth. Plus, it rids them of dust and lint.

 

[jennifer~]

Dryel® Liquid Stain Remover

 

[Hanne]

Icey saltwater.. might do it

 

[Lilliana]

an old method is to put salt on it and hang it in the sun

vanish pre-wash spray in the pink bottle has got 2 days old red wine stains out of my hand painted linen skirt without damaging the painted flowers, so I am pretty impressed. but many people say vanish doesn't work for them at all

I've also heard that rising it with white wine helps

 

[Bel]

Apparently Oxyclean actually works.

 

[jessie77us]

tide to go pen is awesome for a small spot

 

[PerfectPerfect]

This brings back nice memories of when my mom used to line dry all of our clothes because we didnt have a dryer. We'd gather it all up in a bucket after the wash was done, go outside and help her pin it up. Sometimes hanging it in the mid afternoon so that the sun isn't directly hitting your clothes. Or placing your line under the shade of a tree. So if you want to line dry, definitely put stuff up inside out. Use clothes pins that are gentle, because the clothes usually dry pretty stiff and you can either have that big line across your clothes or two pinch marks from the pins.

Every time I got something really oily in my clothes, my mom would say to use dishwashing soap to get the grease out. Especially since my sister used to work at a fast food restaurant. Granted I dont have to do that, but sometimes I get food or baby oil by chance on my clothes, dish soap does the trick.

For those of you who wash their clothes only in cold water...why this? I'm very intrigued.

Fabric softener on dark clothes is also supposed to make them dull and fade. I dont use it ever.

 

[Deborah]

Pour white wine over it. Thats what I heard anyway.