Caring for Your Clothes So They Last

Perhaps nothing is more frustrating than pulling a favorite clothing item out of the closet only to see that there’s a stain, a missing button, pulled shoulders, a frayed hem, or some other damage that might make it unwearable. Clothes can be expensive, and it makes sense to do whatever you can to keep them looking new as long as possible. The way you wear and wash your clothes will make a difference; so will the way you store them. Read on to learn some valuable tips for helping your clothing last longer.

Much of the damage that you might notice on your clothes comes from how you’re wearing the items or what you are doing while wearing them. Snagging a zipper in a door, dropping a sauce-covered meatball in your lap, or squatting down in pants that are a bit too tight are all recipes for disaster when it comes to keeping your clothes in good shape. It seems like the most obvious tip, but be mindful of what you are doing in your clothing.

Some common damage that you can avoid includes:

• Split seam. If you’re wearing snug pants that aren’t stretchy, avoid crouching and squatting.
• Pulled hems. Avoid pulling your knit shirts at the bottom. This can snap the threads that hold the hems. Even if you don’t break those essential threads, you might end up with a bumpy or uneven look from other broken threads on the bottom of the garment.
• Stains. Think about food stains, of course, but don’t forget about ring-around-the-collar, stains from your dog jumping on your with muddy paws, and those from sticky toddler hands on your pants. Consider what you will be doing when you change locations and take a few minutes to change your clothes, if appropriate.
• Snags. Do you have a loose cabinet pull that tends to snag your blouse? Or maybe there’s a rough piece of molding by a window at work that has caught your jacket more than once. If you have these little areas at work or at home, do what you can to cover or fix them. If that’s not possible (if it’s at your office, for instance), try to avoid the area.
  

Another advantage of a well-organized laundry room is that you will be able to take care of items as soon as they are dry. If you have hung clothing on hangers to dry and they are relatively wrinkle-free, you can simply transport them to your closet. Otherwise, take them off of the hangers, iron them, and put them back on the hangers. Having a fold-down ironing board in your laundry area makes this simple.



For clothes coming out of the dryer, set a timer so you can get to them while they are still warm. This way, you can shake out the wrinkles and fold or hang right away. This will save you ironing time later, and your clothes will stay in better shape if they don’t have to go through the dryer again unnecessarily or be ironed excessively.

Store Your Clothes Properly

Finally, be sure to store your clothing properly for its type. In general, sweaters and t-shirts should be folded, not hung. You want to hang long dresses high enough so their hems don’t puddle on the floor. For more advice on how to properly store clothing, check out Folding vs. Hanging Clothes in a Closet by Brian Holland at Impeccable Closets in North Carolina.