Have you ever had the horrible experience of ruining your favorite expensive winter clothing, such as a knit sweater, jacket, or hoodie, due to improperly managing it? Though unfortunate, there are several ways you can properly take care and store your winter clothing to preserve it for longer wear and not have to rely solely on your local dry cleaners to save your day!
Washing & Managing Padded Jackets
Though dry cleaning is considered the most common care method when it comes to having to wash your padded coats or jackets, hand washing is a method that is preferred. Most padded jackets commonly worn are duck or goose down padded jackets, which contain a certain amount of oil content within their filler, helping prevent exposure to the cold weather and helping maintain the clothes’ elasticity.
Dry cleaning can reduce the elasticity by decomposing the oil content included within the filler and shortening the wear-life of your jacket. However, depending on certain materials, hand washing with water may not be suitable for some products making it essential always to check the best-recommended washing methods.
Soaking in lukewarm water for about 30 ~ 40 minutes with a neutral or down jacket-specific detergent is the best when handwashing. Gently press and ring out the jacket to lay it down in a well-ventilated area to prevent the filling from leaning all to one side.
Though intense daily washing of padding jackets is highly not recommended, if you wish to clean off area-specific spots, brushing the area with a used toothbrush and neutral detergent should get the job done for you. For make-up stains, lightly washing the area with water can help any marks get easily erased.
Any bulky padded jacket is easy prey to harmful bacteria reproduction in between the fillings, making it easy for bacteria to reproduce between the fillings. When storing these clothing items, hanging them in a well-ventilated area is recommended rather than stuffing them into a tight closet. For long-term storage, using a felt-material cover is best.
Wash & Care Tips for Knitwear
When it comes to washing your favorite cozy winter knit sweaters, handwashing with the use of neutral detergent or ‘wool shampoo’ is considered best. Dissolve the detergent in lukewarm water to soak for about 10 minutes, then rinse. After washing, lightly shake off excess water to lay on a towel or hang dry on a drying rack (together on a towel).
If handwashing is too time-consuming, placing your knitwear inside out and place inside a laundry net to wash lightly within the washing machine with wool shampoo detergent on the ‘wool & knitwear’ mode is also an alternative option.
When storing knitwear, it is recommended that you fold it rather than hang it on a hanger due to excessive material stretching, especially within the shoulder areas—if folding knitwear to store within your drawer is an issue, hanging it while folded is another option to consider.
Wash & Care Tips for Coats
Dry cleaning for coats is an absolute must; however, too much dry cleaning can often cause damage to the coat’s fabric. Therefore, when considering bringing your coat to the dry cleaners, try to do so on average once or twice a year.
Rather than storing your coat right away after having gone outdoors with it, lightly spraying it with fiber deodorant helps prolong your coat's wear-life and sterilizes and disinfects unnecessary bacteria. It is also helpful to protect the fabric by hanging your coat upside down to prevent lint friction.
Using plastic protection films can cause dust mites and fungi to appear due to improper ventilation when storing your coat on a hanger for long periods. To solve this, instead, cover your coats with a non-weave felt material cover and place dehumidifier packs within the coat’s pockets.
Wash & Care Tips for Fleece Clothing (Hoodies, Sweatshirts, etc.)
To remove dead skin cells or dust particles trapped between fleece hairs, fleeced clothing should be washed inside-out with the fleece facing outward. When washing in the washing machine, it is recommended to only wash similar clothes of the same color. Note that if washed with other colored clothing, colored fleece may stick to other clothing.
Washing with lukewarm water with a neutral detergent at a temperature lower than 40 degrees is preferable. The use of liquid detergent is also preferable to powder detergent as powder detergent may cause clumping up on some fleece fabrics. Only about 70% of the wash water should be removed to prevent clothes from shrinking during spin-dry. Then, sun-dry your clothing after folding it inside out to avoid lint forming on the fleece lining.
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