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My 2016 style goal: easy care

Keix

Veteran

My style goal for this year is to buy easy-care pieces... to qualify, the item must be DRYER-safe. I have limited drying rack space and it's pretty much full up, now that I've adopted Angie's recommendation of hang-drying all of my spandex-containing jeans.

Of course, I anticipate that I'll add a few new statement pieces as well, which are unlikely to meet my easy-care goal. But for everyday workhorses, I want more style for less effort.

To achieve this goal, I think I will need to delve more into athleisure (searching for dressier crossover pieces) and perhaps buying knits a size up to allow for shrinkage. I'm a rule-follower and always scared to put a hand-wash piece into the dryer, but I want to experiment with that at a lower price point.

I'm happy with the intuitive direction of my style right now, having carefully edited my wardrobe over the past month. My shopping list is full of black and white--I still love prints (the J.Crew red plaid peacoat is on its way to me), but I've been craving neutrals to tone down my existing bright colors and patterns. It's convenient that black is my preferred dark neutral, given its easy availability at retail.

I've gotten to the point now where the majority of my everyday clothes can be machine-washed, which is great. But it seems like most fashionable women's clothing these days is marked lay flat to dry. I would happily pay extra for well-constructed stylish clothes that are designed to withstand dryer heat... even Kit & Ace, which strives to be easy-care, has been marking all of their bottoms "hang to dry." I never managed to make track pants work for me last year; they felt too sloppy unless made of hand-wash-at-best silk or rayon.

Is anyone else with me on the dryer as a clothing-care necessity? Do you have any recommended brands/items which are dryer-safe yet stylish?

Dressing

35 replies

Latest reply was from Lucy

Anonymous

I'm totally with you! Easy care has always been a top priority of mine.

Sara L.

Veteran

This makes sense to me. I pretty much wash and dry everything in the washing machine and dryer. It has to be really delicate for me to not wash it. I have a cashmere sweater that I will dry clean and some fancy dresses but that's about it. There are some things that I wash but then put on a drying rack to dry (bras, a couple sheer blouses). I have one small drying rack but things dry pretty fast here so I don't have to worry about running out of space.

Anonymous

Truthfully, I am tall and I have never put my pants or skirts in a dryer (even if the label says it is safe). I have always hung to dry. Once I started doing that, hanging shirts seemed to follow naturally. I lay sweaters on a drying rack.

I use the dryer for sheets, towels, socks, underwear (not bras), and the occasional tee shirt. I have a spare bathroom that serves as a drying room. Although not perfect, the system does work.

crazyone

Veteran

I mainly get around this by not...washing my clothes as frequently if they're harder-to-care for. I tend to have more machine-wash friendly bottoms though, so this mostly applies to dresses, sweaters, jackets, and blouses. I try to wear body skimming tees underneath and wash those after every wear.

Liz

Veteran

I never dry my clothes in the dryer. Actually, I put them in for three or four minutes to release the wrinkles, and then pull them out to lay flat or hang til dry. I'm not sure what type of clothing I'd trust to go into the dryer and come out with no shrinking and no additional wear on the fabric.

crazyone

Veteran

I can't imagine hanging all my clothes...I'd have no place to put them. I'm envious of people who have their own washer/dryer in unit--mine is in a very dusty basement and is shared among 9 people. There is no place to hang clothing there, nor would I want to. That said, I find it crazy that one can buy a 2-BR condo in this town (usually about $600-700K) and still have shared laundry! (I rent...)

Cococat

Veteran

Our dryer is only for when it rains. Otherwise everything gets hung out on the line or on an airing rack on the balcony. We live in a house though and have space for a line and airing rack.

Have you tried the dryer on the cool cycle? I wonder if it would be more gentle.

Keix

Veteran

@Sterling, Liz, and any others who mostly air-dry their clothes: Where do you put all of it? Maybe there's a technique I'm missing out on!

I live in a 1BR/1BA apartment with shared coin-op laundry on the other side of the complex. (And pay an absurd amount of money for the privilege. Ugh, Bay Area housing politics.) We do laundry once every 2 weeks, and I hang dry my jeans/bras/hose on a rack (attached in Finds) plus clothes hangers off the sides of the rack or the back of my bedroom door for tops/dresses. The bathroom tub/shower has a glass door and narrow showerhead, making it difficult to hang things there.

I also have ONE pop-up sweater dryer that I can put out on my bedroom floor, so I carefully rotate hand-washing the wool sweaters that I already own. Unless I resort to laying out bath towels in my living room, I can't "lay flat to dry" any more than that. I try not to wear more than 4 pairs of stretch jeans per laundry cycle, because I only have four top bars on my drying rack...

It's all a huge orchestration, hence why my goal is to add dryer-friendly clothes.

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DonnaF

Veteran

Other than bras, I damp dry most of my clothing in my dryer on Delicate/Gentle, sometimes after misting so that more wrinkles are released. I then hang them damp in my basement. So far, I haven't had any problems, even on pants with spandex. Items other than socks are never fully dried.

Gaylene

Veteran

I think easy-care is a perfectly legitimate style goal, especially in these situations:
(1). You prefer a smaller closet
(2). You like to wear your clothes instead of saving them for "good".
(3). You lead an active lifestyle where walking or cycling is your preferred transportation.
(4). You have neither the time or inclination to fuss with your clothes, but you still like to look pristine.

I'm sure I could add to this list, but I know all of the above are important to me these days. I also have this irrational adversion to drycleaning. The thought of my clothing tumbling in a big drum of chemicals with other peoples' dirty clothing just doesn't appeal to me. I prefer to look after my clothing at home, and I like to launder my items after a few wearings, so I'll leave items in the store if they can't meet my care standards.

ETA: Like Donna, I also damp-dry in the dryer on a low setting. I've bought a small rolling clothes rack that can be easily dismantled, along with my folding rack, to hang stuff overnight to finish drying. I also try to do laundry a couple of times a week--one big session that includes sheets and towels and one small (usually a single load) of items that will require hanging overnight. That way my racks are up for only two nights during the week. I also handwash and roll in a towel a few small items that can be hung in the bathroom overnight during the week. Spacing out the laundry seems to work better for me in a condo than doing a big, major wash.

DeeCee

One of my style goals for 2016 is easy care - but for me this means no clothes that require dry cleaning. I have been increasingly trying to avoid using the dryer - both for the sake of my clothes as well as environmental reasons. However, I am lucky that I live in a two-story house with a basement thus drying space is not an issue.

anne

Veteran

I put my drying rack up in the family room.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

I don't dry most of my clothes in the dryer all the way. I am paranoid about shrinkage and extra wear. Some things like casual tees, socks, and PJs, sure, I'll dry them all the way...but jeans, most tops, etc, get put in the dryer for 20 min or so and then get hung to dry the rest of the way. We have a decent amount of hanging space in our laundry room, and sometimes, if it's really piled up, I'll hang some things over chairs in the kitchen, if I'm running out of room.

anne

Veteran

Yes I have things hanging over chairs too, at times.

Cerinda

Veteran

The only way I know to avoid what my family calls "decorating in early laundry" is to wash more often. In our house, only the linens and the guys' shorts and undershirts go in the dryer. But everybody's circumstances are different, right? We have a big house (so room for three big drying racks) with tiny closets (so limited wardrobes) so we have to do laundry frequently.

Vicki

(website)

Veteran

Excellent goal and great tips from everyone! I have a drying rack I adore,
if that's possible, and all my clothes look better and last longer because of it. I also use mesh zipper garment bags, purchased from Nordstrom.

I still use the dry cleaners for my silk blouses, although the Laundress does have a product for silks and cashmere that comes highly recommended.

When I run out of space, I'll use hangers and/or put them outside on the patio.

texstyle

(website)

Veteran

I think it's a perfectly sound goal. I also use the dryer just for a few minutes for most things - although there are times when I do let it go longer, as long as it's not a beloved item. For the rest of the drying time I resort to dining chairs, the chair in the bedroom, an over the closet door hanging bar, etc. I can't hang anything outdoors here (way too windy/dusty/pollen). It's pretty dry here most of the time so it doesn't take long. If I lived in a really humid area it would be harder I think.

I do laundry probably once a week on average.

JAileen

Veteran

I put tees, underwear, and socks, and my husband's dress shirts in the dryer. I hang everything else. I have retractable clotheslines on the deck. In summer our weather is very hot and dry and clothes and sheets can dry in as little as an hour. In winter I look at the weather forecast to decide which day to do laundry. We've had more "weather" than usual and last week I was forced to hang the sheets outside on a very cold day. When I eventually took them down, they weren't dry, but they were frozen!! In winter I hang clothes on hangers on the shower rod in the bathroom. When I hang up shirts, I stretch the seams, collar, etc to smooth out wrinkles. I almost never iron my clothes.

I am hard pressed to buy dry clean only. Wool coats, sure, but just about everything else is washable, especially in my very casual wardrobe. I think dry cleaning things other than coats is too expensive. Most of my wool sweaters are hand washable. Because I wear a shirt or tee inder them, they rarely need washing.

Anonymous

I don't feel like I have to dry everything in the dryer, and I'm not against hanging up some clothes to dry, but I avoid "dry clean" or "dry clean only" whenever possible. If a label says "dry clean," I go ahead and wash it in cold water on gentle cycle. I just don't put it in the dryer.

LaPed

Veteran

I put very little in the dryer. Sheets and towels are about all that I dry for a full cycle, mostly because they take up so much space it's a pain to dry them on a rack -- and b/c I don't like crunchy towels...

Right now we're renting a 700 sf house with w/d in the bathroom. Like others, I'll tumble on low heat for whatever amount of time the "wrinkle remover" setting on my dryer is -- also helps suck off some of the lint and dog hair. Then everything gets hung -- either on a folding rack or right on a hanger for sturdier things that won't get stretched out of shape.

The rack migrates around the house depending on where there's space. I like to put it (safely) near a heat source to speed things up. Added benefit: air drying inside adds a bit of moisture to the air! In the summer, I always have a line outside, too.

Keix

Veteran

One of my dreams is to live in an apartment/condo with in-unit laundry. That would make things like running the dryer for a few minutes and doing multiple smaller loads much more practical. But we also want to stay in our (extremely expensive) neighborhood which is walking distance to downtown and my BF's work. 1BR apartments with laundry don't really exist here Only 2BR+ condos that cost literally $4-5k/mo to RENT. I could have a 2000+ sqft house in many parts of the country for how much I'm paying now.

Elle

Veteran

I'm with you. I want everything to be machine washable and dryable. - That's not always possible but I'm not shy about testing things in the dryer under low heat or for limited times. I tend to buy natural fabrics though. With limited space and damp winters, I don't want have line drying clothes around all the time.

I have a friend who machine washes cashmere and dries it on air dry. I'm not brave enough for that - yet.....

shiny

Veteran

I'm in the "you don't have to wash things as often as you think you do" camp. This won't work if you maintain a small wardrobe. My wardrobe is large enough I can afford time between wears of a garment to allow it to air out awhile. I do not wear perfume, or even scented deodorant, which I think helps a lot. If I am around smokers or my clothes pick up some funky odors from traveling, I am apt to use Dry-El to remove the odors rather than sending them to the dry cleaners.

I also pay attention to my activity for the day, and will swap into machine-washable clothes if I'm doing something that is sweaty or potentially stain producing, as in cooking. Because of this, I change frequently throughout the day! Lounging at home? Machine-washable loungewear. Going for a brisk walk/ will be walking a lot? Machine washable outfit, or at least, put a tee under that sweater to protect it from sweat. Traveling by plane? Machine washable for sure, because planes are nasty.

This strategy may not work if you are in an office 9-5 all day long. When I am traveling and in office all week, those clothes get sent to dry cleaners if they got stained or I sweat too much in them. If not, then I allow them to air out in a space in my closet for a week, run an iron over if necessary, or toss in Dry-El.

Jeans? Just don't need to be washed that often, provided you are rotating them and not wearing them daily.

I came to these conclusions over time, watching my DH, who rarely ever washes his jeans (when he does, they never go in the dryer). He sends his sweaters to the dry cleaners only once a season, at the end of it. He always wears a collared shirt under his sweaters and those shirts go through the washer and dryer, as does his socks and underwear. He has a lot a lot of sweaters so he rotates them. He bike commutes and he's very hard on his clothes -- yet, he does not stink!

And you know what? Washing & dry cleaning stuff less makes the clothes last longer and look nicer longer! You aren't washing away the sizing which keeps the garment crisp. You aren't wearing away the fibers to a shine or rumply mess. And yes, you aren't shrinking them.

Don't be aghast but I have some years-old statement pieces that I have never washed or dry cleaned. I wear them so infrequently. Air and a good brush down, is all they need.....

Or figure it this way: you don't wash your coats and blazers after every use. WHY wash the other items so frequently, if you have underwear/cami/tee underneath?

DonnaF

Veteran

Oh, and I mist my clothes between wearings to remove the wrinkles, so they hang overnight in my bathroom. I certainly don't want to iron in dirt/funk/whatever, much less drag out my iron and ironing board!

Finally, I must add that I sweat a whole lot less than I did when I was younger. Maybe it's a hormonal (or lack thereof) thing? Back in the day, I certainly couldn't use the crystal deodorant rock I now use; it wouldn't have been sufficient. I probably also run colder, too.

MovingFashionForward

I've actually found myself happier with NOT having 'washable' as a criterion for my wardrobe items. I used to avoid dry-clean-only items, and ended up with a lot of polyester, which I know Angie likes, but I really HATE it. So some years ago I got rid of just about all such stuff from my wardrobe, and started embracing dry cleaning. I don't actually dry clean stuff after every wear, unless needed. I wear a sturdy layer under the dry-clean-only dress or whatever to protect it. And when it needs to be cleaned, well, I either take it to the cleaners or I gently hand wash it and hope for the best. I've been surprised by how worth it the dry cleaner seems (and by how well wearing a layer underneath protects my dresses). BTW, I basically always wash silk in the washing machine irrespective of what the label says to do. And yes, I have ruined a few things, but equally, I have discovered that many a silk dress is perfectly machine washable despite the 'dry clean only' instructions on the label.

Sarah

Sal

Veteran

Gosh we are all in different situations. I wash clothes daily and line dry 80 percent of the time. I tumble dry if wet or mid winter. I have a drying rack and use this in winter over a vent. I do use a dry cleaner too for the odd piece. I agree easy care for you is important and very sensible!!

anna

I never use a dryer except perhaps a maximum of 2 times per year as I believe no clothes are 100% dryer safe. They all suffer a little deterioration. I have a folding dryer rack with multi rails which I use in the spare bedroom. If I want to accelerate drying I have a small fan on low speed to improve air circulation. Hope this helps x

unfrumped

Veteran

I can so understand your concerns and goals.
Dryer-safe does have different degrees as noted above.
Meaning, things you dry all the way to the point you could fold them and put them in drawers, to things I dry almost all the way but hang up --I hang a LOT of things so if mostly dry, don't have to hang on a rack per se but should not be folded- to things I barely dry and they need to dry out a lot more.

So there are a lot of things you don't need to lay flat but are best not fully dryer-dried and then you can hang on plastic hangers. You might be able to figure out some kind of hooks on a door or one of those valet rods, or something that give you some more discreet air-drying options but in a different way than you're doing now.

You will mostly, I think, be dealing with cottons or acrylic or fleece. And some polyester wovens, but even those I think would "prefer" to be partially dried or definitely dried on very low heat.

Sometimes items are made with thread that is all-cotton and not pre-shrunk and so the fabric is pretty non-shrink, but the seams pucker. My mom used to really pay attention to the thread she used because she was big into no-iron, wash& wear clothing and sewed such garments.

For cotton casual wear, like EB tee shirts and layering cotton longsleeve T's, I try to buy for shrinkage and then will dryer-dry and at some point they are where they are, fit-wise and gentle heat drying can't do any thing much else to them. But at times I will misjudge, and something shrinks too much or doesn't shrink enough and I end up not liking the fit.
For washable other items, like some ponte knits and cotton-poly pants, chinos, I still prefer the dryer-dry for a few minutes and hang.

Anyhoo, I am interested in this because one of my DD's hopes to become a mom in the next few years and so I would then get to play with the baby! And we know babies are not dry-clean only. That means I will less inclined to build my casual wardrobe as Sporty Luxe as I am Sporty Spit-up, meaning not wearing cashmere sweaters with jeans but wearing washable tops. My footwear is likely to be safer! It's not because you can't wash cashmere, but because I think parents and new parents would be so much more comfortable if I say, oh, this, let's just toss it in the washer/dryer with some dishtowels.

Colette

Veteran

I'm fortunate to have an unfinished basement to hang all my laundry because I don't put 90% of it in the dryer. My Mom has some clothes hanging gizmo she purchased from a shopping channel that she uses to hang dry her laundry. I found a picture of one similar to hers. She loves it.

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