Tips and tricks for maintaining a fresh and crisp wardrobe? - YouLookFab Forum

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Tips and tricks for maintaining a fresh and crisp wardrobe?

Naomi

What are your best-kept secrets for keeping clothing fresh and crisp?

Wardrobe overcrowing is definitely a problem. When our clothing is all smushed up against other items it can't breathe! Big problem of mine... (I'm working on it). I notice that with some TLC my clothing stays lovely and fresh. But the items that get the most TLC from me are the ones that cost me the most... no shock there.

But here's the thing... I've noticed that no matter what I do certain clothing items seem to fail me after 1-3 wears. Expensive jeans seem to stretch out, t-shirts never look the same after washing them...

If you can think of your #1 tip or best kept secret when it comes to keeping your wardrobe fresh and crisp please share with us

General

14 replies

Latest reply was from Liesbeth

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

GREAT fabric is top of the list
Good care
No tumble drying
Dry cleaning some stuff
Ironing items after they've been washed and air-dried

rachylou

Veteran

The dryer is my number one suspect. It’s really really hard on clothing.

taylor

Veteran

I agree with Angie and Rachy!
I will also add :
Always hang / fold when you remove them .

Change out of your daily clothes...work clothes etc. when you get home:
Sort of like your school clothes And play clothes...it prevents stretching out of denim and needless wear and tear on everything .

If you can manage a clothes line for spring, summer and fall. It’s a great way to avoid the damage of dryers, as mentioned above .

Those plastic dry cleaner bags ( can be purchased through U-line ) are wonderful to keep your better items from rubbing together . I also keep all my white items , jackets , blazers and blouses covered , It keeps them pristine and wrinkle free.

Avoid 100% cotton fabrics ( not popular I know). But honestly nothing shrinks, fades or stretches out like a cotton tee shirt ...I don’t own any.

I have a few others ...but looking this over ...I seem a bit obsessive

ETA: hangers are important ....wood or velvet......ok , I’ll stop .

Alicewonderland

Veteran

Good advice above. For me,

1. Durable fabric (expensive does not necessarily mean good)
2. Always wash cold, not hot
3. Always hang dry ( I don’t even own a dryer)
4. If I really care, hand wash.

And for white t shirts, I have found that buying the organic cotton ones (mine are from PACT) and hand washing them have made a huge difference compared with the generic Target ones that get thrown in the wash.

Gigi

Veteran

I have found that air drying instead of tumble drying is great for keeping clothes looking good. I hang the washed clothes on a drying rack or else put them on hangers until they are dry.

I make sure I use hangers that are the right width for my shoulders (I have narrow shoulders, so I buy smaller hangers than the typical adult ones). That way my clothes don't get stretched out.

Anything that says hand wash on the label gets hand washed, not put in the machine. But I will wash gentle cycle stuff in the regular wash as long as I have a mesh bag to put it in. I wash everything on either cold or "warm" (warm is actually tepid).

I try to buy from places that have a good track record for quality.

Regarding jeans stretching out after a few wears...yes, they will do this. I find that I need to wash my jeans after wearing them 3 or 4 times, to get them back to their original shape.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

I hear Taylor. 100% cotton fabrics are not as stable as blends.

Avoid 100% viscose!

Don't squash items in your closet. They crease and get messed up. Take them off those awful wire dry cleaning hangers.

I have an excellent machine that hand washes and does delicates beautifully, which really helps.

Anonymous

I found myself nodding in agreement at Angie’s list. I would add to avoid knits in favor of woven fabrics, choose and lay out or hang the outfit you plan to wear the night before, checking each piece for any wrinkles or repaired that may need to be addressed and do it then. Don’t forget accessories and footwear that may need a polish, outerwear that may need a spray of freshener, and underwear.

Anonymous

Seconding avoiding the dryer. I hang dry everything but sleepwear and some gear-but will use the dryer to fluff the things up when dry.
I do what Joy does too, but for the week, as far as setting out the clothes, trying the combinations, and making sure condition is fine.

Sal

Veteran

My biggest failures are
- seams splitting ( not from being too tight)
- pulling on knits
- stretching or shrinking on knits
- wear holes on tops

And stains - but that is a bit seperate.

I line dry 80% of the time but use the dryer for rush jobs. I don’t put jeans or sweaters in the dryer ever.

Irina

Veteran

#1 would be - no dryer unless I purposely want to shrink something.
Ironing and hand wash are two other tips. As for jeans, they suppose to get stretch a bit and to take a body shape. When I try jeans, I do a couple of sit ups to get an idea how jeans will look stretched at the knees

DonnaF

Veteran

Well. . .I use my dryer for most stuff unless the garment label says not to. But I dry on Delicate/Low, and only until a garment is damp dry. Most of my wash loads are on Delicate, and most things are turned inside out.

I live in a temperate climate and I run cold, so I get several wears out of tops and many more on most pairs of jeans before I send them to the wash pile. My white jeans get two wears max because I don't have Angie's magical powers. I no longer own DCO stuff because I know I won't wear them because a part of me says they are too *precious*. But I guess that also can be a trick for keeping those items fresh!

I almost never use an iron, especially after I melted a hem. . .If an item comes out of my dryer overly wrinkled, I mist it and return it for a few minutes, making sure there's plenty of room to tumble. If something is still clean after I wear it, I hang it over the bathtub (shower?) rod and mist it to remove the wrinkles, and then let it air overnight.

Super cheap stuff never washes up too well; moderate stuff can be hit or miss. Have no experience with really expensive stuff. I must say that DH's shirts from years and YEARS ago wash up really well, but so much time has elapsed that I no longer know if the quality is the same.

Biggest tip: Have a big wardrobe! Nothing gets worn enough to look sad.

StyleDetective

I think my biggest failing in this area is not culling clothes (mostly tees and knits) and foundation garments like socks and undies when they are past their shelf life. There are some things that just don't stand the test of time. I'm slowly improving at it though.

Jaime

(website)

Veteran

I thought I would have no such habits but actually I don't put my clothes in the dryer and also change out of them whenever I am home into lounge wear. I also don't over wash my clothes.

Liesbeth

Veteran

Seconding all of these tips... but in my experience, fabric quality is the most important and very hard to predict. I’ve had plain cotton tees from the high street holding up for years, and precious clothes from boutique brands pill, fade, or stretch out in a matter of weeks :(.
Denim with polyester in the mix I’ll no longer buy because I had a very bad experience with sagging. Woven tencel is sustainable in production but does not seem to hold up well with wash and wear. Even though I never put them in the dryer.