Once winter comes, you bring out your warm clothing. Making sure that you care for this clothing properly can save you a lot of time and effort. This savings is valuable at a time of year when you have to prepare your home for winter, deal with inclement weather and prepare for the holiday season.

This is not the only benefit you get from caring for winter clothes in the correct way. Good fabric care helps to protect your clothing so that it’s still in good enough condition for you to wear next winter season, and often after that.

Wash hand-knitted items by hand

If you, or someone else, have spent time knitting a sweater, or a pair of gloves, the last thing you want is for them to be damaged while they are being washed. This damage can be prevented by hand washing delicate hand-knitted items. Swish them around in a sink containing cold water and mild washing detergent.

Once you have washed the items, replace the contents of the sink with fresh water and no detergent. Rinse the clothing in the sink until all the detergent is removed.

Wear items more than once

Given that you wear more layers when the weather is cold, you are going to end up with a huge pile of laundry if you wear each item just once. Most people tend to  sweat less during the winter, so unless your jeans and sweaters smell or are stained, you should wear them more than once.

If you want to make sure that outer layers of clothing stay fresh, wear something under them. This can be a t-shirt or tank top under a sweater or tights under jeans.

Do not leave mud stains on clothes

Most people would agree that no one wants to be walking around with mud stains on their clothing. So, it’s not a good idea to simply re-wear mud stained clothes. You should allow the mud to dry, then brush off as much as you can. The clothing then needs to be treated with detergent, before being washed. Remember, mud-stained clothing should always be placed in a separate listing.

Make sure sweaters keep their shape

Trace around each sweater to be washed on a piece of parchment paper. After each sweater is washed, roll it in a towel to remove some of the water that remains. You then need to lay the sweater inside its outline on paper, shape it to the outline and leave it to dry.

Put small items in a mesh bag before washing

It’s easy for smaller items, such as scarves and gloves, to become lost or tangled when you are doing the laundry. You can stop this from happening by placing these smaller items into a mesh bag which you then place into the washing machine.

These tips may take a small amount of time to carry out. However, they can save you the time and effort of having to rewash clothes if they were not pre-treated and can also prevent you from losing items They also help to protect your winter clothing so they continue to look new and last for years to come.