When was the last time you washed any of your clothes by hand? For most of us, it’s probably been a LONG time! Modern washing machines have long since eliminated the need for hand-washing our laundry, for the most part. Many delicate clothing items still require a gentle hand to get clean, and can sustain damage even in the gentlest machine washing cycles. So even these days, knowing how to hand-wash clothing is still a useful skill to have in your arsenal!
More Ideas You'll Love
And let me assure you, hand-washing is neither as time-consuming or as labor-intensive as you might think.
Here are some tips for safely and effectively washing your delicate clothing items.
You’ll need:
- Gentle detergent
- A container for washing (your bathtub, a bucket, your sink, etc.)
- Clean bath towels
Start by reading the label of the item of clothing you want to wash. Look in particular for any detergent or water temperature recommendations. (If you need a refresher of what those strange laundry symbols mean on clothing labels, head to How To Read The Laundry Symbols On Your Clothing Tags for a free printable cheat sheet!)
If there aren’t any recommendations on the label, your safest bet will be to wash the item in lukewarm water with a mild detergent. (You could use my homemade powdered laundry detergent here, if you use it at home!)
Fill your bathtub, a bucket, or your sink with lukewarm water, then add a small amount of detergent. Mix it up together with a large spoon or a whisk to dissolve the detergent and break up any clumps.
Submerge your garment in the soapy water, and move it around using gentle swishing motions. Avoid wringing, stretching, scrubbing, or twisting!
More Ideas You'll Love
After a few minutes of swishing, drain your container of water and refill it with cool water for rinsing. Push your garment down into the water several times to rinse it out. Drain the rinse water and repeat, if necessary.
Inspect the label of your garment for drying recommendations. If there are no instructions provided, lay the garment out on a clean, dry bath towel. Flip the item over every once in a while, and change out the towel, if necessary. This process takes a little longer, but it is the gentlest way to dry delicate clothing.
Regular Dawn dishwashing detergent is great for handwashing clothes. It is gentle on fabrics and fantastic on removing stains.
Shampoo is perfect for any natural fibres like silk or wool. They are similar to your hair so this is the best unless you use a specialty cleaner like Euclan. Bras and many other delicate things can we washed in a washer if they are in a bag to prevent stretching and warping. This also helps you remember with clothes that cannot go in the dryer! A bra ball is best for wires or padding. Sounds weird but they work really well!
Love to do the cleaning yourself , then the company APROMERA you will find everything . The enterprise uses modern technology and equipment, which allows us to make the products of consistently high quality.The company team is always looking for ways to improve production efficiency, maintain a high level of production quality and expand its range of products.One of the main ways of increasing the effectiveness of the company at the moment are measures aimed at improving the quality of customer service, as well as expanding the product range.
I hand wash at least weekly. Recently arthritis limits it some, so I adjusted a tip I had read. I found a foot tall toilet plunger. Drilled 4 small holes on the black rubber part to reduce suction, and use it to agitate my hand wash. I also use mesh bags in my washing machine. Read the Tide bag tip. Why wouldn’t zipper pillow protectors do the same thing? Probably would not have water circulation in the bug barrier type.
I hate hand washing. But,got some delicates that needed hand wash. Accidental buys, you can call. Never thought of drying using the salad spinner.
Good idea. Where I live it takes the handwashables about a week to dry because of the humid climate. I generally put my delicates in a lingerie bag in the washer. I use cold water most of the time in the washer.