Wash and Dry Advice for Clothing
**Please note that due to the high quality of eco friendly inks we use for printing, your garment may arrive with a slight odor so expect to wash once before wearing!
When I was 14 years old, I made my first big purchase for myself using my own hard earned money, working at a roach infested pet store in Brooklyn, N.Y. The item I treated myself to was a $100, 2 tone polo sport pull over. Half white, half Navy with a zipper down the front collar and it was FRESH AF!!! And I call it an "item" because I wasn't spending $100 on a damn shirt, this shit was getting handed down to my grand kids.
Anyway, I wore it once, threw it in the hamper and waited for it to arrive clean again via my mom and that's when I realized she could never be trusted with my laundry again. All of the navy and red lettering bled into the white half of the shirt and it was at least a full size smaller, damn near a tube top!
So obviously I demanded my mom replace what she so savagely destroyed to which she responded "Fuck off, I paid for everything else in your closet".
And that's when I learned how to do laundry! So here's my tips on how to keep all of your clothing items fresh and making them last:
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Only use COLD water! Seriously, the coldest setting available. I will sometimes use warm water for white clothing/bedding I want to keep crispy and bright but never for anything I really care about.
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Only HANG/AIR DRY! Heat is the enemy! If you don't want your shit to fade and/or shrink, don't use any heat at all. I will use low heat on clothes I wear around the house/work in and bedding and sometimes jeans to help with wrinkles but never anything I care about.
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SEPARATE! Don't just dump all your laundry in together and let bright colored stuff bleed into light colored stuff. RED colored clothing should always be washed alone or with other reds for the first 1-3 washes to keep whatever is gonna bleed out from dying your other clothes. After that, I wash with other colors but never anything light. Wash whites separate so you can use bleach and/or warm water.
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DON'T USE CHEAP DETERGENT! I'm all about being thrifty, but there are certain things I don't like to bargain for. Bed sheets, bath towels, underwear, pretty much anything that touches me needs to be plush.
Because of that, and after experimenting with detergents on both ends of the quality spectrum, I choose to stay away from the off brand, bargain detergents and cleaners. I have a few brands that I go between but always liquid, never powder and usually something with an added fragrance like Febreze. I also recommend soap nuts if you want to go the more organic/chemical free route!
That's about it! Get you some fabric softener sheets to throw in the dryer and you're good to go! Speaking of dryer, don't forget to clean out your lint trap every 2-3 uses! That's one of the biggest causes of house fires! So stay fly but also, as well as and in addition to, stay safe!