Not everyone has time for hand washing, heck sometimes I don’t even. But I find hand washing to be incredibly therapeutic and since I choose to hand wash much of the pieces in my closet, I’ve gotten pretty good at it if I do say so myself!
Hand Washing vs Washing Machine
While machine washing is insanely convenient, it’s not always what’s best for our clothes. Our top loading washing machine does not have a Middle skinny thing which can pull at clothes.You should always hand wash delicate or loose knit items and you can hand wash dry clean only pieces at home. Basically you can hand wash just about anything. Be sure to read your care label.
HOW TO
You’ll need a clean sink with 2 compartment or 2 clean tubs, add 2-3” lukewarm water to both sinks and 1 pump of laundry soap of your choice in Tub 1. Gather your items to hand wash and place next to Tub 1 with soap. Begin by taking one item and completely submerging it in the soap tub and let it soak for 1-2 minutes.
Never ring your clothes. It is very hard on your fibers, better to wad into a ball and squeeze than to twist your garment. Then add you item to Tub 2 of water to rinse.
After washing and rinsing all your items, pour out your soapy water from Tub 1 then add 2-3” of freshwater. Remove garments from Tub 2, squeezing first then adding to Tub 1 for a second rinse. Pour out the water from Tub 2. After adding all your garments to Tub 1, pour out all the water and squeeze each piece and place it into Tub 2 which should be empty. From here you can either a) place garments on a towel and roll (to accelerate drying time) then hang/place on the drying rack or b) add to your washing machine and run on the spin cycle.
After I run my pieces through the spin cycle they are ready to layout on my drying rack and dry. The plus to using the spin cycle is it shortens drying time and prevents dripping. Since I don’t have a “GREAT” place to air dry, spinning allows me to air dry our clothes on our drying rack in our living room.
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So, do you have pieces that you regularly hand wash? I hand wash about once a month or so unless pieces get especially dirty or sweaty. If I’m only hand wash a few pieces at a time the process is very quick. Air drying in Colorado is pretty quick thanks to our dry air, and in the summer air drying takes less time than the drier on high.
Will you try hand washing and drying this summer?
Stylishly Shelby 