Hand Wash Delicates
Many items of clothing that are considered "delicates" can be hand-washed, despite a tag in them that recommends dry cleaning. Sweaters, athletic wear, undergarments and other items that require extra care may be cleaned by simply hand-washing them. Keep in mind that achieving the correct water temperature, using a detergent meant for delicates and reshaping your clothing to allow them to air dry are important to successfully hand-wash your delicate items. Here are some other suggestions about how to hand-wash delicates.
Steps
- Sort your clothes based on color into light and dark categories. Colors like navy, red, purple and black should be sorted into the dark clothing category. Items that are white, cream, pink or other pastels belong in the light category of clothing. Sorting delicate items allows you to wash them together without fearing that they will fade or bleed on each other.
- Use water that is lukewarm or cool. Hot water may shrink your garments or fade their color. Lukewarm or cool water will get the stains out without causing shrinkage or damage to your garments.
- Use a detergent intended for use with delicate items. Many detergents are specifically created to wash delicate items by hand. Use the amount of detergent as directed for the amount of clothes you intend to wash.
- Soak delicate clothing in water and detergent. Let your clothes soak for a few minutes, but do not go off and forget about them. Delicate items should not soak for longer than 20 minutes because they may shrink, fade or get damaged.
- Swirl your clothes to wash them. There's no need to be rough with them and rub them against each other to remove stains. Embellishments or decorative trim may be harmed by doing that. Carefully swirl your delicate items in the soapy water to get them clean.
- Rinse your delicate items in clean water or a different basin or bowl. Swirl them like you did when washing to rinse them and get the soap out. Swirl the items several times to rinse them thoroughly.
- Fold and press your items against the basin edge in order to get excess water out of them. Wringing your delicate items to remove extra water may damage them, cause embellishments or trim to fall off, or harm the fabric. Fold the delicate items into layers and press the layers against a dry edge of the basin to squeeze out the extra water.
- Reshape your delicate items. Getting delicate items wet may affect their shapes. Gently stretch them back out to the size and shape they normally are when dry.
- Lay your delicate items flat to dry. Spread out a clean, white towel and lay the items on the towel. When the top side is nearly dry, flip them so the bottom side can dry, too.
Things You'll Need
- Water
- Detergent for delicate items
- Wash basin or bowl
- Clean, white towel
