Keeping Your Clothes Looking as Good as New
Stylish clothes aren’t exactly cheap, which is why, if you want to look good you really do need to take good care of the clothes you have. Anyway, looking after your clothes so that they last longer and look as good as new even years after you first got them isn’t actually as tough as you might think. Here are some very simple things anyone can do to keep their clothes looking as good as new:
Quality Over Quantity
The best thing you can do to ensure that your clothes look good for as long as possible is to invest in a few high-quality pieces instead of spending your money on lots of cheaply made garments, which might give you a bigger wardrobe, but which don’t really represent value for money and which almost certainly won’t still be wearable in a couple of years. You don’t have to blow your budget on designer brands but choose garments that have clearly been well made and aren’t the cheapest of the cheap and you’ll have to replace fewer pieces over the months and years.
Rest Between Wearing
I know that you might want to wear that favourite pair of shoes or those jeans that make your butt look great every day, but if you want to keep your clothes looking as good as new for as long as possible, you need to take breaks between wearing them. By doing so, you will give the fabric time to recover back into shape, so that it doesn’t get permanently stretched out of shape. You should do this even with shoes, which will have a longer lifespan if they’re left to totally dry out before being put on again.
Get Them Dry-Cleaned
If your clothes say that they should be dry-cleaned, then you really need to go here and take them to the dry cleaners, otherwise, they will not look as good as new, and they certainly won’t be in your wardrobe 20 years from now. Anyway, dry cleaning is more convenient and cheaper than ever before; it’s never been easier to have your clothing cleaned by a professional.
Wash Less
It might sound icky, especially if you’ve been brought up thinking that clothes must be washed after being worn just once, but washing your clothes less, where possible, will make a huge difference to their longevity. Most of us wash our clothes much more often than they really need to be anyway. Unless your clothes have gotten dirty or smelly, you can normally go at least a couple of days between washing, possibly more, and you can either use a little vodka in a spray bottle or put them in a freezer bag in the freezer to kill off bacteria and freshen them up between uses. If you’re going to wash your clothes make sure to use high-quality detergents to avoid harming the quality of your clothes.
Change Out of Work Clothes Quickly
Since most of us tend to have fewer items of work clothes that we wear each day of the week, it’s important that we take extra good care of our work wardrobe. One thing that works well is to immediately change out of work clothes upon getting home at the end of the day. That way, they get worn less, and they’ll stay in top condition for longer.
Shake It Out
Any garments that could attract moths and beetles, like woollen sweaters and heavy coats, should be shaken out every day or two in order to dislodge any nasties that may have found their way in there. In fact, shaking out your whole wardrobe once in a while couldn’t hurt.
Treat Your Clothes with Respect
If you’re the kind of person who throws your clothes into a heap on the floor when you get undressed in the evening, and if you throw them in the closet without hanging or folding them, then they aren’t going to look as good as new for as long as clothes owned by someone who shows them due respect and treats them with care.
Throw Out Your Wire Hangers
Wire hangers may be cheap, but they are one of the worst things you can use to hang your clothes because the thin wire causes more stress than is necessary to the garments, causing them to tear, lose their shape and generally become old and worn before their time. Switch to wooden hangers and trust me, you will notice an immediate difference in the quality of your clothes.
