Five Tips to Keep Your Clothes Like New

Five Tips to Keep Your Clothes Like New

First impressions are made within three seconds of meeting someone and our what we wear—and the condition of our clothing—says a lot about our standards and who we are. We’ve gathered some clothing care tips so you can keep your garments looking new and fresh . . . which will keep them wearing well over time, and help you give the best first impression possible.

Tag Awareness

The most important of all is to follow whatever the cleaning instructions are on the tag of your clothing. These wash instructions are well thought out. If you pay no heed to those itty bitty instructions, you may suffer very big issues such as: shrinkage, pilling, unraveling, fading . . . a host of attire misfortunes, rendering the precious piece unwearable and ready for an early retirement.

Hangers Matter

Hang that jacket, blazer, and sweater on the correct type of hanger. While this sounds like it may be common sense, oftentimes, in our hustle bustle lifestyles, we stop taking the time. The trouble is going to be yours when you go to put on that lovely sweater, and it has weird shoulders because you hung it on a wire hangar, or those slacks have a odd crease at the knee that now commands ironing—and who has time for that, twice?

Denim Care

To keep your denim at a premium, turn dark wash jeans inside out while you wash them, so they are able to maintain the trendy dark wash—and brand new—look a whole lot longer. If you choose to dry them in a dryer, versus hanging them, be sure to remove them from the dryer before they sit too long and become over dry—and over tight—or wrinkled.

Delicates

For the care of your delicates, especially sweaters, it is better to get yourself a fine washables laundry bag and launder them separately to keep them from becoming snagged and pulled apart. Washing delicates in a garment bag keeps them from rubbing against other clothing which can exacerbate the probability of developing pills (those horrendous little impossible to pluck off fur balls that date your once lovely cardigans.

Dry Clean Only

If an item suggests Dry Cleaning only as the best way to be preserved, do not—and we repeat—try to wash it, unless you are familiar with the fabric and have done so successfully on similar fabrics. Even if it does look okay upon your initial glance, it will rarely hold the original shape, and most likely won’t hang on your body properly. There are fabrics that absolutely do not do well with a liquid state of cleaning, hence the “dry-clean only” tag.

The team at Jimmy’s Cleaners and Alterations has a passion for fabrics and keeping garments—and the humans they adorn—in their best form.