Garment care
LAUNDRY – GENERAL ADVICE
I wash my clothes with a mild liquid detergent. It’s organic and does not contain any bleach. I try not to wash my clothes too often, instead I keep them fresh. If used once or twice – place the garment on a hanger and if dry outdoors leave the garment in the fresh air, or indoors on a hanger in a room with good ventilation.
If possible – use the long programme for cotton on your washing machine. It uses less energy and water. Have a look in your user guide to see if there’s a short programme for not very dirty clothes that uses less water too, for instance 30 degrees.
WOOL
Preferably wash your woolen clothes with an environmental friendly schampo, either by hand or in the washing machine. While using the machine you may not want to add too much schampo, especially if you have a shared laundry.
I would not use a softener for my sensitive woolen clothes. Read more about softeners below.
SILK
Silk is often told by the sales people in the shop to be washed with a specific soap. But as with wool a wash with schampo is just fine. Instead of a softener, use vinegar which makes the silk less static and softens it. The very best is to air your silk garment outdoors in the shadow.
COTTON AND LINEN
Cotton and linen are natural fibres that after a normal use are refreshed by simply hanging on a hanger. While washing in a machine use the eco programme if possible that takes more time but uses less water – plan your wash and activate yourself with something else in the meantime. Or use a programme with less heat just for a refresh as long as the garments are not soiled and in need of a proper wash.
SOFTENERS
Softeners means adding one extra chemical that won’t do nature any good. So avoid it if you can. In fact what they do with textile fibres is to soften their structure. Especially stretch denim shouldn’t be washed with a softener, cause that will ruin the stretch function. Neither would I wash my towels (they lose their drying effect) neither sportswear (same reason as with stretch denim) with softeners. So, careful with softeners.
More about softeners in Swedish here:
12 vanliga tvättmissar som förstör våra kläder:
Därför ska du inte använda sköljmedel:
Så tvättar du dina jeans: