Buying clothes can feel extravagant when you’re pinching pennies. In fact, a survey by Skipton Building Society found that 30% of respondents plan to spend less on clothes and jewellery this year.
If you’re planning to save by cutting back on new clothes, you’ll want to make your existing outfits look good for longer. And how you wash your clothes is key to keeping them smart.
Scruffy student
My first experience of washing my own clothes was at university. By the end of the first term, my clothes were a mud-coloured, mangled heap; scratchy, worn and faded.
It turns out that just shoving them all in the same economy wash to save on 20ps was not a long-term money-saving solution.
Since then, I’ve learned a lot about making clothes last. For those spending a fortune buying new clothes because their socks are scratchy, their tops look trashed and their whites have turned brown, here are my top tips:
Washing to make clothes last longer
Turn the temperature down: Not only will this cut your energy bill (check out my article ‘Can dirty bed sheets save you cash?’), it will reduce the wear on your clothing. Colours stay brighter, fabrics stay softer and nothing shrinks.
Most detergents are now suitable for washing at 30 or 40 degrees, so give your clothes a break.
Zip your zippers: Zips are sharp, rough edges. Zip up the zippers before washing them, or they could damage other clothes. For the same reason, fasten bra hooks and poppers before you wash them.
Keep clothes for ‘best’: Cut wear on your favourite or smartest clothes by changing out of them before you start anything manual, like gardening or housework.
Read the label: The care label on an outfit shows the highest temperature you can safely wash an item at, so make sure you read it. You can always wash your clothes at a cooler temperature than the manufacturers recommend, just don’t exceed it.
Also, remember to look at the label when you’re buying new clothes. If it is dry-clean only, then that’s going to cost a lot more over the lifetime of the outfit.
Use the right amount of detergent: Don’t try to pinch pennies by scrimping on soap – you need to use the recommended amount. If you don’t use enough and your clothes aren’t clean, you’ll only have to wash them again, using even more energy and detergent.
Separate your colours: You might want to cut back on the number of washes you run to save energy and detergent. But it’s still worth separating your colours – and I mean into more than just whites and not-whites. This will keep your clothes bright for as long as possible.
Don’t leave laundry in the machine: As a student I often left washing in the machine until my flatmates shouted at me or I had to run the wash cycle again. This is such a waste of money and energy, plus it can damage your clothes. Only set loads to wash when you know you’ll be there to empty the machine.
Hang stuff up: Don’t be tempted to leave your washing in a heap or dump it haphazardly on a clothes horse. Take the time to hang up clothes you care about and make sure everything is smoothed out before you leave it to dry.
It’ll be easier to iron – you might even get away with not ironing some stuff – and it will help your clothes stay smart for longer.
Wear things more than once: It’s very tempting to chuck a shirt or top in the wash when you’ve worn it once – especially since no one likes to wear the same thing to work two days in a row.
But unnecessary washing will wear your clothes out fast, so wear things more than once – especially if they’re outer layers.
Protect your washing machine: Washing at a low temperature is good for your clothes and the environment, but it’s not always great for your machine. Once a week, run a hotter wash so that bacteria can’t grow and cause bad smells.
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Beyond the wash basket
So that’s washing covered, but how else can you ensure your clothes last as long as possible? Here are a few other things to consider…
Keep all spares: When you buy a new top and it has a little packet of spare buttons or sequins or embroidered flowers, what do you do with them? Don’t leave them lying around or stuffed into a random drawer – you want to have them handy so you can fix clothes straight away.
Avoid cheap retailers: There are plenty of high street retailers that stock fashionable clothes for very little cash. It can be very tempting to stock your wardrobe from these shops so you can stay up to date without emptying your bank account.
But there’s a good reason for avoiding these super-cheap retailers. You’ll look modern and smart for a couple of wears but the clothes often don’t wash well, and can soon look tired and faded. It’s worth spending a few pounds extra to have clothes that last.
Make do and mend: If you have the skills, you can fix small snags in your outfits and help them last a little longer.
But you need to know what you’re doing. In preparation for this article, I attempted to darn a sock and ‘turn a collar’. Because of that, both the socks and the shirt are now in the rag basket. I somehow made them worse.
If you don’t know one end of a needle from another then either take the time to learn, or use a sewing shop. They don’t charge much and could give your clothes a new lease of life. They’re especially good if you’ve lost weight but don’t want to buy an entirely new wardrobe.
Do your clothes look shop-new every time they leave your ironing board? What’s your secret? Let other readers know in the comments below.
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