How to Care for Clothes (So They Actually Last)
A practical guide to washing, drying, storing, and wearing your clothes without ruining them.
Most clothes don’t wear out, but are simply washed to death.
Shrinking, pilling, fading, twisting seams, weird smells that never leave…That usually happens long before the fabric itself was meant to fail.
Good care isn’t about being precious or hand-washing everything. It’s about understanding what actually damages fibres, and avoiding it most of the time.
If you already read labels, this is the step that makes all of that effort pay off.
Care labels are written to:
- protect the brand from complaints
- cover worst-case scenarios
- assume industrial washing machines and zero common sense
They are not always the only way to care for a garment.
Your real goal is simpler:
reduce friction
reduce heat
reduce chemicals
reduce unnecessary washing
Everything else is secondary.
The “4 reductions” you can apply to almost anything
- Friction: the dryer is basically a pilling machine. Overloading the wash drum is also friction.
- Heat: hot water + hot drying = faster fading, shrinking, and warped fibres.
- Chemicals: heavy detergent and softeners leave residue and can trap smells.
- Over-washing: most items don’t need a full wash after one wear.
Do these four things more often than not, and your wardrobe will look newer for longer with less effort than people think.
The rest of this guide is inside The Collective
Locked in this guide:
- the simple wash routine I use (so you don’t overthink laundry)
- how to stop pilling (and what actually works vs laundry myths)
- how to get rid of “stuck” smells without destroying fibres
- drying rules by fabric (what can hang, what must lay flat, what never goes in the dryer)
- storage rules that prevent stretching, moth damage, and weird shoulder bumps
- category cheatsheets: knitwear, silk, denim, activewear, coats
- stain basics (what to do immediately vs what makes it permanent)
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