It’s that time of year to prepare your winter clothes for storage. In an effort to sustain your wardrobe and make your clothes last for years to come, taking good care to wash and store things properly for the off season. Being that sweaters make up most of your winter wardrobe, I thought I’d share how to wash wool sweaters.

FIRST | Sort

Sort out your wool and cashmere sweaters. This method also pertains to cashmere sweaters, because cashmere is a type of wool. Some cotton sweaters can be machine washed, check the label.

SECOND | Remove Pilling

Before washing, use a sweater comb to remove pills. Also use this time to remove any debris caught in the yarns of the sweater and spot treat stains.

THIRD | Hand Wash

Fill your bathtub (for many sweaters) or sink (for a single sweater) with luke warm water and mix in a mild laundry soap. My go-to is Sal’s Suds by Doctor Bronner’s (it is non-toxic and multi-purpose soap). Make sure the soap is dissolved completely before submerging sweaters into the water. Add sweaters to the water and make sure they are soaked through, gently agitate by hand for a few minutes. With cuffs and collars that might have more dirt, lightly scrub these areas to remove dirt. It’s ok to leave sweaters to soak for up to 30 minutes. After agitating and soaking, drain the tub or sink and refill with clean water. Be sure not to run the water over the sweaters as this will stretch out the yarns. Once the tub is full of clean water, agitate sweaters allowing the soap to release into the water. You may need to drain and fill the tub a few times to ensure all of the soap has been removed.

FOURTH | Remove Excess Water

Do not ring out your sweaters, simply ball them up and press against the side of the tub/sink to remove excess water. Lay sweater flat on a dry, clean towel and roll the towel up to absorb remaining water.

FIFTH | Lay Flat to Dry

Lay sweaters flat on top of dry towels, out of direct sunlight. Use this time to reshape the sweater, if necessary. For heavy sweaters, you may need to flip sweater over onto a new, dry towel after a few hours.

SIXTH | Store

Fold your dry sweaters neatly and store in cotton storage bags to prevent excess moisture or moths. Then place in plastic airtight container for winter hibernation. Never hang your sweaters, they will grow, stretch out and lose their shape. For more tips on how to sustain your sweater collection, including fixing pulls and saving a shrunken sweater, visit this previous post. Now let’s get into summer please.