Have you ever done laundry only to find that your favourite shirt or skirt developed a pull in the wash? Or maybe your son managed to spill dinner on his hoodie and you just can’t seem to get it off. To increase your effectiveness the next time you do laundry, here are some simple tips that can greatly benefit your laundry experience.

1.      Don’t Forget to Zip Your Zippers!

The metal teeth on zippers can cause damage to clothing, if they have not been properly zipped up prior to being loaded in the machine. Unzipped zippers can result in pulls or tears in your clothing, so pay attention to those zippers.

2.      Careful Not to Overuse the Detergent

Surprisingly, more detergent doesn’t equal cleaner clothes—who would have thought? Using too much detergent can lead to an excess amount of suds; these suds can hold the dirt coming from the clothes, only to be caught in areas where they won’t be rinsed away (i.e. the underside of a shirts collar).

3.      Pay Attention for the “Dry-Clean” Label

I don’t know about you, but I often forget to check clothing to see if it is supposed to be dry cleaned opposed to the washer. Now if you make the mistake of washing an article of clothing that ideally was supposed to be dry-cleaned it is not the end of the world. However, in the case of certain categories like leather, suede or anything with embellishments, dry-cleaning is still your best route to go.

4.      Don’t be Aggressive Rubbing Out Any Stains

Aggressively trying to rub out any stains on your clothing can actually spread the stain on the shirt and potentially wear down the fabric. Instead, lightly and systematically scrub the stain from the article of clothing.

We all work hard for the money to buy our clothes and then spend our valuable time navigating numerous stores to find certain pieces or brands we like or think represent who we are. The last thing we want to do is go through all that work just to have our clothes ruined in the process of trying to clean them! These are just some pointers to keep in mind when washing clothes or trying to remove a stain threatening your fashion statement.