5 Ways to Care for Your Fashion Investments so They Last Longer

Hello, and welcome to Dressed for My Day. My goal here, each and every day, is to inspire and help women like you and me to dress beautifully and appropriately for our unique days so we can engage graciously and authentically with those around us and influence them well. Our appearance speaks volumes about us, you know, before we even say a word. And that’s why it’s also important that we know how to care for our fashion investments so they last longer and look beautiful.

Today I’m sharing 5 ways to care for your fashion investments – particularly your shoes and handbags, lingerie, workout clothes, hanging clothes and jeans – so that they keep their quality and serve you well…for the long haul.

This is not an exhaustive list of tips, of course. In fact in an attempt toward brevity, I’m just sharing my top 5 tips in each area.

Care Tips for Shoes & Handbags

• When in season, store handbags on a shelf, upright with room to breath.
• Store shoes upright on the ground or on a shoe cabinet.
• During the off season, stuff handbags with acid free tissue paper so they keep their shape.
• Store handbags, during the off season, in the dust bags that came with them.
• Don’t wear the same leather shoes two days in a row, if possible. Leather needs 24 hours to “recuperate” between wears. If you do wear your leather shoes daily, remove them as soon as you get home.

Care Tips for Delicates or Lingerie

• Anything with elastic in it needs a “day off.” So rotate your bras daily.
• Wash all delicates – panties, bras, camisoles, fine lingerie, etc. – on delicate cycle or by hand. I prefer to wash mine in the machine on delicate.
• Use a mesh lingerie bag (or this one) when washing delicates in washing machine to keep items from getting tangled or caught on fasteners.
• Don’t use the drying machine for your delicates. Hang them to dry on a drying rack. I use this one.
• Twist and fold wire support bras in half at the center, inserting one cup inside the other and stuffing the straps in the cups. Store them in a drawer or shelf with room to breath.

Care Tips for Workout Clothing

• Wear your workout clothes two to three times before washing unless they are soiled or very sweaty. Because of the types of fabric used in these elastic and moisture-wicking clothes, less frequent washing is better.
• Between wears, hang your workout clothes up to air out. I hang mine on the back of the guest bedroom door on hooks like this.
• When washing in the washing machine, add 1 – 1 1/2 cups of distilled white vinegar to the load to help remove odors. I tried a detergent made for workout clothes, but I felt like it made my clothes smell like a smoker’s clothing. I wasn’t a fan.
• Don’t dry your workout clothes in the dryer, but hang them to dry on this rack.
• Do not use fabric softener in your washing machine with workout clothing. It damages or even removes some of the technology built into some of this gear.

Care Tips for Hanging Clothes

• Be sure to check collars of shirts with every washing. We gals are prone to staining our collars with makeup, and it needs to be treated before washing or drying.
• Always treat stains as soon as possible. I carry one of these Tide To-Go Instant Stain Removers in my purse most of the time. And when I don’t…I wish I did!
• When ironing shirts, iron them in this order for the most effectiveness: collar, cuffs, sleeves, body.
• Once again, don’t wash your clothes any more often than necessary. Simply air them out between wears unless they must be washed.
• Use hangers that do not stretch your clothing or leave indentations in the shoulders. Did you know that you can even buy hangers for petite size clothing? These crystal cut plastic hangers are my hangers of choice, but many people prefer these. I also like these wooden hangers and use them for my heavier pieces.

Care Tips for Jeans

• Only wash jeans if they are one of the 4 S’s: Soiled, Stained, Stinky or Stretched-out. The jeans of today are made of fabrics that wear out and lose their shape more quickly with over-washing.
• Instead of washing, air your jeans out after washing them. You can hang them over a chair, on this drying rack or on this over the door rack.
• When you do wash jeans, turn them inside out to help retain their coloring.
• You can also add 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar to the load to help set the color of your dark wash jeans, if desired.
• Don’t ever put your jeans in the dryer after washing. Instead, lay them on this drying rack. You may put them in the dryer for a few minutes when they are almost dry just to soften them a little. But then let them cool down before putting them on or they’ll quickly stretch and lose their shape.

When you build a wardrobe of high quality essentials, you want them to last. These tips will help you keep your wardrobe and accessories in good condition so they’ll work for you for years to come.

I know that most of the gals who read this blog have been doing laundry and caring for clothes for more years than we like to count. But I always learn new things from articles like this, and maybe you did, too. Also, like I said, this list is not exhaustive. Feel free to share additional clothes care tips in the comments feed.

By the way, if you haven’t yet put away your winter sweaters, you might want to read this post, How to Care for Your Cashmere Sweaters. The tips in that post apply to all fine sweaters.

Today’s post is part of this year’s style series, Building a Wardrobe that Works for You. If you’ve missed other blog posts in this series, you can check them all out here.

Have a blessed and lovely day!

Blessed for My Day

Not only is self-pity unattractive – and make no mistake about it, it is unattractive – but it is also destructive. When we choose to lick our wounds rather than air them out in the light of the truth, we do not experience the healing we desire. Instead, our heart wounds fester and linger, eventually resulting in an infection that goes deeper than the original pain.

If you have yet to heal from a past hurt, I encourage you to confess your self-pity. That attitude is not God’s best for you. And it’s evidence that you have not clung to Jesus, the anchor of your hope, but have instead chosen to despair. But I also invite you to consider participating in my 10-day automated Prayer Journey for the Wounded Heart. I’ve had this series going for a couple of years now, and I constantly have people signing up for it and completing it. You can learn more here.

Israel said, “Why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother?” … “May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin. And as for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.” ~ Genesis 43:6-14