Care for clothes sustainably: 13 practical tips for a conscious wardrobe

Would you like your clothes to last longer while also contributing to a more sustainable wardrobe? Understanding how to care for your clothes properly is essential. Here are 13 valuable tips to cherish your clothes and keep them looking like new!

It’s important to know how to make clothes last longer if you want to create a sustainable wardrobe.

By extending the life of our clothes, we can master slow fashion and save money by reducing the amount of clothing we need to buy in our lifetime.

When we don’t take good care of our clothes, we end up throwing them away, and they ultimately end up in a landfill or being burned somewhere on the planet.

This is terrible for the environment, given the pollution caused by clothing during production, shipping, and care, only for it to end up somewhere that will cause even more pollution. Not to mention that it’s also a waste of the money spent buying the clothes, even if we got them cheaply secondhand.

That’s why it’s crucial for us and the environment to make sure our clothes last a long time. You can do that almost effortlessly with these tips!

1. Invest in high-quality clothing

For everything you buy new (or secondhand), choose quality over quantity! High-quality clothes last longer and retain their shape and color better after repeated washing and wear. Choose sustainable materials like organic cotton and avoid cheaper synthetic fabrics.

Learn how to stop buying fast fashion and focus instead on buying clothes made from high-quality, sustainable fabrics like organic cotton, while avoiding cheaper materials like polyester.

When shopping in-store, you should also make sure the seams are intact and not fraying. This is a good sign of quality.

Tip: If a garment comes with an extra button, that’s another good sign that it’s well made, because it usually means the designer wants it to last.

2. Protect Your Clothes

Try to keep your clothes clean by wearing protective clothing during certain activities. When cooking, wear an apron to prevent food or other potential stains from getting on your clothes. The same goes for painting, gardening, and so on.

Stains can be a death sentence for clothes, so taking precautions will help your clothes last much longer.

You should also protect expensive garments that you don't wear often, such as suits or evening dresses, by storing them in a garment bag in your closet.

3. Make sure you have a really good stain remover at home

A fresh stain can spell the end for a favorite garment. Invest once in a really good stain remover (even if it's a little more expensive) and treat your clothes as soon as possible after a stain appears. These days, almost any stain (no matter how stubborn) can be removed with the right stain remover. So there's really no need to throw away a garment because of a stain!

Tip: Always keep a stain remover pen in your handbag so you can act immediately when a stain appears.

4. Wash less often

Overwashing can damage the fabric of your clothes and fade their colors. Unless a garment is visibly dirty, you can often wear it a few times before washing it.

Simply put, clothes last longer if you don't overwash them. Sweaters worn over a T-shirt don't need to be washed after every wear. The same goes for jeans, skirts, tank tops, and dresses.

Unless the garment is actually dirty, you can generally wear it about three times before it needs to be washed.

Be sure to hang up these garments after wearing them to freshen them up, prevent wrinkles, and keep them from collecting dirt or dust when left on the floor. 

5. Use a laundry bag for delicate items

Mesh bags for certain types of clothing, such as underwear, lingerie, and delicate fabrics, are important for helping your clothes last longer.

Certain garments can easily get caught on other clothes or zippers, which can lead to damage and eventually having to throw them away.

Reusable mesh bags are also handy for putting all your small items, such as underwear and socks, in to make sorting them afterward easier.

6. Always zip up and button your clothes before washing

To reduce the chance of damaging clothes in the wash, zip up sweaters and jeans before putting them in the washing machine.

The same goes for buttons. Doing this reduces the chance of your clothes getting caught or tangled and damaged.

I have a few tops with thin straps, and sometimes they get twisted around a button, stretching both the shirt and the button.

Making sure your clothes stay undamaged is important for helping them last longer. Zipping and buttoning up your clothes before washing them can help prevent damage.

7. Always read the care instructions

Clothes don't come with care instructions on the label for no reason. It's extremely important to read these labels to know how to wash each garment and make sure it lasts a long time. Some garments need to be hung up to dry or tumble-dried on a gentle cycle. Others may need to be hand-washed.

You don't want to take a garment out of the washer or dryer only to find that it has shrunk, faded, or lost its softness. There's no going back.

8. Sort your laundry the right way

Sort Your Laundry the Right Way After reading the care labels, sort your laundry according to them. Sort your laundry by color, delicate fabrics, and so on.

Sorting your laundry will help keep your clothes looking good for longer, since certain garments can otherwise get damaged in the dryer, for example.

Sorting your laundry also makes it easier to transfer your clothes to the dryer, knowing that everything in the load you just washed can go in the dryer, without having to sort it afterward while the clothes are wet.

9. Use cooler water

If possible, wash your clothes in cold water to protect the fabric and save energy. A colder wash cycle will also remove enough dirt and stains from the fabric; it doesn't always need to be washed at 60 degrees.

10. Hang clothes to dry or use dryer balls

Hanging your clothes to dry on a washing line or drying rack is a great way to maintain their quality and extend their lifespan.

It also helps reduce wrinkles and shrinkage that may occur in the dryer.

It's also a better option because you save energy by not using a dryer. When you do use the dryer, use eco-friendly wool dryer balls to reduce drying time and wrinkles in your clothes. This is such a great tip, trust me, it really works!

11. Choose steaming instead of ironing

Use a clothes steamer to disinfect, refresh, and smooth your clothes without direct contact with the hot iron plate. Steaming kills 99% of bacteria and removes odors, keeping your clothes fresher without having to wash them right away.

12. Give older clothes a new lease on life

When your favorite garments get older and start to show lint pills or snags, use a fabric shaver to remove them easily. This gives your beloved clothes a new lease on life and makes them look as good as new.

13. Store your clothes properly

Hang your clothes in a cool, dark closet to prevent fading from sunlight. Make sure your clothes stay dry and free from moisture to prevent mold.

With these simple tips, you can keep your clothes looking great for longer and create a sustainable wardrobe. By taking care of your clothes, you can not only save money but also help the environment by washing less and making your clothes last longer. Remember, small changes to your daily routine can make a big difference for your clothes and the planet!