How To Wash Lingerie In 4 Easy Steps
An Easy Guide To Washing your Lingerie The Gentle Way.
(This post was originally published on Feb 20th 2016 and updated on July 10th 2022)
It is essential to know how to correctly wash and take care of your delicate lingerie to keep it looking new. Lingerie from the 1900s to 1960s were usually made from high-quality materials
and had "delicately wash" lingerie care instructions, which has contributed to their longevity.
Today, we carry on with those same standards to create underwear that will last for years to come. All our garments are constructed from beautiful, delicate fabrics – chiffon, silk, and organic cotton – which are made with the utmost care and attention to detail.
This is why it's important to wash lingerie the right way so quality and elasticity over time is maintained.
Here, we compiled four easy steps for washing and caring for your delicate underwear. We advise you follow these to keep your lingerie beautiful and looking as good as new!
1. Hand Wash Your Lingerie.
To preserve the longevity and shape of your lingerie, we recommend hand-washing with a gentle detergent. Take a look at our article Top 5 best lingerie detergents we recommend using for this purpose.
Place your lingerie in a bowl or a clean sink of warm water or lukewarm water together with liquid laundry detergent and soak for at least 30 minutes. Wash and rinse really gently, this will help the lingerie retain its shape and quality.
We strongly recommend that you use the method described above to wash lingerie. If you use hot water and harsh detergent, your lingerie may be damaged, and we don't suggest using cold water for this purpose because it won't activate your fabric detergent effectively and provide a good clean.
2. Machine Wash Your lingerie.
If you are time constrained and hand-washing is not an option, then cleaning your lingerie in a washing machine on a delicate cycle is a viable alternative, as long as you do the following:
Place your lingerie into a mesh laundry bag and run them on a short, gentle cycle or cool water cycle, together with a liquid detergent. The bag will protect your beautiful lingerie and prevent any distortion.
To be on the safe side, please check the care tag instructions to see whether your lingerie is machine washable. If not, then hand-washing lingerie would be a safer option.
Image: CottonBro
4. Dry Your lingerie.
The drying process is straightforward, to dry your lingerie, remove any excess water and place on a dry towel, drying rack or outside on the washing line. Any of those will work well. Do not tumble dry your lingerie, but let it air dry to retain shape and elasticity.
4. Store Your Lingerie.
To store your lingerie, we advise folding or laying flat (depending on the item), away in their own personalised lingerie drawer. We also advise spring-cleaning your lingerie drawer to help keep your lingerie fresh and clean. Click here for our article How To Spring Clean Your Lingerie Drawer on how to do this.
In this post, we provided you with simple steps to washing your lingerie at home. If you want to learn more about lingerie care, including proper care for bras and panties, be sure to follow us and subscribe to our newsletter.
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