Hand-wash only laundry

Hypatia

This might be the wrong place to go for this, but I have some clothes that have tags that list them as "hand wash only". I bought a bottle of Woolite and followed the directions to hand wash them twice now, but doing it is a big pain in the butt.

Are there any other options for washing these? If I put them in the washing machine on "delicates" and then hang them to dry, will they be ok or is that still too rough?

VisionOfClarity

Hypatia wrote: »

This might be the wrong place to go for this, but I have some clothes that have tags that list them as "hand wash only". I bought a bottle of Woolite and followed the directions to hand wash them twice now, but doing it is a big pain in the butt.

Are there any other options for washing these? If I put them in the washing machine on "delicates" and then hang them to dry, will they be ok or is that still too rough?

Hand wash = hand wash. You can put them in the machine on delicate but it will still wear out your clothes much faster than if you hand washed them.

vonPoonBurGer

Personally, I willfully ignore the washing directions and goodwill those clothing items that can't hack it. Everything goes in the washer, everything goes in the dryer, and anything that comes out as a tattered remnant ends up at the Salvation Army. It's like survival of the fittest, for clothes.

ceres

vonPoonBurGer wrote: »

Personally, I willfully ignore the washing directions and goodwill those clothing items that can't hack it. Everything goes in the washer, everything goes in the dryer, and anything that comes out as a tattered remnant ends up at the Salvation Army. It's like survival of the fittest, for clothes.

This is my approach to clothing as well, but then I don't really care about clothes. I do not, however, like to see the things I do buy get destroyed in the wash immediately simply because it's a waste of money, so I solve this by looking at tags before I buy things, and not purchasing anything with special washing instructions.

You pretty much do really need to hand wash most things that say so, and if you decide to go the 'delicates' setting route, you should definitely make sure none of it goes in the dryer. It's still not the same, though.

tsmvengy

vonPoonBurGer wrote: »

Personally, I willfully ignore the washing directions and goodwill those clothing items that can't hack it. Everything goes in the washer, everything goes in the dryer, and anything that comes out as a tattered remnant ends up at the Salvation Army. It's like survival of the fittest, for clothes.

This. There is no easy way other than just being willing to possibly destroy whatever you have - depending on what it is it can probably survive the washing machine, unless it's super-delicate. I try to avoid buying clothes that say "hand wash only" because it's a PITA to wash them.

EDIT: Meant to mention above that you can probably wash it in cold water in the machine and then lay it flat to try instead of putting it the dryer.

Doc

Yeah, if I ever wash anything that I am worried about, I machine wash it, then let it air dry.

myspicybrains

A whole lot depends on your washing machine. A front-loader's delicate cycle (some even say "hand wash" on the dial) is *almost* as good as the real thing, in my experience. Definitely worth it in the balance. On the other hand, a top-loader will like as not stretch, shred, or otherwise destroy whatever you toss in beyond cotton t-shirts and towels.

Dman

Grab a pillow case, put the "handwash only" item inside, tie the open end of the pillow case and wash it with your machine set to "delicate" and possibly coolish temperatures. Also be-ware running dye.

MichaelLC

They also have mesh bags you can buy designed to soften the blow, particularly for lingerie/delicate items.

Heir

MichaelLC wrote: »

They also have mesh bags you can buy designed to soften the blow, particularly for lingerie/delicate items.

This. Do the delicate cycle with one of these bags, then lay it out on a flat table to let it dry. Flip when necessary. Some folks hang them, but most things that need to be hand washed (like sweaters) will stretch when wet and hanging from a line.

Hypatia

Thanks for all the advice! I won't try sticking them in the washer until/unless I look into those bag things you mentioned, you've saved my clothes from probable death because it was getting really tempting

Szechuanosaurus

Dman wrote: »

Grab a pillow case, put the "handwash only" item inside, tie the open end of the pillow case and wash it with your machine set to "delicate" and possibly coolish temperatures. Also be-ware running dye.

This is genius.

Yeah, I have a bunch of wool jumpers and whatnot that are handwash only. Eventually I just said screw it and started putting them in the washer on the most delicate cycle I could conceive - temperature way down, no spin, rinse and out. Putting them in the dryer would be madness though, just spread them out on a clothes horse.

My top tip for avoiding this shit is to hone in on brands that are more 'outdoorsy'. Like, I have a fat face jumper on just now that is a nice fashionable wool jumper. Had it been made by, say, French Connection it would be a dead cert hand wash only. Because it was made by a company with an outdoorsy pedigree it can be machine washed (although it needs to be a cool wash and you can't put it in the dryer).

Failing that, buy the poncy fashion brands at sale prices. I have a carhartt wool jumper that probably would've cost about £70+ new but I got it in a sale for about £20. It's handwash but because it was so cheap, I'm not overly worried if I destroy it in the washer.

embrik

Dman wrote: »

...Also be-ware running dye.

Get some Color Catchers.
They rock. I wash all my red stuff in w/ my darks, and I never have color bleeding to other clothes. The catchers end up with the dye instead.