Today I am sharing my 5 must have tools to take care of your clothes and make them last longer. Buying less and therefore better-quality clothes is a great starting point to have clothes that last longer. How you wash and dry your clothes is in my opinion one of the main reasons many of our clothes just don’t last as long as they could. In this post, you can read more on how to wash your clothes properly. But what about the time between washes? Do permanent creases in our clothes lessen the life of an item? What if we have minor repairs or are missing a button does that mean we need to spend money to fix it or invest in a new piece?
In this post I am sharing my must have tools to take care of our clothes between washes to make them last longer.
Here my 5 Must Have Tools to Take Care of Clothes
1. Good Hangers
How we store our clothes matters. As we are talking about tools, I want to share a few of my favorites for clothes storage. As we hang many of our garments and they spend a lot of time on hangers, having good hangers is important. I think we all know the cheap plastic hangers or even metal hangers from the dry cleaners. Neither are great for your clothes as they are harsh on the fabric, often cause those annoying creases or bumps at the shoulders and some of my blouses would never stay on and I’d find them wrinkled on the floor. To prevent this, I recommend velvet or wooden hangers.
I used to have wooden hangers and loved them, but they were not very space saving friendly. These non-slip velvet hangers have become my personal favorite. They prevent my clothes from slipping off the hanger, are gentle to my clothes, do not cause creases and are slim and save a lot of space. I personally love having just one color, I know others that love having different ones. I recommend storing your belts in a drawer rolled up, or on a belt hanger. Both are great options depending on your storage space and needs.
2. Clothes Steamer
A good steamer is a necessity in every closet. I personally found I reach for my steamer much more and my clothes iron hasn’t been touched in a long time. Both will work to get out wrinkles of shirts and blouses. Just make sure that your iron has the option to use steam and I recommend using it not only on delicate fabrics but in general I found it makes ironing much easier and I need less heat. I have two steamers that I love. This small but powerful travel steamer has a handle to hold on to which is slimmer and maybe easier to hold than some of the units where you hold onto the whole thing. The other steamer I like is larger but has several added features and still very light. If you steam a lot of pants with creases or pleats, this one has a built-in function to create the perfect crease. Both are great for travelling in the countries that have 110V. If you travel outside North America, you’ll need a converter. This dual voltage steamer is a little larger but will work abroad too.
To steam my clothes, I hang the garment at a height that I can easily reach. I usually will use a door or a shower curtain rod. But anything that’s clean where you can easily hang your clothes works. Even an open space on your closet rack. To steam my clothes, I like to steam them from the inside out whenever possible. For example, if I steam a blouse, I will reach into the blouse from below and steam the material that’s facing me from the inside while holding slight tension on the fabric. Then turn the garment and do the same. For areas where this is not possible, like sleeves or pockets, I’ll steam those from the outside still having slight tension on the fabric.
3. Fabric (Clothes) Shaver
To get rid of pills I use a fabric shaver. After my steamer this is my most used tool. It is not only great for wool sweaters but sweatshirts, pants, couches, bedding and many other things too. Always make sure to test a small inconspicuous area to ensure it doesn’t damage the fabric. I love this fabric shaver for all kinds of materials. There is a battery operated and rechargeable version – both are great options. Most recently, I used this to de-pill a sweatshirt that I was about to give up on. I am so glad I took the time to make it look great again! A certain amount of pilling with wool sweaters is normal. As I love wool sweaters, I also have this small manual comb I take with me on trips. It really only works well for wool sweaters.
When shaving your clothes with an electric shaver, gently glide the shaver over the garment in long even movements. It does take a little time and patience, but it is so worth it and extends the life of your clothing.
As a sidenote, the manual shaver also works well on burrs. I have saved several pairs of pants that way.
4. Sewing kit
A sewing kit is a must have tool to mend minor issues. How often a button has come loose, I can’t even recall. A simple issue that can easily be fixed with a needle and some thread. Many brands that sell quality clothing include extra buttons often sown on to the tag or inside of the shirt exactly for that reason. Buttons can always fall off it simply happens. There are many tutorials on YouTube to learn how to sow a simple button.
Another easy fix are small holes which can happen in natural fiber wool sweaters, but other garments as well. I often had extra yarn provided as well, which is often included in a small pouch on the tag. Unfortunately, it seems this is less and less common. But you can still quite easily get colored yarn that fits your garment.
A good pair of shears (specifically designed to cut cloth) should be part of every sewing kit. Even if you only do minor alterations, it can come in very handy when fixing things. Even just to cut off the string after sowing on your button. I have had several pairs of jeans that weren’t quite right, and I simply fixed them by adding a raw hem. Good scissors can make all the difference when attempting to cut a hem of jeans or hemming pants or a skirt.
5. Stain Treatment system
Your stain treatment is part of your washing routine, yet I like to use specific products. I have found one system that works really well. Branch Basics creates one concentrate that works for your whole home, laundry included. I was skeptical and at first didn’t use it for our laundry. But when I was in a pinch, I decided to try it. It worked better than the other stain removers I had been using before. Best part, it’s non-toxic and I feel very comfortable to let my toddler now help treating stains. This bar soap is another wonder worker. So far, I have never had an issue with it ruining any of our clothes. I simply wet the stain, rub the soap on it, let it sit for a minute, next rub the soap into the stain and rinse and then put it into the washing machine. I found the rinsing is necessary to get all the soap out in the washing machine.
There are a few other tools that I use, but I think those are extras and not part of the essentials. Taking care of our clothes should be fun and easy and not a hard task. These 5 must have tools to take care of clothes will make your live much easier and your clothes happier. I love knowing that by washing my clothes properly and with only a few simple tools, I can help my clothes to look better longer.
This blog post contains affiliate links. When you click or shop through my links, I may earn a small commission (at no cost to you), which helps me support this site so thank you! I only promote products and services from brands that I love and want to endorse.
Thank you!