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Maintain Your Wardrobe

Proper maintenance of your clothes ensures minimum wastage and maximum use of your beautiful clothing.  A person with a well maintained wardrobe goes a long way in the style stakes!

I have only learned to properly care for my clothes recently. I am still learning!  I reached this crossroad in maturity when we were invaded by moths. See my blog on moths.  I gained invaluable advice from a book called Teach Yourself Thrifty Living by an ingenious author, Barty Phillips.

Ms. Phillips' book is packed to the rafters with invaluable and practical information on how to cut back on spending and make your pound go further.  Chapter 9 is devoted to savings on clothes and is filled with tips on how to maintain and lengthen the life of your wardrobe.  FCaNK loves it!

Ms. Phillips offers ten thrifty clothing tips at the end of the chapter. Check this book out. You will look stylish for longer and save pounds!

Here are some extra tips from us:

 

Washing Machines

Spend more on a washing machine. There is no point in buying expensive fabrics and wools if you have  a cheap date washing machine.  Miele is particularly good but Bosch is  also brilliant!  Obviously if you have very little cash and it's a choice between a great washing machine or good clothes..then buying great clothes would always win!  Find a good dry cleaner and you will be fine!

Hand Wash your Delicate Clothing

We know that this is something that may be regarded as a lost art! However, it does prolong the life of your good quality silks and knitwear. Use a good quality wool laundry detergent.  FCaNK recommends Ecover for woolens and The Cashmere Centre 'Cashmere Wash' for cashmere knitwear. Follow the instructions carefully and you will prolong the life of your garment!

 

Dry Cleaning At Home

The Hagerty Dry Cleaning Kit could become your new best friend.  Using your very own tumble dryer you can now dry clean your clothes at home. This is also available from Lakeland...of course! (See their washing and laundry section for more details!) http://www.lakeland.co.uk

 

Stain Remover

We love the Dylon Stain Remover range and have found the biological stain remover absolutely brilliant. This shouldn't be used on silk and needs to be tested on an area before you use it.  It works brilliantly on cricket whites and white jeans. www.dylon.co.uk

For grass stains and oil marks on white fabrics we have found that nothing works better than Swarfega. Bizarre though this might sound it works brilliantly on really stubborn stains. Again, make sure that you test an area before using. Swarfega can be bought from any decent DIY/hardware shop.

 

Hanging and Storing Your Clothes

We love the  Grip to Me Velvet Huggable Hangers from Amazon.  We have very little wardrobe space so every inch counts and the wooden hangers are too bulky. These skimpy numbers are kind to your clothes and non slip so no scrabbling at the bottom of the wardrobe to find your clothes that have slipped off their hangers! These are a great addition to your wardrobe. 

You should also learn to properly store your garments at the end of every season.  This particularly applies to knitwear, coats and jackets. These items should be either washed or dry cleaned (depending on the care label) and stored in moth and dust proof covers or bags.  There are loads of storage options on market. FCaNK loves the storage bags and covers from The Cashmere Centre.  You can also find storage items from your local hardware shop.  FCaNK recommmends these for your excess linens and towels etc.

Protect your jackets and knitwear that you are using with dust covers. Again, these can be found at The Cashmere Centre.