In the bottom of my closet and needing a wash, I just found a bagful of sweaters, dresses, and other knits that have the tag instruction 'hand wash, lay flat to dry' So, how to best launder all these in a short amount of time? Anyone use their dryclearner, or have hints for doing it at home?
I'm particularly concerned about drying. I wear XL's, and I've already discovered that one long-sleeve sweater will not fit on the standard 27" square drying racks we have. In the past I have used layers of towels when I've washed one item. Here I have close to a dozen items I'd like to get done preferably as one batch. Help?
I do the same as Denise - twisting out all the excess water. I also wanted to comment on what one of the other women said about hanging the items. I do this but only if the item is not heavy or dripping with water. It that is the case the item can stretch out and never really get back to the way it was before. Also - dry clean the wools! I learned that one the hard way too. :(
When I wash sweaters, I wash them on delicate. Then put them in the dryer on low heat for about 15 mins then get out and lay them flat on towels to air dry. It works good for me.
I put all of my handwashable knits in the washer on the gentle cycle (almost all--not cashmere). Once they are spun dry--I hang them inside out on padded hangers. They turn out fine.
Oh--if you do hand wash--put each sweater on a towel folded in half then roll it up in the towel, twist & squeeze and it gets a LOT of the water out. Then place on a clean, doubled towel on the floor if you have room til dry.
I definitely wouldn't use hangers to dry sweaters - the knit will pull apart. Do you have a lawn? I bought army sheets made out of thick muslin(?) material to use for a variety of things. If I were to do what you need to do, I'd wash them, roll in a towel to SQUEEZE, NOT TWIST, out the excess water. Then I would lay them flat on top of sheets or towels outside in the grass or on a deck or porch. Hopefully no birds use them as targets. ; )
Sturdy dresses might be dried on hangers though they would need padding. Hanging them would probably still put hanger indentations into the shoulders though. I'd prefer to lay them flat.
Good luck,
: ) MD
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I would suggest washing any cotton or blended sweaters in cold on delicate wash with woolite about four at a time (or half fill the washer, but use a "full" load setting unless you have a front loader). My front loader has a "hand wash" setting.
If any are wool or wool blend, definately take to dry cleaners!
Drying, I tend to get them damp dry in the dryer and then lay out with a towel over the shower rod and just readjust them a few times through the drying process and finish with a "wrinkle release" dry in the dryer.
Good luck!
You can use the roll up in the towel to get it as dry as possible, then lay flat on toweled surface (oven racks work well, no heat of course), lay them out on cardboard on the bed, or blanket to absorb any residual moisture. If you have a nice day you can dry them outside a bit faster...
How about making your table into a dryer? And your counters in the kitchen......You can take the stove shelves out and use them to lay the clothes on.......if you need too.....
I hang mine, I know it says lay flat.....but I don't have enough room to lay flat.....so I put them hangers, and then every couple of hours, I go take a towel and sponge up the water that is at the bottom of the item. So that way it's not stretching it out......unless I want it to stretch......
Good luck....and take care.
My drying rack has a mesh section on the top. I also have some drying racks for sweaters - a large square of mesh on 4 short legs about 4 inches high. I have a couple so I can put a sweater on the first one, put a 2nd one on top and then put another sweater on it, and so on. The air circulates above and below each item. You can buy these at places like Bed Bath & Beyond as well as through catalogs. Things dry 3 times faster than laying a sweater on top of the dryer or on a table or towel. If things spin dry or if you hand wash and roll in a towel to squeeze out the excess water, it shouldn't take too long to dry.
I put the "body" of the sweater on the mesh screen, and then fold the sleeves back over rather than let them hang on the floor. "Drying flat" means no wrinkles but it doesn't mean you can fold a sleeve back over onto the sweater.
I would NOT put things in the dryer. That's the whole point of "hand wash, lay flat to dry"!! Use the gentle cycle, not too much soap, and cold water. I've used Dryel too as another poster suggested, but it's not really cleaning things, just freshening them. It's covering up any odors and it's not removing sweat or anything else. If something is clean but just a little musty smelling from being in a dresser all year, it might work. But if the items are actually dirty, Dryel isn't doing a thing except putting chemicals into the mix to give it a new smell.
I don't think there's a real shortcut here. I know you have 12 items, but I think the best you're going to do is 4 loads of 3 things each. In 4 days, you'll be done - and since things have been lying around in your closet for 6 months or more, that's not such a bad deal!
ISome washers have a handwash cycle, you can was on handwash or delicate be sure to use cold/cold setting as a warm or hot setting can cause shrinkage. Some of my husbands delicates will not fit perfectly on my drying rack but I just hang the sleeves over the edge in a way that will not cause wrinkles. And sometime I drape the garment instead of laying flat. It is like a puzzle sometimes. I don't like to dry on any hard surface because I don't want my clothes to smell musty. If you do dry on a hard surface I would suggest flipping part way through the drying process so you can air out both sides. Right now you are still able to dry outside. I LOVE LAUNDRY! ;-)
