It's such a hassle to keep going back and forth from the laundry room, sifting through wrinkled or worn-looking items, and deciding what can actually be worn. Wouldn't it be great if there was a way for your t-shirts to still look good after every wash or wearing session?
Well, luckily for you, this is, in fact, possible. By following just a few simple steps, you'll be able to extend the life of your favorite tees and reduce the number of times you need to spend on the ironing board each week.
How To Reduce Wrinkles in Your Clothes
Modern laundry appliances and newer fabrics make it easier to go out with wrinkle-free garments without having to spend time on laborious pressing. Despite this progress, some clothing still requires a good old-fashioned ironing session or some extra steps to ensure that they stay fresh looking.
Below are some tips we suggest following to keep your clothing looking crisp and clean.
Sort Laundry Correctly
Creating successful laundry habits requires more than simply separating clothes by color; fabric content and weight must also be taken into account. If lightweight items such as T-shirts are mixed with heavier items like denim jeans, the lighter items can be crushed in the washer due to the weight of the jeans, creating more wrinkles.
Proper sorting of laundry prior to washing is not only an efficient way to save time, but it can also significantly reduce wrinkles in the dryer. Lighter fabrics such as t-shirts and linens tend to dry much quicker than heavier materials like denim. Overheating fabrics in the dryer for extended periods of time can cause deep-set wrinkles that are difficult to remove.
Therefore, when doing laundry, it is important to sort out items into their respective categories and place heavier fabrics in the dryer for a shorter duration. Doing so will help preserve the look and feel of your garments.
Choose the Best Dryer Cycle
A dryer typically works by tumbling clothing through warm air and venting the moisture drawn from fabric. The key differences between machines are the heating and cool-down cycles, which can determine whether clothes come out with wrinkles or wrinkle-free.
Permanent press cycles incorporate a gentle cool-down period that is ideal for synthetic fabrics, while cotton and linen should not be allowed to overheat since this will cause deep wrinkles that require more ironing to remove. When putting these items in the dryer, you can also add wool dryer balls to ensure a wrinkle-free look.
It is recommended to take items out of the dryer while still slightly damp and hang them up to finish drying in order to reduce the chances of wrinkling.
Keep Closets and Drawers Organized
Although there are no required skills to remove clothes from a dryer, taking a few extra minutes to fold them correctly as soon as they come out can save time in the long run. Leaving the clothes in a pile or basket when they are hot results in deeper wrinkles that will be more difficult to iron out later, so it is recommended that laundry is folded right away.
Folding laundry while it is warm and damp helps reduce wrinkles and makes it easier to maintain its shape while storing it away. After removing clothing and linen from the dryer, give each item a snap to remove any clinging items and begin smoothing out wrinkles.
Shirts and blouses should be hung on a hanger, and their seams, collars, cuffs, and button plackets should be pulled straight. If the shirt has become too dry, spray it with a fine mist of clean water to help relax the fibers before hand-pressing. When folding items, pull any seams or edges straight while spraying with water if needed to relax the fibers without making them too wet.
What Causes Clothes To Wrinkle?
Heat and water are the main culprits for clothes becoming wrinkled. Heat and water break down the bonds that keep the fabric in place, causing it to become misshapen and creased. When the garment is then cooled, it forms new bonds with a different shape, resulting in permanent wrinkles or creases.
Due to this process, ironing clothes can effectively remove wrinkles; however, if the heat is too high or there is too much moisture, more wrinkles may occur. Therefore, it’s important to take into account both temperature and humidity when laundering items of clothing.
Type of Fabric
Some common causes of clothing wrinkling are due to the fabric they are made out of. Various fabrics will wrinkle more than others. The common fabrics that will wrinkle more, no matter what is done, include:
- Cotton
- Linen
- Rayon
Ultimately, certain fabrics are more prone to wrinkles than others due to their highly absorbent properties. When these materials get wet, the individual fabric fibers are slightly altered, and water molecules are held together by bonds that cause new creases and wrinkles to form when the water evaporates.
This is why it's important to be careful when caring for fabrics like cotton, linen, and silk, as they tend to be more susceptible to creating wrinkles. Additionally, it's important to note that proper drying techniques can help reduce the chances of wrinkling in such fabrics as well.
Using a gentle drying technique such as air-drying or tumble-drying on a low setting ensures that the garments will continue looking their best.
Washing and Drying
Another one of the main causes of wrinkled clothes is the combination of washing and drying. When the water washes the clothes, it creates new hydrogen bonds, which create wrinkles. The heat from the dryer may remove some of those wrinkles, but if left in too long after the cycle is over, they will only become worse.
Due to this, it is important to take clothes out quickly after their cycle is complete in order to reduce wrinkling and maintain a smooth look. In addition, fabric softeners can help break down some of the bonds forming and make it easier to straighten out wrinkles with an iron or other heat source.
Being Careless After Ironing
It is important to smooth out clothes before ironing, and also to ensure that they are slightly damp. Doing these two things can help to prevent wrinkles from forming and setting in after ironing. If there are already wrinkles present, using steam or dampening the garment prior to ironing can help to increase the effectiveness of getting them out.
During Use
A very common cause of wrinkles is body heat and moisture produced by sweat. When heat or moisture comes into contact with the fabric, it causes the material to change shape and form creases.
This often occurs when wearing clothes and then sitting down, as the pressure from the furniture forces the fabric to fold, making it much easier for wrinkles to set in. By avoiding certain fabrics that are more prone to wrinkling, investing in items such as wrinkle-resistant clothing, and taking extra care when storing clothes, wearers can minimize the amount of wrinkles that appear on their garments throughout the day.
