Some people swear you should never machine wash your jeans. Others say you shouldn’t wash them at all. But most of us toss this wardrobe staple in along with the rest of our laundry every week. Carolyn Forte, director of the Good Housekeeping Institute Cleaning Lab, says to follow this advice every three wears or so to keep your basic blue and black denim looking as new as possible.
How to Wash Jeans
New or old, you should turn jeans inside out before placing them in the washer to minimize color loss. Zip zippers and fasten flies to prevent snags too.
Then, use a detergent designed to preserve colors. “It has ingredients to help fabrics hold onto dyes and to deactivate the chlorine in the water that can fade colors,” says Forte. It’s best to wash them in cold water on one of the gentler cycles.
Leave your jeans inside out and dry them on a low temperature, but remember to separate lightweight clothes, like sheets or T-shirts, from heavyweight garments, like towels, or you guess it, denim. “If you wash heavy and light clothes together, the light clothes will dry more quickly in the dryer, so they’ll be in there too long,” says Forte. “This can damage the fibers and lead to shrinkage.” Plus, jeans will last longer if you take them out of the dryer slightly damp. Simply tug and smooth them into shape and let them finish drying flat or on a hanger.
Now that you’re all set, make sure you’re not sabotaging your hard work with these errors.
5 Common Jean Washing Mistakes
1. Washing them right side out
No matter the cycle, the very act of machine washing and drying is abrasive to fabrics, because the garments rub against each other as they tumble. To help minimize the color loss this can cause, turn jeans inside out before placing them in the washer and leave them inside out until you remove them from the dryer. Zip all zippers and fasten all buttons and snaps too.
2. Cramming too many pairs in at once
The more garments you stuff into a load, the faster you’ll get done, but the more wear and tear your fabrics will endure. Without room to move, zippers and rivets can snag and stitching can break. Your clothes should circulate or tumble freely, so they are thoroughly cleaned and dried and don’t emerge from the machines in a tangled knot.
3. Choosing the wrong cycles
The newer you want your jeans to look, the gentler you have to wash and dry them. While hand washing and line drying is safest, it’s also costly in terms of time and effort. Unless your jeans are particularly dirty, it’s best to wash them in cold water, select one of the gentler cycles and dry them at a low temperature.
4. Skipping a color-preserving detergent
Special detergents formulated to preserve dark colors really do work. They have ingredients to help fabrics hold onto dyes and to deactivate the chlorine in the water that can fade colors. If you want to keep your dark jeans dark, it’s worth investing in a special detergent. We recommend Woolite Darks Liquid Laundry Detergent.
5. Leaving them in the dryer too long
Fabrics shrink when left in the dryer too long and get over-dried. That’s why jeans will last longer when you take them out of the dryer slightly damp. Simply tug and smooth them into shape and let them finish drying flat or on a hanger. If, even after tumbling on low heat and a delicate cycle, you see lots of lint on the dryer’s filter, you may want to switch to line drying your jeans to help preserve the fabric.
