From Hats to Scarves to Gloves: How to Clean Your Winter Accessories

The next time you schedule dry cleaning near me, you may wonder whether you can just throw your winter gear in with the rest of the clothes. It will depend on the exact item, but many scarves, gloves, and hats are machine washable. As such, you can easily add them to your wash and fold laundry near me.

But there’s more to know about caring for these items, including when they need dry cleaning instead of wash and fold service and when to wash them.

Most Items Can Go in the Washing Machine

The vast majority of winter hats, gloves, scarves, and other accessories are machine washable. You can tell whether this is the case for your items by checking the tag. If they are machine washable, just add them to the bag of clothes you give to your laundry drop off service.

Tips for Machine Washing Winter Accessories

If your winter items say they can go in the washing machine, then you should typically stick to a low-temperature setting for the drying cycle.

You Can Hand Wash Most Items

What if you don’t have enough laundry to take to your local laundry service or need to wash your hat right away? You can also hand wash most scarves, gloves, and hats.

When you hand wash these items, just fill a sink with warm water and add a bit of laundry soap, hand soap, or dish soap. Never twist or wring out your winter accessories.

It’s best to dry them by laying them on a towel. You can even roll up a scarf in a towel to speed up the drying process without affecting its form.

What Materials Need to Be Dry Cleaned

While you can machine wash or hand wash most of your winter items, there are some that will require dry cleaning services. This will depend largely on the material. If your hats or gloves are made from leather, fur, or wool, then you should definitely take them to your dry cleaning service. Getting these materials wet while washing them could cause damage.

What About Stains?

If you plan to wash your scarves, gloves, and hats yourself, then follow the same stain-treating rules you would with your other laundry. In other words, pretreat stains to ensure they come out.

When you use a wash and fold service or organic dry cleaning, be sure to point out the stains to the laundry service. They will be able to pretreat your stains. Your laundry wash and fold near me will likely glance at all of your items, including your winter accessories, but they don’t have time to thoroughly check every item. Therefore, the best way to ensure they remove a stain is to let them know it is there.

Always Check the Label

Most items that aren’t leather, fur, or wool are machine washable, but you don’t want to accidentally ruin your favorite item by taking it to your wash and fold near me when it really needs to be dry cleaned.

As with any other item, the best way to tell whether to include scarves, hats, and gloves in your dry-cleaning services or wash and fold laundry is to read the label. It will give you specific instructions, including any other restrictions your items have. When in doubt, you can also ask your drop off laundry service what they recommend.

Wash Your Winter Accessories at the End of the Season

You may decide that your hats and scarves need to be cleaned at some point during winter. This will depend on how often you wear them and how dirty they get.

But regardless of how you use your winter accessories, you should always include them in a dry cleaning pick up service before storing them. This will ensure that you remove any dirt on them, so they can be nice and clean when you pull them out next year. It also reduces the risk of mold and reduces how attractive the items seem to insects, minimizing damage.

Other Times to Wash Your Winter Accessories

Other than washing your scarves, hats, and gloves before storing them at the end of winter, washing them during winter is up to you.

Wash Them When They’re Dirty

The most obvious reason you will need to use your laundry service app to schedule pick up dry cleaning for your winter items is when they get dirty. Maybe you played in the snow with your kids and got dirt on the items. Or maybe you spilled something on them. A quick wash can typically handle these things.

Wash Them When They’re Smelly

The other big reason to wash your winter accessories before the end of the season is if they smell. They may not be visibly dirty, but they can still be stinky. Sweat will be the most likely culprit behind the stink, but there may also be another cause. No matter the reason, a run through the washing machine should take care of the smell.

Wash Them After You Sweat a Lot

Even if your scarves and hats don’t smell, it’s smart to wash them after you sweat a lot while wearing these items. After all, you wouldn’t keep wearing a shirt or pants that you sweat excessively in, would you? So, if you wear a hat on your morning jog, wash it as frequently as you wash your workout clothes.

If you go for a long, brisk walk while wearing your gloves, hat, and scarf and work up a sweat, throw them in the laundry basket.

Have Your Laundry Service Clean Your Winter Accessories

The simplest way to clean your hats, scarves, gloves, and other winter accessories is to let a local laundry delivery service handle them. They can even help you determine if the item needs to be dry cleaned and handle it appropriately.

Sources:

https://utopiacleanersboston.com/look-your-best/cleaning-winter-gloves-hats-and-scarves/

https://www.armandhammer.com/articles/how-to-wash-winter-coats-hats-gloves-scarves

https://www.wellandgood.com/how-to-wash-winter-hat-scarf-accessories/

https://speedqueen.com/washing-winter-coats-gloves-and-hats/