The correct care of our eco-friendly garments helps to extend their useful life, maintains the properties of the fabrics in the long run and, at the same time, continues to generate less environmental impact.
Carrying out this care is not as difficult as it might seem at first, we just have to take into account a series of tips or steps to follow when washing these garments and better understand these materials to continue adding value to our purchases.
WHAT EXACTLY IS ORGANIC COTTON AND HOW IS IT CULTIVATED?
The objective of organic agriculture is to make optimal and sustainable use of local natural resources, not allowing the use of chemical fertilizers, herbicides, synthetic pesticides and genetically modified seeds, although external inputs that are ecological can be used. To cultivate it, natural practices such as crop rotation or animal fertilizers are used instead of artificial fertilizers, and in pest control, 100% biological methods such as autochthonous or insects are used. Its collection is manual.
Most of the garments that we have designed by debutànt are made of organic cotton (although we have started to incorporate recycled polyester and eco-viscose which we will talk about in other posts), for that reason, once we know its main characteristics, we are going to give you a small list of steps for proper care:
1.- Before starting, is it really necessary to wash this garment right now?
On many occasions, if our garment does not have stains or we have not used it much, surely ventilating it correctly is more than enough to use it a new day. The less we wash clothes, the more we will extend the properties of the fabrics and their useful life.
2.- Read the interior labeling:
Many times when purchasing a garment, we are tempted to immediately cut these inner labels to avoid chafing. Remember that it is essential to read the specific washing recommendations of each of them very well before, so as not to get unpleasant surprises later.
Labels should state advice on washing, drying, dry cleaning, ironing, and bleach. In this guide we are going to remember the main meanings and symbols:
3.- Pretreat stains by hand:
If your garment has stains, treat them first by hand. For this you can use soap for delicates, warm water and a basin. At this point you decide if rinsing it would be ready or it still needs to go through the washing machine. To dry, we can put them on a towel or hang them outside, avoiding the use of the dryer at all costs.
4.- Select the clothes well:
As always, we will avoid mixing white clothes, with dark clothes and with colored clothes. To this selection we must add a more detailed one: delicate garments and more resistant garments (depending on the fabrics). In this way we will avoid mixing our organic cotton garments with jeans, for example, since the hardness of this fabric together with its buttons and zippers could pierce our garments inside the washing machine.
5.- Turn it over!
It is advisable to wash the garments inside out to better preserve their colors, avoid that something fades and stains the visible part of it (although if we did the previous step correctly, this risk is reduced) and to keep the serigraphs and prints intact.
6.- Detergent: less is more.
This is a vital maxim that we follow in debutànt, but in this case it is essential to use the detergent in its proper measure so that the garments do not come out stiff and caked and in addition, it is advisable to use natural detergents and soaps, delicate with clothes and also with environment; this way the waste from our laundry will be less harmful.
7.- Efficient appliances:
As far as possible, the ideal is to use class A ++ washing machines because they use less energy and are more efficient. So, this is a fact to take into account only if we find ourselves in the need to buy a new one. It is also very useful to consult with our electric company which time slot is the most profitable to start the household appliances.
8.- Look for balance:
We have to take advantage of the space and the filling kilos of our washing machines, but without overloading them so as not to waste extra energy and so that the washing is efficient.
9.- Avoid using a dryer:
We already told you before. Drying in the open air is recommended, although be careful! Be careful not to expose our clothes directly to the sun because it could eat away the colors.
10.- Iron a little, it tends better:
If we hang the clothes correctly, in many cases it will not be necessary to iron them (it is also important not to leave wet clothes in the washing machine for too long because it can deteriorate and wrinkle much more). If we do not iron, we will save energy, time and our clothes will suffer less. If using the iron is unavoidable, always do it with the garment inside out and with a damp cloth on top (this would be ideal).
The last tip we give you is to put a little bit of natural lavender in your cabinets and drawers. In addition to smelling super good, it will prevent your clothes, especially those made with natural fibers, from being damaged by gluttonous bugs of natural fibers such as moths.This will keep them at bay!