How to Unshrink Clothes

Dryers are a great invention, one that saves us a lot of time when it comes to our laundry. But every once in a while, dryers come with some disadvantages like perpetual lost socks and the shrinking of clothes. While there’s nothing to be done for your socks being eaten by the dryer, if you’ve managed to shrink your clothes by accident, you should be able to save most of them by doing the below.

Repairing the damage to shrunken clothing items is actually quite easy. Just follow the three directions below, and you should be able to unshrink the majority of clothing.

1. Soak for 30 minutes in lukewarm water with a single capful of laundry detergent, baby shampoo, or even hair conditioner.

2. After a half-hour, remove the item from the water BUT do not rinse! Simply squeeze out the water from your clothing item until damp, not wet. Rolling your item up in a towel and squeezing it should make this process a bit faster.

3. Finally, lay your item out and gently pull it back to the size it should be, then let air dry.

Prefer not shrinking anything in the first place? Here are a few tips that should help out.

1. Air drying is, of course, the easiest way to go about not shrinking things. One thing to know about air drying, though, is that you should lay flat lighter materials and hang up heavier ones (such as jeans). Also, when hanging dry, make sure your fabric is sturdy; since wet fabrics are heavier, you run the risk of rips or tears if your material isn’t sturdy enough.

2. When it comes to cotton, not only will air drying negate the risk of shrinkage but lowering the temperature of the water in your washing machine should also help.

Use these tips, and hopefully, you’ll never have to throw out a tiny sweater again! Now, if only someone could figure out where all those socks keep going…

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