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I have a pantsuit that doesn’t quite fit that I’ve held onto for years, and someone needed to borrow it so it was time to investigate how to refresh clothes that have been sitting around for too long.
The main problems with this suit were that it had collected dust, it had a little bit of dirt at the cuffs (my daughter last wore it when it was way too big for her) and the pants had deep creases where they had been folded for years.
It’s a dry clean only suit and I didn’t really have time or inclination to take it to the cleaners, so here’s what I did, plus some tips for other problems you might need to fix when bringing clothes out of hibernation.
How to Remove Dust from Clothes
The first thing I dealt with was the dust, which was on the shoulders of the jacket and several places on the pants because of how they were folded.
Here the Internet came to my rescue by suggesting using a microfiber cloth to remove the dust. This actually worked really well because the nubs of the cloth grab onto the dust but don’t mess with the fiber of the garment. Mine did drop a little fuzz, though, so be aware of that.
You can also use a lint roller to pull up the dust, or to grab any fuzzies left from the cloth. A lint roller is also great to use if your clothes have collected hair or fuzz from other garments.
Dirt and Stain Removal
A key step in how to refresh clothes that have been sitting around a long time might be stain removal, either because they were put away not quite clean or they picked something up in storage.
Along the cuffs of the pants there was a little bit of dirt, which I was able to take care of pretty well just with a wet washcloth.
If you have more difficult stains and they are old, you will need to try a spot treatment that is safe for the kind of fabric you have and the treatment it can tolerate.
These may not be things you already have on hand, but if you have time to shop you can try Dryel Dry Clean Safe Stain Remover Pen (which is like a Tide pen for dry-clean-only clothes) or the Janie Dry Stick, which is great for oily stains (but do not use on wool, cashmere or other animal fibers).
There were also some threads coming loose from the bottom hem of the pants. Since the hem itself still looked fine, I just trimmed these with scissors. Now would be a good time to sew on any buttons that are lost or loose and get rid of loose threads or other little issues you need to deal with.
Refreshing in the Dryer
The next thing I did was to try an air fluff in the dryer to see if that did anything for the creases. It didn’t, but if you have a dryer handy it’s a nice way to freshen up clothes that have been sitting around too long.
For things that aren’t dry clean only, you could also spritz them with a little water before you put them in the dryer, which might make de-wrinkling more effective.
If you don’t have a dryer handy a spray like Downy Wrinkle Releaser works both to smooth out the creases and make it smell a little fresher. These come in different scents so you can pick one you like. I have heard this is safe to use on dry clean only products.
I have not done this but you could also try an essential oil spray like my DIY room spray on your clothes that need refreshing. If you do this please test first by spraying a tiny bit on the inside/back/somewhere it won’t matter if it stains. (Essential oils that are naturally dark in color may stain, and it’s possible water would spot a little on delicate fabrics.)
How to Refresh Clothes with a Steamer or Iron
Finally I needed to deal with those deep fold marks on the pants and wrinkles more generally. I started out with my regular iron, but it clearly needs cleaning because it was spitting out white residue (which is calcium) when I tried to use the steam feature. Stay tuned for a post on cleaning irons I guess!
I hardly ever use it but I do own a clothing steamer, so that’s what I ended up using. Mine is a Rowenta that’s absurdly old, but this one looks the closest to that model that they currently make. Handheld ones are easy to use and great if you’re not going to need it very often.
Check the manual for your particular model as to whether the device should directly touch your garment or if you just shoot the steam at it and smooth. Mine has a brush sort of attachment so the bristles touch the fabric as the steam goes through.
It’s not perfect but it’s much harder to see the fold lines now, and it worked on some of the other wrinkles as well. I might go ahead and either do another pass with the steamer or do a light ironing to get them looking a little better, but honestly I’m pretty happy
If You Want to Go the Extra Mile (or You’re Kind of Lazy)
The stain removal would still need to be done, but you can take care of most of the rest of the steps of how to refresh clothes by using an at-home dry cleaning kit. This can be done without a washing machine but it does require a clothes dryer.
I have used Dryel before, but there’s also a Woolite product for this purpose. The version of Dryel linked there uses a bag and you spray the product on the clothes, put them in the bag and activate the spray in the dryer. The Woolite version is a sheet like a dryer sheet but it has the wrinkle releasing and freshening stuff on it already. There’s a new version of Dryel that includes sheets and doesn’t require the bag, but I have the old version.
This can take care of cleaning, refreshing and wrinkles all in one step, which is great if you’re at home and have a little time, but if you want to do a less aggressive approach, or you don’t have dry cleaning sheets handy, these steps for how to refresh clothes will get your garments in better shape, too, it just takes a little longer.
Do you have any tips for refreshing old clothes? I’d love to hear them!
