Cleaning Polyester Clothes

Polyester is one of the most widely used fabrics in today's world. Unfortunately, though, it is one of the more difficult types of fabric to care for. Many people say that you should avoid using a machine to wash this fabric, advising that the proper care entails either hand washing or taking the clothing to a professional cleaner. By following these simple techniques your fabric is going to be safe and clean.

To ensure that no snags or snares form on the material, you want to turn the garment inside out. While this may not actually prevent any from occurring, it does significantly reduce the possibility of ruining the outside of the garment—the most noticeable portion of any article of clothing.

In the event that your polyester clothing is white, you may wish to pre-treat the fabric in the following manner: Soak the material in a solution made up of a half cup of dishwashing detergent and one gallon of warm water. Leave the fabric to soak overnight, and in the morning wash the garment (as described shortly) with only one added step—add a half cup of white vinegar to the final rinse cycle.

Machine wash polyester garments in warm water using an all-purpose detergent. You can also use chlorine bleach, if necessary. Just ensure that you do not use too much, as this will eat away at any cloth that is placed in too much of it. Also, in order to reduce the amount of static cling, feel free to use fabric softener.

For drying purposes, use low temperature tumble dry only. You do not want to over dry your garment, as this may cause or lead to "shrinkage" over time. Shrinkage is what gives some older polyester garments that wrinkled appearance that does not come out in any pressing or ironing of the garment.

Finally, to remove any resulting normal wrinkles you have two options. The first is that you can press or iron the garment with a moderate temperature only. Or you can try steaming the garment. For steaming you may either hang the garment over hot steaming water in the bathtub, or you can purchase one of those garment steamers that can be purchased at any local department store. Since the price for one of these useful gadgets is between $45.00 and $145.00 depending on the model purchased, it may be more economical to use the bathtub method mentioned earlier.