Washing your clothes after each use is often more about habit than hygiene, and quite frankly mostly it isn’t necessary. In fact, washing less slows down the fading of color and ageing of your garment in general. Many garments just need to be aired and shaken out properly to be good for another wear. And many stains can be spot treated. It’s not unhygienic, it’s responsible takes the load off both the laundry basket and your wallet.

Different garments have different requirements and your laundry should be sorted accordingly. At least, you need to sort by color but we recommend you also sort them by type (workwear vs more delicate garments) or temperature (warm vs cold). A good tip is to make sure that the garments doesn’t hurt each other in the machine, empty pockets, close zippers and make sure to not wash colored new garments for the first time together with lighter colours.

Thanks to modern day washing machines and detergents you no longer need to boil your laundry. A lower temperature still gets the job done, while putting less stress on your clothing and the environment. We’re not saying everything should be washed at 30C (cold), leave your underwear and bedsheets for instance, but most of it.

If you get a stain on your garment, spot treat it immediately. Natural materials such as cotton, linen and wool generally absorb a lot which means that the longer you wait , the harder it gets to eliminate the stain. Unfortunately, there’s no universal treatment so make sure to read up on the best way to treat your particular stain and garment. Check out our Stain Guides for some tried and tested recommendations for some of the most common and tricky stains you may encounter.

Skipping the dryer is probably the most significant choice both in terms of doing the environment a favour and keeping your garments in good shape. Air drying is always the better option. But do make sure to dry your laundry immediately and don’t leave wet clothes in the machine since it will wrinkle and may eventually cause mold and mildew.

We don't recommend dry-cleaning any of our garments, except our outerwear that should be dry-cleaned only due to the different insulation materials in the lining of the coats. The coats are preferably aired and any stains can be spot treated at home. By doing this you don’t have to wash the whole garment just for one little stain, which saves both energy and the material. But depending on your usage, the time might come for a dry clean. Traditional dry-cleaning is unfortunately not that sustainable, and most dry-cleaners use the chemical Perc, which causes health issues and contributes to air pollution. Therefore when going to a dry-cleaner, be sure to ask if they use Perc, hydrocarbons or D-5 cleaners and ask them to use other methods available for the dry-cleaning or, even better, opt for green or ecological dry-cleaners that use CO2 or water as the primary solvent. If possible, bring a reusable dry cleaning bag or ask your cleaner to simply skip the plastic. Also remember to bring back your hangers to the dry cleaner to recycle.

Follow the care label symbols and instructions carefully, they’ve been designed to keep your clothes in great shape while not pressuring the environment too heavily.

Needless to say putting a single t-shirt through a full program of multiple cycles is a waste of both water and energy. So unless it is an emergency, wait until you have enough to fill a full machine. But don’t wait too long, as you don’t want to overfill your machine. Heavy loads cause friction which wears clothes out faster and may also result in the garments being poorly washed.