If you’ve ever picked up a beloved hoodie or t-shirt only to find little balls of fluff all over it, you’re familiar with the concept of pilling. Pilling is what happens when your clothing ages, especially clothing which you wear often. This is because pilling has a direct correlation to how often you wear each piece of clothing. At Dependable Cleaners, we want you to feel confident about how to take the best care of your clothing, old or new.
Related: 7 Laundry Hacks You Need to Know
Here’s all you need to know about pilling on clothes, and how to prevent it.
What Causes Pilling on Clothing?
So what causes pilling on clothing in the first place? In a nutshell, pilling happens on clothing due to abrasion. In other words, the more well-worn your clothing is, the more likely it is to pill. Pills—the little balls that appear on your clothes—are a result of little fibers which have broken off from the rest of the garment, and have tangled together to become a little ball.
These nubs of fluff might seem harmless, but they’re a good indication that the overall quality of the clothing item is beginning to diminish. That’s why you’ll want to take care of them as soon as they start to appear. But how?
What To Do When Your Clothes Start To Pill
When you find that your clothing has started to pill, there are a few ways to effectively address the problem.
Manual Pill Removal
There are plenty of ways to remove fabric pills from your clothing manually. Perhaps the simplest manner of manual pill removal is to purchase a pill remover. Also called a fabric shaver, this tool is designed to remove fabric pills using a rotating, covered blade that essentially shaves the pills off of a shirt, sweater, or other garments. Otherwise, you can carefully, individually snip off each pill with a pair of scissors.
Changing Laundry Detergent
Sometimes, your laundry detergent might be the issue. You can try switching to a cellulase enzyme-based laundry detergent—this kind of detergent helps break up knots and tangles like the ones that help form pills on clothing. Just be careful—some clothing, like silk or wool, does not respond well to enzyme-based laundry detergent.
Changing the Way You Clean Your Clothes
If you’d really like to make a difference in how your clothing is preserved over time, we highly recommend switching to professional laundry services. Rather than addressing issues like clothing pilling as it happens, wouldn’t you rather avoid the headache altogether by improving your overall clothing maintenance plan?
Read more: Does Dry Cleaning Damage Your Clothes?
How Professional Laundry Services Can Reduce Pilling
By entrusting your clothing to professional laundry experts, you can be sure that each wash of your clothing is causing as little damage as possible. Put simply, having the benefit of expert launderers on your side means that all of your clothes will last longer, look better, and maintain their quality over time.
No matter what your laundry needs, our knowledgeable, friendly team of laundry experts at Dependable Cleaners is here to help you tackle even the toughest of clothing care issues. Stop by one of our amazing Dependable Cleaners locations in Colorado and see how our team can improve your laundry experience!
