Make Clothes Last Longer: Washing, Drying and Storage Habits That Save Money

Clothes fail in the washer and the dryer more often than they fail in the closet. This page is about the garment, not the detergent price and not the kilowatt-hour. Those bills are already written: detergent cost per load, detergent sheets, cold-water laundry, and dryer energy. What follows is how to read a Canadian care label and which habits reduce abrasion, heat, and moth damage. The Competition Bureau's guide says care information is not mandatory. When it is provided, it must not be false or misleading and it must reflect an appropriate method of care. The Office of Consumer Affairs still publishes the symbol guide, and it notes that the national standard was withdrawn in October 2017. The chart is an example with made-up inputs.

Read care labels properly

The Competition Bureau's Guide to the Textile Labelling and Advertising Regulations says fibre-content labelling is the mandatory core for prescribed consumer textile articles: a dealer may not sell, import, or advertise those articles unless they are labelled with fibre content and dealer identification as the Act and Regulations require. Care information is different. Section 3 of that guide says care words or symbols, Canadian, ASTM, or international, are not mandatory. Where care information is provided, section 5 of the Act requires that it not be false or misleading and that it accurately reflect an appropriate method of care. Written instructions may be in English or French. Quebec has additional French-language requirements. The Bureau points readers to the Office québécois de la langue française for those. The guide also says the national standard CAN/CGSB-86.1-2003 superseded the 1991 standard, care labelling is voluntary, and the Bureau left businesses to decide whether to adopt the December 2003 standard.

The Office of Consumer Affairs guide, checked 29 Sep 2026, says its material is for information only and that the Care Labelling of Textiles national standard was withdrawn by the Canadian General Standards Board in October 2017. Five basic symbols still identify washing, bleaching, drying, ironing, and professional cleaning. Temperature appears in degrees Celsius or as dots. Bars show how severe the treatment is. Other marks cover hand washing and natural drying: dry flat, line dry, drip dry, and dry in the shade. A garment can follow an older symbol set or words. If the symbol and the words disagree, do not guess. Use the more cautious reading, or ask the seller, because a false care claim is the dealer's problem under the Act and a ruined shirt is yours.

Washing less and washing gentler: loads, bags, inside-out

Every cycle is abrasion and agitation. Wash when the garment is dirty or smells, not because the calendar says Tuesday. Full loads, not stuffed loads, let clothes move without grinding. Turn knits and printed shirts inside out so the face of the fabric is not the face that hits the machine. A mesh bag keeps straps and tights from wrapping around the agitator. This guide does not cite a price for a bag. Use one you have, or skip the purchase until you see a price you accept. Zippers closed and hooks fastened snag less. The water temperature that the symbol allows is the maximum, not a target. The cold-water guide is where the energy arithmetic lives. Do not import a cents-per-load figure from the detergent guides into this decision. A gentler cycle is a garment decision even when the energy saving is small.

Drying: air-drying vs the dryer and the effect on fabric

The consumer-affairs guide's tumble symbols include high heat not exceeding 75 degrees Celsius, medium not exceeding 65, low not exceeding 55, tumble at any heat, tumble with no heat or air only, and do not tumble dry. Natural drying on the same page includes line dry after excess water is removed, drip dry from soaking wet, dry flat, and dry in the shade as an added mark. Do not dry is used with do not wash. Heat is what shrinks some fibres, sets stains, and speeds elastic failure. If the symbol bars the dryer, air-dry. If the symbol allows low heat, low heat is the permission, not a suggestion to use high because you are late. The energy cost of the machine is the dryer guide, including whether a heat-pump dryer is worth it. This page does not recalculate that bill. Air-drying costs time and space. It does not cost a product this page priced.

Pilling, stains and odour fixes

Pilling is fibre ends that tangle on the surface. Less abrasion, which is the inside-out wash and the lower dryer heat, is the prevention this page can stand behind without a lab test. A fabric shaver can cut the pills off. Go slowly so you do not cut the cloth. Stains should be treated before heat. The dryer sets many of them. Follow the care symbol for bleach: the guide lists any bleach when needed, non-chlorine bleach only, and do not bleach. Do not upgrade a do-not-bleach mark because a bottle claims to be gentle. Odour that survives the wash the label allows is a reason to rewash once, then to stop. This guide does not cite a tested vinegar or baking-soda recipe, so it does not give one. Dry the garment fully before it goes away. Damp storage is how mildew starts.

Storage: hangers, folding knits, moths

Hang woven shirts and trousers if the shoulders are not stretching on the hanger you own. Fold knits. A hanger pulls the shoulder of a sweater into points, and the stretch does not come back in the wash. What you can do with no product is wash or dry-clean winter wool before you pack it, because moths go after soil and food residue, then keep the clean knits in a closed container in a cool, dry place, and look at them once in the season. A hole you find in October was laid earlier. The thrift guide's rule still applies: a moth-holed sweater is not a repair project unless the hole is somewhere you will actually patch.

Quick repairs: buttons, hems, small holes

A loose button and a hem that has dropped are repairs a household can do with needle and thread it already has. Match the thread colour in daylight. A small hole in a seam can be closed the same way. A hole in the middle of a knit, a broken coat zipper, or a worn-through seat is usually the end of cheap repair. This guide does not cite a tailor's price list, so it does not tell you when a shop is worth it. Compare the quote you get with the cost of a replacement you would actually buy. Activewear heat and fabric softener are in the activewear guide, because those fabrics pill and lose stretch under heat. The same dryer limits above still apply.