Cleaning fabrics and clothes with and without water

When you have a dirty fabric or a soiled clothing, the first instinct is to drop it into a washing machine and forget about it. But, do you know that there are many other methods to clean fabric and clothes?  Some of the best and safest ways for cleaning clothes and fabric include methods that do not require the use of water, like vacuuming, scraping, sponging, brushing, blotting, freezing and sanding

Do not forget to check the care label of your clothing to know what method of cleaning suits it the best. Check out the post describing and explaining all the care labels or laundry washing-symbols you will find in clothes.

1.Vacuuming

As you know, a vacuum sucks out dirt and dust – if you have a handy vacuum, you can use it to suction out dried dirt without spreading it to other places.

If your clothing has a little dirt that can be removed with your vacuum, forget tossing it into the washing pile. Sofas, curtains, carpets, etc., are regularly vacuumed to remove dirt.

Vacuuming before washing also prevents the rubbing of dirt particles further into non-dirty areas.

2. Scraping

This method uses a sharp object to scrape the dirt from the fabric’s surface. Scraping is useful when some material has dried out on the fabric surface and needs some pressure.

Maybe that dried cream needs only scraping, and you can wear the clothing one more time without laundering.

3. Brushing

The fabric surface is cleaned using a fabric brush. Helpful with napped fabrics. Small dust is brushed out easily this way. If you have dried out thick mud on fabric, you can use hard brushes. (Just ensure that the hard bristles do not damage the fabric fibers)

4. Sponging

Sponging involves cleaning the surface of the fabric with a clean cloth. The cloth is used to dab the dirt from the fabric. This method is used when you would rather not immerse the fabric in water.

5. Blotting

Sometimes you want a spot clean of a stain on the fabric surface – and you do not want the dirt or stain to spread to neighboring areas. Here a clean cloth is used to blot the spot.

Sometimes detergent is used on the spot and then blotted again.

You can use stain removers to blot the stain – Check out this post on Best stain removers for some quick home remedies for stains.

Coffee, blood, wine spills, etc., are blotted before any other method of cleaning is used.

6. Flushing

Some dirt/stain requires forceful pressure of running water to remove them- you can flush water forcefully on to the spot with the dirt. 

7. Freezing

8. Sanding

Use the finest of sand papers in the range of 3000s to 10000s to sand the surface of the clothes very delicately.

Be cautious in using grittier sand papers ; they can potentially damage clothes, particularly if it is done aggressively or on delicate fabrics. 

9. Machine Laundering and Hand washing

Laundering is another term used for cleaning fabrics with water in washing machines. Cleaning with water is the best method to remove water-soluble soils like body fluids (sweat), salts, or sugars. And to remove sizing from fabric before sewing. 

Most of us presoak the clothes beforehand in water and detergent solution to thoroughly remove dirt. I prefer a phosphate-free, biodegradable detergent.

You can get your clothes professionally laundered at shops that specialize in cleaning clothes.

Garments are sorted according to their color, dirt present, fabric type, and composition, garment construction and trimmings used etc., and then washed in cycles, befitting them. The garments are then rinsed, dried in a machine dryer, or hung dry and finished.

This is Wet cleaning by hand washing of clothes. Delicate clothes, garments with special construction, trimmings etc., cannot be machine washed but they can be carefully hand washed so that the fabric is preserved in its original form.

For some fabric types, hand washing is recommended, as they will get damaged by the tumble action in a washing machine. There is something called over cleaning of clothes. I am also guilty of this. But it can mean a short lifespan for your favorite clothing.

10. Dry cleaning 

Dry cleaning involves cleaning clothes with solvent. Some fabrics/clothes are damaged if you use water to clean them – there may be shrinkage, damage to fibers, a difference in texture, change in appearance and feel, etc. The option of using perchloroethylene or petroleum solvents to clean the clothes (dry cleaning) is said to be the solution to these problems.

Which clothes should be drycleaned?

Wool, linen, silk, and rayon are fabrics best dry-cleaned. Some old oil-based stains, grease, etc., are best removed from fabric with dry cleaning. Regular clothing items like suits, jackets, or blouses should be dry cleaned after several wears to clean them thorougly.