It’s a tale as old as time: you have just bought a nice new sweater, and after only one wash, the whole sweater is full of fluff. This beautiful new sweater suddenly looks like you’ve been wearing it non-stop for three years. Lint is horribly annoying, and it’s also known as pills. How can you remove these fluff from your clothes, or even better: how can you prevent his from happening?!
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Pilling- what exactly is it?
The lint or pills on your clothes are caused by the friction of the fabric. The fibres of the fabric are wrapped around each other on the surface, as it were, and this causes the small fluff to form. This happens both during the wearing of the clothing and during the washing. During the wearing of clothing, pills occur especially in places where there is a lot of friction: under the armpits, on the elbows, in the neck and on the seat (e.g. dresses and skirts).
During the washing, but also during the drying, of clothing there is a lot of friction because during this process the clothing is turned around countless times. In addition, a garment in the washing machine or dryer can also rub past sharp objects, such as the zipper of a pair of trousers. Whether or not your garment will pills is not so much a matter of the quality of the garment, but of the material. Some fabrics are more sensitive to pills than others. Wool is the most sensitive to pills, but acrylic, polyester and viscose are also ‘fluff-sensitive’ fabrics.
Removing fluff from your clothes
The little fluff on your clothes is very annoying. They make a garment look old and unkempt, while you may have just bought it. It’s a shame, of course, but the fluff doesn’t mean you have to throw away your garment right away.
You can of course take your clothes to the dry cleaner to have the fluff removed, but there are also a number of ways to remove the fluff from your clothes yourself! To help you make your favourite garment lint free again, we have listed the best methods for you.
With a fluff clipper
Apparently a lot of people suffer from these annoying pills, because a special device has even been invented to remove the fluff from your clothes: the fluffy one! The fluff thief is also known as a plunger or a fluff clipper. With this handy device you can shave off the fluff from your clothing. Because there is a protective cap for the blades, the risk of holes is minimal. It is important, however, that you place your clothing on a flat surface and that you do not press too hard on the fabric with the lint thief. As far as we are concerned, this is an ideal invention!
With a fluffy brush
A lint brush is somewhat similar to a clothes roller: both are made to remove lint and hairs from your clothes. However, a clothes roller is often a roller with a kind of adhesive tape around it, to which the hairs and lint stick. A lint brush is a brush with a velvet piece of fabric to which the bristles and lint adhere. Always brush the same side over your garment to remove the fluff.
When you’re done, you can easily clean the lint brush by moving your hand across the brush in the opposite direction. This makes it easy for the fluff to come off the brush. A fluffy brush is effective for fluff that is already loose, but because pills are often still attached to clothing, a fluffy brush doesn’t always work very well for removing pills.
With a razor blade
It may sound a little scary to try to get to grips with your clothes with a razor, but it does work! With a disposable knife, you can easily remove the fluff from your clothes. By using a razor blade very carefully over your sweater, dress or other garment, you can shave off the fluff. Make sure your garment is on a flat surface and pull the garment slightly tight, so you can easily go over it with the knife. After this shave, your clothes will be as good as new!
Tip: If you think shaving is a bit risky, use a blunter razor first to reduce the risk of holes!
With a shoe brush
You may be familiar with the rubber shoe brushes that can be used to treat suede shoes. These brushes can also be used to remove lint from your clothes. By brushing over your clothes with this brush, you can brush off the lint. Make sure you brush in one direction.
With a pumice stone and a clothes roller
Pumice stone
(Source)
Another method of removing lint from your clothing, which does not require a knife, is to treat your clothing with a pumice stone. Although a pumice stone can be used to remove lint from your clothes, it is important to treat your clothes with a pumice stone.
Although a pumice stone is generally used to remove calluses, it is also very suitable for removing lint from your clothing. Rub a pumice stone over the areas where pills have formed and then treat your garment with a roller. You will notice that a large part of your fluff disappears like snow in the sun.
With nail scissors
If there are only a few pills on your garment, you can also remove them with nail scissors. Pull the pills up and carefully cut them off. This is also possible with normal scissors, but then there is a chance that you will damage the garment. A pair of nail scissors is smaller and usually a little less sharp, so this reduces the risk of cutting into your clothes. However, if there are a lot of pills on your clothes, it is not recommended to cut them one by one.
Preventing fluff on your clothes
Prevention is always better than cure! After reading the above tips, you can remove fluff from your clothes as the best, but of course you want to keep your clothes beautiful for as long as possible. It’s almost impossible to have fluff all over your clothes, but there are a few things you can do to significantly reduce the pills. With the tips below, you can prevent a large part of the fluff on your clothes.
Follow the washing label
Washing label
It sounds so logical, yet we don’t always do it: follow the washing instructions. You may find yourself washing a garment a little too hot, or throwing it in the dryer when the label says it shouldn’t be. And you’re not the only one, you know! However, it is of course best to wash garments according to the instructions so that they remain beautiful for as long as possible. After all, such a label is not in it for nothing …
Wash your clothes inside out
The pills on garments are caused by friction, which takes place during washing, among other things. By washing your clothes inside out, you will not remove this friction, but you will make sure that the inside of your garments rubs against each other.
There are still pills, but on the inside of the clothing. This is not as bad as on the outside – after all, the inside of your garments won’t see anyone when you’re wearing them.
Choose the right wash programme
Washing programme
This tip sounds very logical, but it doesn’t always happen. Using the right washing programme for your clothes is important to prevent lint on your clothes. Make sure, for example, that you always wash woollen garments in the wool washing programme. This can help to reduce the build-up of lint.
Use a special laundry bag
Garments that are particularly sensitive to pills should not be washed together with garments that have ‘sharp’ objects, such as a zipper, on them. Even better is to wash the lint sensitive clothing in a special laundry bag. By washing the clothing in a laundry bag, you prevent the lint-sensitive clothing from rubbing unnecessarily against other garments. This prevents the formation of pills.
Dry your clothing to the (outside) air
Clothesline
We mentioned it before: the dryer is not ideal for clothes that are ‘lint sensitive’. The countless revolutions that the clothes make in the dryer cause an enormous amount of friction – and friction causes pills. Therefore, to prevent lint on your clothes, it is better to let your clothes dry in the (outdoor) air. If you hang your clothes outside in the summer in the sun, they will be dry in no time!
In the winter it can sometimes take a little longer for your clothes to dry – hang them indoors in the winter rather than outdoors of course – but it’s well worth the wait. This way, your clothes will stay a lot more beautiful. And what do you prefer: clothing that dries quickly but looks unkempt, or clothing that dries a little slower but still looks like new?
Tip: Would you still like to dry your clothes in the dryer? Then put lint-sensitive clothing in a laundry bag so that you can reduce friction with other garments as much as possible.
Put woollen clothing in the freezer overnight.
Strange but true: by putting your new woollen sweater in the freezer for the night, less fluff will be produced. Put your sweater in a resealable bag and put it in the freezer for the night. This reduces the risk of pills! Unfortunately, however, this is not a permanent solution, but it does help for a while. In addition, a wool sweater is also less static. Two birds with one stone!
Although it is almost impossible to prevent the pilling of clothing completely, you now know what you can do to prevent it as much as possible. And even if the damage has already been done, these tips will allow you to quickly and easily remove the fluff from your clothes!
Do you have a good tip for removing or preventing
