How to wash jeans and other denim items – and what to avoid

Taking care of your jeans and denim items properly will help maintain their color, shape, and overall quality for years.

Washing jeans and other denim items might seem pretty straightforward, but there are a few useful tricks to keep them looking great and lasting longer.

We’ve asked laundry and cleaning experts to shed some light on how to protect your jeans and other denim items when doing laundry so you can keep wearing them without issues.

1. Don't wash too often

If you notice your jeans are starting to fade, it's because denim is one of those items you are washing too frequently. Washing jeans too often can cause them to fade, shrink, and wear out prematurely.

Instead of fully washing your jeans and other denim, spot-blot stains with a slightly damp cloth, or rub a small amount of Arm & Hammer Liquid Detergent from Walmart into the stain. If they're only a little musty, hang them outside so they can air in a fresh breeze and remove odors.

Head of solved at Homes & Gardens Punteha van Terheyden worked in a denim store for years. She says, 'Hanging jeans out of a window or airing outside for a few hours was a common trick we shared with customers to keep their expensive Diesel and Levi jeans in the best shape for longer.'

You can also kill odor-causing bacteria on your jeans without affecting the fabric or its color by putting your denim item in a sealed plastic bag and storing a freezer overnight. It won't remove oils or dirt but is a great in-between step when you're dealing with musty smells or odor on your denim but want to avoid excessive washing.

2. Use vinegar for color preservation

White vinegar from Amazon can also be used to restore your jeans and denim. It sets the dye without any artificial chemicals, preventing it from fading off, especially with raw or dark wash denim. Simply add ½ cup of white vinegar to the final cycle during the wash, which will help retain the color while naturally softening up the fabric.

‘Vinegar works amazingly well at preventing stiff denim after line-drying,’ says cleaning expert Robert Shapiro. ‘For really stubborn stains or smells, you can soak your jeans in cold water mixed with one cup of vinegar for about an hour, then rinse with clean water.’

The acid from the vinegar does two things: it locks the color and kills bacteria that cause odors, so your jeans are fresh, clean and chemical-free, without exposing fibers to those weakening agents.

Robert Shapiro

Robert Shapiro is a Laundry Specialist and the General Manager at Milt & Edie's Drycleaners & Tailoring Center in Burbank, California. With more than a decade of experience, he specializes in dry cleaning, stain removal, tailoring, alterations, and green and eco-friendly cleaning processes. Robert has also been featured in publications such as Cleaner and Launderer magazine.

3. Choose the right machine settings

The secret to machine-washing denim is to be gentle with it. Run the delicate or hand-wash cycle on your machine. Cold water is a necessity; it reduces friction and shrinkage, which then helps to avoid the denim from wearing thin or becoming too tight on the body.

Cold water not only saves energy, but it's also crucial for preserving stretch and fit in your jeans, making it one the best washing machine settings for washing denim. Cold water minimizes fading and shrinkage, but denim is very susceptible to these, so cold water is important for making your jeans look new.

H&G Solved editor, Punteha, who worked in a denim shop for years, adds, 'The very first wash of a denim item you do at home is particularly important. Some leading brands such as Levi's 'pre-shrink' their garments before sale, meaning the item is washed in heat or other conditions to encourage the denim to do its shrinking before it reaches the customer and usually affected the waist size and inner leg length most dramatically.

'This ensures the fit you try on in store is the fit you will retain after you wash it. However, not all brands do this so washing your denim items on a cold, gentle wash the first time you put them in the washing machine at home will help reduce shrinkage. Once you shrink it, you won't be able to undo it.'

remember to always wash your jeans inside out to protect the outer fabric from washing friction and to retain its color.

4. Choose the right detergent

Most regular detergents are too harsh on denim and may strip away its dye over time, weakening its fibers in the process. Specialized detergents, such as Woolite Darks Defense Liquid Laundry Detergent from Amazon, will do the trick since they clean while preserving the color and integrity of the fabric.

Specialized detergents typically have a lower pH and with fewer harsh surfactants, which means that your jeans will not lose their shape and color as quickly. Don't use bleach or detergent with brighteners, since they will fade the really deep tones in a good dark-wash jean. A good detergent for dark clothes is designed to keep that richness intact.

5. Air-dry over machine dry

Denim doesn't take heat very well, so never dry your jeans in a dryer. If you do dry them in a dryer you may end up shrinking the material, weakening the fibers, and causing it to fade.

‘For the best results, lay your jeans flat on a clean, dry surface, and iron out any wrinkles or folds,’ says cleaning specialist Rocky Vuong. ‘This way, the denim holds out without creases and distortion. Otherwise, you can hang them upside down on a hanger from the waistband. This prevents stretching in all the wrong places and retains crispness.’

Punteha adds, 'The only time I put my denim in on a tumble dry is when wearing them has made them loose or baggier than desired. This is usually the case with my stretch denim items, but even then, I do not dry them completely in the machine, instead putting them in the dryer for 30 minutes, and letting them air dry in the house.'

She says the 30 minutes in the dryer gets the bulk of the moisture out, as well as killing any lingering bacteria from the cold wash, meaning when it air dries, it doesn't end up smelling musty because the thick material took so long to dry.

Rocky Vuong

Serial entrepreneur in the cleaning industry. Founder and owner of Neatbrite cleaning services in Dallas, Texas as well as Calibre Cleaning, one of Australia's largest house cleaning companies.

FAQs

How often should jeans be washed?

A good rule to live by is to wash your jeans after every 3-10 wears, or when they start to smell. It also depends on what you do when wearing them that may affect how often they need to be washed.

Whenever you are washing jeans and other denim, don't wash them with other heavy items such as towels or heavy blankets as this will cause too much friction and wear on the fabric.

It’s also important to remember that you should not use fabric softeners on your jeans. Fabric softeners leave behind a residue that can give your denim a soft, almost slippery feel. This weakens the fibers, and even shortens the lifetime of your denim.