How to Care for your Lingerie

If you just received some sexy lingerie from your man, at some point in time you will have to learn how to care for the lingerie so that it does not wind up becoming a one-hit wonder (unless he got you disposable lingerie.) Most lingerie need special care so that they will last you for years. This type of special care falls into two categories which are a) washing the lingerie; and b) storing the lingerie.

When you have to wash your lingerie, bear in mind that these are very delicate undergarments that require gentle washing only. This means that you shouldn't chuck your lingerie in the washing machine along with the regular wash - this will just leave you with shredded tissue-paper like cloth on your hands and an irritated male partner to deal with. To wash your lingerie well, you should simply run regular tap water into a basin, use a mild shampoo into the water, stir it a bit to mix shampoo and water together, then let your lingerie soak in there for awhile. After around 10 minutes, you can mildly scrub your lingerie especially in the areas that have been soiled more (like in the crotch area of your panties.) Rinse the clothing well in regular clean tap water until all the shampoo has been removed then hang up your lingerie to dry on a clothes hanger or on a clothesline. This is the best way to wash lingerie.

Some women like to use the delicate or gentle cycle on their washing machine but you need to be careful because if you've never washed lingerie in a washing machine before you might wind up wrecking your expensive yet delicate lingerie in the process.

As with all types of washing, you need to bear in mind too that like-colored clothing like lingerie have to be washed together. This means not mixing your white lingerie with red lingerie, for instance. You probably know what will happen if you mix different-colored lingerie with each other – the light-colored ones will become a murky God-knows-what type of color because the reds and the blacks might bleed their color into the shampoo water solution. Since you want to preserve your lingerie, just sort your lingerie into same-colored piles before washing and you're good to go.

Another reason why it is not advisable to pop your lingerie into a washing machine is because the lingerie may have hooks, buttons and fastenings that may snag on other pieces of clothing in the wash. If one piece of lingerie catches on another piece of lingerie, the washing action of the washing machine may rip apart your lingerie and you will be just one sorry person when you see what happened afterwards. People are still smarter than machines so you just need to be a little patient when it comes to washing lingerie to prevent accidents from happening.

When you are drying out your newly-washed lingerie, try to dry them out in an airy place that is not hit directly by sunlight. Direct sunlight will make your lingerie fade easily.

When the lingerie has dried completely (air-dried is the more proper term for this), you can now sort your lingerie for proper storage in your closet and dresser drawers. You might want to hang up certain lingerie on good snag-free hangers so that they retain their shape. This is good for corsets which cannot be folded because of their boning. Other types of lingerie that can be folded may be stored in a drawer. If you like, you can store your lingerie with some pouches of potpourri so that your lingerie smell fresh and clean when you put them on again.