Machine wash cold with like colors: Washing your apparel in cold water reduces shrinking, fading and wrinkles. Never leave wet clothes sitting in the washing machine or anywhere else. As soon as the wash cycle is done, you should always hang the load or transfer them immediately to the dryer. Once the smell of mold sets in, you can never get rid of it.
Do not use fabric softener: Fabric softener is ok for 100% cotton but is harmful to any synthetic fabrics. Polyester, Rayon, Spandex and most other modern fabrics are manufactured for moisture management. Fabric softener adds oils to the fibers which not only breaks them down but it also causes printing such as vinyl and screen printing to crack and peel.
Do not use bleach: Bleach is a harsh chemical that is bad for modern fabrics. For stains, use pre-treatment immediately to prevent the stain from setting in before washing. Original blue dawn is great as a pre-treatment as well as shout or other store-bought products.
Tumble dry low and remove promptly: High heat bakes your clothes making them shrink and fade faster. Removing your clothes and folding or hanging immediately will reduce wrinkles. Note…. your dryer uses more energy to heat than to tumble so drying longer on low heat is actually more energy efficient!
Low iron if needed: (unless stated that the item should not be ironed). It is better to immediately hang or fold your clothes than to iron. If you must iron, do not iron areas with vinyl or screen printed imaging. If it is absolutely essential that you iron those areas, you should place a piece of parchment paper over the printed area. Parchment paper can be found in the kitchen section of grocery store with tin foil.
Do not dry clean any apparel with vinyl printing on it. Dry cleaning solution will cause the print to peel, crack and/or come off completely.