It’s that time of the year. We’re slowly changing out our closets – pulling the winter clothes out of the under-bed storage and suddenly realizing that the closet is getting a bit tighter with all of those bulky knits.

Don’t panic! Slim down your sweater collection to most favorite and latest pieces, and then take a great care of them.

We all love our warm sweaters when winter comes around, but if you want to avoid smelling, pilling, stretching and throwing them away early after buying them, check out our tips for proper care that will keep your favorite sweaters fresh and new for many winter seasons to come.

Check the Label

Even if it looks like it’s too hard to understand all those coded symbols in the care instructions for knitwear, it’s not a rocket science. Read the labels as helpful suggestions for the upkeep of your garment. You might find this infographic very useful. It explains what each laundry symbol means:

Wash, Dry and Iron

An unwritten rule is to wash your sweater knitwear every four wears, unless you are around smoke or spill something on it.

Dry-cleaning may be convenient enough, however, the chemicals can strip the natural oils from the yarn, making it lose its loft over time.

If you have a washing machine with a "hand-wash" cycle, it can be as gentle as washing them by hand, so it is perfectly fine to toss in any sweaters or wool knits without embroidery or sequins. If your loading machine doesn’t have the option of a gentle wash with cold water or the "wool" cycle, take the matters into your own hands, literally. Fill the sink with cool water, add a gentle cleanser, mix, and then put your sweaters inside. Let it soak, and after a half an hour, rinse well and refill with a new clean water with few drops of liquid fabric softener inside. Let it sit for a while and then finally rinse it until the water runs clear.

After you are done, press (do not wring) the excess of water and lay the sweaters flat on clean towel which you will roll to squeeze out dampness.

When completely dry, preserve their shape by storing the sweaters neatly folded in drawers at a dry place. Don’t hang them if you want to avoid the appearance of little peaks in the shoulders and additional stretching out.

Maintain Appearance

The undeniable fact is that the sweaters will pill after a while just by wearing or cleaning them. It is impossible to avoid that.

You can fix pilling easily by gently skimming the surface of the sweater knitwear with a pumice stone in one direction, or simply by holding the sweater flat with one hand and slicing off pills by using a razor with the other one.

If you are a little skeptical about this method, there is a more sophisticated alternative. There are electric manual pill removers available on the market, but be careful because it is too easy to either puncture or snag the fabric with them.

Shop our entire assortment of sweaters here.

Photo credits: coatsindustrial.com, hopvincent.ca and theburlapbag.com