Is Dry Cleaning Necessary?
Are you wondering how to keep your favorite wool sweater clean or how to wash your new Shepherd’s Dream Merino Blanket, but concerned about the cost or how to do it? Cleaning wool is actually very easy with a few simple instructions.
Rest assured it’s not as daunting as many people think!
Wool resists static, dirt, dust, and wicks away moisture from spills, so usually all it takes is a clean cloth to soak up a stain or spill. Wool is also antimicrobial so it won’t harbor smells like synthetics do. That means you can use wool more often without having to wash it between every use.
We did a small backyard experiment to see just how easy it was to clean wool bedding. We poured roughly a tablespoon of water on top of various fabrics in order to simulate what an actual accident would do to household items made of similar fabrics.
In the image above, you can see that a sample of natural wool batting used for our comforters instantly repelled the water. It was left to sit there for several minutes yet never absorbed the water.
Here is a video of this test with our mattress protector fabric:
The next two images show how easily a liquid is absorbed by cotton and cotton blended fabrics.
Just as in the first experiment, a tablespoon of water was poured directly onto the fabrics, which instantly absorbed the water. This absorption is actually preferred when you want to use a fabric to mop up the spill. In fact, we recommend you use a clean cotton towel to help absorb moisture away from your wool products when accidents occur.
However, if you want a fabric to resist spills, then wool is clearly the better choice.
When cleaning or washing wool is necessary, we recommend you put your wool products out in the sun to air clean, including blankets, comforters, and pillows. Even your wool mattress will benefit from a little sunshine and air every year or so. Some of our products, like our mattress protectors, can even go right in the washing machine.
When using a washing machine, we recommend a high-quality wool detergent such as Eucalan, which we carry in our stores and online on our website.
With these simple guidelines you should find that you’ll rarely, if ever, need to take your wool products to the dry cleaners. This will save you both time and money — not to mention the toxic dry-cleaning chemicals you would otherwise be exposing yourself to.
Read our FAQs and Product Care guide for answers to other specific washing and cleaning concerns.
Myth busted!
Check out other common wool myths by visiting the posts listed below:
