The 5 Biggest Mistakes You’re Making Washing Your Jeans

Some swear you should never machine wash jeans (or wash them at all for that matter), but most of us toss this wardrobe staple in the washer along with other clothes every week. To keep your basic blue and black denim looking as new as possible, be sure to steer clear of these fabric-damaging mistakes.

1. Washing them right side out.
No matter the cycle, the very act of machine washing and drying is abrasive to fabrics because the garments rub against each other in the turning, tumbling load. To help minimize the color loss this can cause, turn jeans inside out before placing them in the washer and leave them inside out until you remove them from the dryer. Zip all zippers and fasten all buttons and snaps, too.

2. Cramming too many pair in at once.

The more garments you stuff into a load, the faster you’ll get done, but the more the more wear and tear your fabrics will endure. Without room to move, zippers and rivets can snag and stitching can break. Your clothes should circulate or tumble freely, so they are thoroughly cleaned and dried and don’t emerge from the machines in a tangled knot.

3. Choosing the wrong cycles.

The newer you want your jeans to look, the gentler you have to wash and dry them. While hand washing and line drying is safest, it’s also costly in terms of time and effort. Unless your jeans are particularly dirty, it’s best to wash them in cold water, select one of the gentler cycles, and dry them at a low temperature.

4. Skipping a color-preserving detergent.
Special detergents formulated to preserve dark colors really do work. They have ingredients to help fabrics hold onto dyes and to deactivate the chlorine in the water that can fade colors. If you want to keep your dark jeans dark, it’s worth investing in a special detergent. We recommend Good Housekeeping VIP Award winner Tide TotalCare and Woolite Dark.

5. Leaving them in the dryer too long.

Fabrics shrink when left in the dryer too long to get over-dried and “fried.” All fabrics and especially jeans benefit when you take them out of the dryer slightly damp. Simply tug and smooth them into shape and let them finish drying flat or on a hanger. If, even after tumbling on low heat and a delicate cycle, you see lots of lint on the dryer’s filter, you may want to switch to line drying your jeans to help preserve the fabric.

Bayelsa: Dickson’s aides defect to APC.

At last, the defection train has hit President Goodluck Jonathan’s home state of Bayelsa with some aides of Governor Seriake Dickson dumping the Peoples Democratic Party for the All Progressives Congress.

Also, loyalists of former governor, Chief Timipre Sylva, have shifted allegiance to the APC in Bayelsa.

The APC in the state is chaired by former Security Adviser to Sylva, Chief Richard Kpodo, while former Youth Leader of PDP in the South-South, Mr. Godwin Sidi, is the Interim State Secretary of the APC.

Apart from Kpodo, Sidi and scores of Dickson’s special advisers and commissioners, other defectors include former Chairman of Southern Ijaw Local Government, Mr. Timipa Orunemigha, alias Tiway.

The APC in the state will be inaugurated in Yenagoa, the state capital, this week.

The defection to the APC has put paid to months of political manoeuvrings and horse-trading, which had characterised the PDP since the New PDP’s conundrum.

Kpodo and other supporters had allegedly dumped the PDP and embraced the then Baraje Kawu-led nPDP for what they described as “lack of internal democracy and culture of impunity”.

Confirming their defection, Sidi told Bodex Blog that their decision to move out of the PDP was due to the failure of peace talks in the party.

He claimed that the APC boasted of over two million supporters in Bayelsa.

The interim secretary said, “All arrangements have been put in place for the APC and Kpodo, I and other supporters find it expedient to move over to the APC with our supporters.

“The decision to move to the APC was taken due to the fact that every peace talk within the PDP has failed and also we have found out that the PDP is in life support and it will die very soon.

“We do not want to witness such a tragedy in a political party we have tried over the years to build.

“The APC secretariat will be opened within this week and we are solidly on ground. Kpodo will serve as Interim Chairman and I will serve as Secretary until party congress takes place.”

He urged Nigerians to stand up against Jonathan’s third term oath in office.

He said anything beyond eight years in office was unconstitutional, stressing that the APC would reject it.