How To Wash Pet Clothes For The Long-Haul

Laundry: wash, dry, wear, repeat.

It mostly helps our clothes - right? Washes away the day's dirt and grime. Brings them back to life. Gets them smelling all fresh and clean...

...90% of the time.

Then there's that other 10%. The times we wash or dry something, pull it out of the machine, and realize we messed up. Big time.

Your favorite bright colored top for a night out...filled with holes.

Your softest, most cuddly pair of winter pajamas...covered in fluff pills.

Those pants you wear to work like, literally everyday...shrunk to infant size.

Everyone experiences a laundry pitfall once in a while. It's nearly impossible to avoid - and that same rule holds true when it comes to, you guessed it:

Your pet's clothes.

 After spending YEARS purchasing outfits for Flower, I have learned one important lesson when it comes to doing her laundry:

• Hand washing is best
• Cold water/delicate cycle machine washing can work on some items (basic garments that do not have embellishments, special fabrics, or unique materials)
• Whatever you do, NEVER put pet clothes in the dryer - they need to be air dried

Flower's freshly-washed clothes, air-drying on the couch!

I recommend waiting as long as possible between pet apparel washes. Typically, I wait until a garment is either obviously dirty (visible dirt, drink stains, etc) or starting to get smelly.

For Flower and I, that usually means washing any given item in her wardrobe once every 3-6 months.

But here's the good news: Flower's clothes have lasted years - seriously. And she loves clothes. She wears an outfit almost everyday. 

And the reason her outfits have lasted so long is quite simple: they don't get ruined in the laundry!