How to wash a blanket by hand, in a washing machine, about cleaning with foam and proper drying

09/19/201602/11/2017 Maria Ivanova 1 Comment

Every home has many accessories that help achieve special coziness and comfort. One of these useful things is a blanket: warm, soft, in which you can wrap your head in cold weather - frosty winter and rainy autumn. In addition, we make the bed with a blanket. This thing is simply universal, you definitely can’t do without it.

Due to the fact that we often have to use the bedspread in everyday life, it quickly gets dirty, loses its original attractiveness and becomes a real dust collector.

This is definitely not the case, especially if there are small children in the house who have to breathe all this. As a result, the development of allergies, various diseases and other unpleasant consequences. To avoid this, you need to wash the blanket from time to time, and do it quite well.

How can you achieve the desired effect when washing a woolen or any other blanket at home?

We'll talk about this in more detail below. Washing a blanket at home is not the easiest task, but it is still quite doable.

The main thing is the desire and use of all the necessary means at hand. If you do not have confidence in your own abilities, then it is better to leave this matter and take the bedspread to the dry cleaner. But we would like to point out right away that this pleasure is not the cheapest.

Therefore, it’s still worth trying to wash the item yourself.

Preparatory activities

You can tidy up your blanket in different ways. However, no matter what cleaning method is chosen, it is first necessary to carry out preparatory measures:

Remove dust from the decorative blanket. To do this, lay it out on a wide bed or on a large table covered with an old sheet and clean it with a vacuum cleaner. You can remove dust accumulated in the product in another way: take it out into the fresh air, hang it on a bar and beat it out with a carpet beater. If you ignore this stage of preparation, during washing, dust will appear on the pile in the form of dirty stains, which will complicate an already labor-intensive job.
Using a sticky roller or soft brush, remove animal hair and debris stuck between the fibers from the surface of the product. During washing, all this will stick to the pile and remain there.
Inspect the item for stains and, if any are found, wipe them off locally. The best way to do this is to use a carpet cleaner. If you don’t have it on hand, an aqueous solution of vinegar will do, and for light-colored products, soda slurry or lemon juice.

Difficult spots

If there are complex and old stains on the fabric, it is necessary to first clean the affected areas. But you can’t immediately apply stain remover to a blanket - first we check the fibers for strength and pigment durability by smearing an inconspicuous area from the inside out. If the material has faded, then a more gentle cleaner is needed.

It perfectly removes stains from polyester with various types of laundry soap. Table salt sprinkled on top can also absorb dirt from synthetics. It is better to clean colored items with 10% brown, quenched citric acid. The selected product is applied to the stained area and rubbed in with the convex side of a spoon. The smooth surface of the device will prevent the fibers from deforming.

Dry cleaning

Blankets, especially those with long pile and made from natural fibers, do not like unnecessary contact with water . It is recommended to wash the decorative coating no more than once every six months. But if necessary, you can refresh it at any time using the “dry cleaning” method. It is carried out in the following sequence:

Cover a flat surface (for example, the floor or a large table) with polyethylene. Lay an old sheet over it.
Place a blanket, previously cleared of debris and dust, on the prepared area.
Pour warm water into a bowl. Add liquid detergent, or clear shampoo, or carpet cleaner. Beat the mixture until foam forms.
Apply foam to the pile of the product using a clothes brush or sponge. Wait until it is completely dry.
Using a vacuum cleaner with a plastic attachment or a dry brush, remove any remaining mixture from the surface of the rug.
Walk over the surface of the product with a slightly damp sponge. When the water dries, shake the blanket.

Helpful Tips:

To prevent the bedspread from accumulating dirt and dust during storage, you can wrap it in an old pillowcase.
It is not advisable to store such products in plastic bags, because due to the lack of ventilation, an unpleasant odor may appear, as well as moths and other pests.
It is better to dry clean a blanket made of natural fur, since this material does not tolerate moisture well, and it can react completely unpredictably to any home cleaning methods.

Machine washable

The easiest way to clean a soiled decorative blanket is in an automatic washing machine. If the manufacturer does not prohibit this cleaning method, you need to proceed as follows:

Fold the blanket with the nap inside. If the product is voluminous, it is best to give it the shape of a roller. To do this, take it by the edges and fold them towards the middle. Then fold the fabric in half and, holding the bottom edge, roll it up into a roll.
The folded blanket is placed in the drum. If it has a long pile, additionally ribbed balls are placed in the machine, which will prevent the piles from matting.
On the panel, select any of the delicate wash modes, for example: “wool”, “hand wash”, “synthetics”.
The temperature depends on the material from which the item is made. Synthetics are washed at 40°, wool at 30°.
When washing a blanket in a washing machine, either turn off the spin mode completely or set the panel to low speed (no more than 500). It is not recommended to dry a blanket, especially wool and fur, in a machine.

Detergent made from grass blankets and similar products with long piles is difficult to rinse out. To prevent white streaks from appearing on the surface of the dried item, repeat rinsing twice or thrice.

Fold the blanket for washing with the right side inward

Cotton

Cotton and cotton bedspreads can be machine washed using any powder and rinse aid. The maximum permissible temperature is 60 degrees. Hand washing is no different.

Cotton items are machine washable at 40-60 degrees

How to wash a blanket by hand

A large blanket is usually washed by hand if it does not fit into the washing machine, or the manufacturer prohibits another cleaning method. Hand washing is carried out in the following sequence:

The bath is filled approximately halfway with water at a temperature of 30-40°. Then dilute liquid laundry detergent or baby shampoo in it.
The product is immersed in the solution with the pile up and left there for 15-20 minutes. Maximum soaking time is 60 minutes. The longer the blanket is soaked, the more water it will absorb and, accordingly, gain weight.
The wet fabric is gently crumpled with your hands, moving from one edge to the other. You can’t rub the pile too hard, even if it’s small, as it will fall off.
The cleaned product is moved to the edge of the bathtub, or transferred to an empty basin. The dirty water is replaced with fresh water and rinsing begins. The water will have to be changed several times. If the blanket is colored, it is recommended to add vinegar during the last rinse; if it is white, add lemon juice.
From the washed fabric, lightly squeezing it with your fingers, remove the water and leave it in the bathroom to swell. After 10-15 minutes, the blanket is squeezed again with your hands and left again.
When the bulk of the liquid has gone, the item is laid out on stools placed in the bath, periodically removing water from its edges with kneading movements.

You cannot hang a wet blanket, even a light one, on a clothesline. The resulting crease will then be impossible to remove.

Hand wash bamboo grass throw blanket with long pile

Before washing the blanket, it should be cleared of large specks. It is better to shake off any large blanket first.
If there is severe local contamination, the stains should be treated with a solution of laundry soap or other soaking agent.
After waiting a little time (from 20 minutes to an hour), the blanket should be soaked in a bath of warm water. The water temperature depends on the composition of the material - for wool, linen, cotton and fleece blankets, the water temperature should not exceed 35 - 40 degrees. Microfiber models can be washed in both cool and warm water, but not hotter than 60 degrees Celsius.
How should you wash a blanket - with powder or liquid? It is best to first dilute any detergent in water. This way there will be no traces of powder left on the surface of the blanket.
Active hand washing involves mechanical impact on the blanket. You should be careful here: you shouldn’t twist or fumble the thing. We wash the blanket by gently kneading it with our hands and pressing it onto the surface of the bathtub.
After this, the blanket should be placed on a wire rack and allowed to drain with soapy water, and then rinse the product several times, changing the water as it gets dirty.
Before moving on to horizontal drying of the blanket at natural room temperature, it is necessary to get rid of excess moisture, which should drain naturally.
It is best to dry the blanket on a floor or table covered with a clean cloth, carefully straightening the edges and corners of the product.

Suitable for large size bedspreads. The procedure will require more effort. It is better to do it together, as a wet blanket becomes very heavy.

Warm water is drawn into the bathtub, in which liquid washing gel or carpet cleaner is dissolved. The fabric is immersed in a soap solution and left for 5-10 minutes.

Afterwards, the material is rolled onto one side, the plug is removed and the dirty water is drained. Fill the bath and rinse the blanket again. The procedure is repeated 3-4 times. Conditioner is added during the final rinse.

After finishing washing, roll up the wet fabric and leave it in the bathroom for 30 minutes. It is best to place the package on one side. When the excess liquid has drained, the blanket is spread on a horizontal surface in a room with good ventilation. From time to time the canvas is turned over to the other side. The blanket cannot be dried hanging on a line, as it will stretch.

Hand washing a long-pile blanket is one of the most gentle ways to care for it. By following all the rules for its implementation, you can remain confident that nothing threatens the structure and color of the product. As with the machine version, temperature remains the key. When washing by hand, the water should be lukewarm or even cold, but definitely not higher than 30 degrees. Using hot water causes the fibers to shrink and the blanket to lose its shape.

If there are more serious stains, it is advisable to soak the grass blanket, and especially difficult areas can be easily washed with soapy water. But you shouldn’t rub it intensely, as you can lose the fluffiness – the main highlight of the blanket. It is better to perform all stages of the process in the bathroom. After filling it with water, it is also easy to rinse the pile, washing out all the remaining detergent from it.

It is not recommended to twist a bamboo grass blanket; it is better to hang it so that all the water drains out on its own. And to preserve the shape and structure, drying blankets and bedspreads is carried out exclusively in a horizontal position.

As an alternative to washing, if this is not possible, you can use dry cleaning, which consists of several stages:

thoroughly shaking the blanket to get rid of dust and small specks;
local cleaning of stains and dirt using special products. These can be purchased at chemical stores or ordered online. It is important to remember that they should not have an aggressive composition that will damage the bamboo grass blanket. By the way, some stains can be removed using improvised means - for example, greasy areas are cleaned with ammonia;
airing, preferably in the fresh air, to get rid of foreign odors and saturate the blanket with oxygen.

We suggest you read: How to remove salt from clothes

Drying Features

To prevent the product from losing its shape, it should only be dried in a horizontal position. How to do it right?

The swollen linen in the bathroom is laid out on a flat surface, previously covered with oilcloth and well-absorbing natural material.
When the fabric is saturated with water, it is replaced with dry material, and the decorative blanket is turned over. The procedure is repeated several times.
If the product is thick, you can first wrap it in a terry towel and lightly knead it with your hands. And while drying unfolded items, turn on a fan next to the table. These measures will speed up the process of evaporation of liquid from the fibers.
Products with long pile are combed when wet. The surface of the plush blanket is smoothed with a soft brush when it is completely dry.

If the decorative blanket will not be used after washing, it is rolled up and placed in a pillowcase or in a cotton bag.

Washing a blanket of any size and quality at home is a difficult task, but quite doable. If you strictly follow the recommendations, the decorative bedspread will retain its appearance and properties for a long time.

Large and voluminous

Washing a large, voluminous blanket is a difficult task for a fragile woman, so you definitely need an assistant with physical strength.

In a private home, you can wash a large item in the same way as for carpets. Necessary:

Hang a blanket outside.
Prepare a soap solution.
Apply the liquid with a brush, paying attention to the most contaminated areas.
Rinse thoroughly with clean water from a hose.
Dry, avoiding direct sunlight.

If none of the methods is suitable, there is only one way out - professional dry cleaning.

This video will show you how to clean a large blanket: