Everyone has different style, but it’s fair to say that most of us have a pair (or more) of jeans lying in a drawer or hanging in our closet. In fact, I’m wearing jeans right now — and, chances are, so are a lot of people reading this.
According to Smithsonian, the first version of jeans were invented to be tough enough to withstand working conditions for coal miners in the late 1800s.
Developed by Levi Strauss and a tailor named Jacob Davis, the early jeans flew off shelves from day one. Part of this is thanks to their patented rivet design, which made the pants as durable as they needed to be.
Over 200 years later, jeans have not only maintained their popularity — they have become perhaps the most popular piece of clothing in the world.
If you’re anything like me, you probably wash your jeans in the washing machine along with the rest of your laundry. However, it turns out that there are almost as many ways to wash your jeans as there are styles of the pants. We decided to try out four denim cleaning hacks to see if they were worth the hype.
Kate Freezer Wash Method
Jeans are some of my favorite pieces of clothing to wash, because you can do it so infrequently. I'll be the first to admit that I will wear my jeans more than a few times before retiring them to my laundry basket.
With that said, we're all aware of the fact that washing your jeans can end badly. The color can fade, and the shape can seem to get beaten out of them by the wash cycle.
According to Elle, one washing machine-free way to clean your jeans is in the freezer overnight.
The idea is that the freezer's low temperature kills the bacteria (the way freezing food does) and in turn gets rid of odor, too.
Unlike the traditional washing machine method, the color won't fade, they won't get bent out of shape, and they won't shrink.
This method is fairly simple. Put your jeans in the freezer overnight, and remove them in the morning to put them on.
I did as the simple instructions suggested. I folded up my jeans and tucked them away in a clean corner of my freezer, then waited for the magic to happen.
When I took my jeans out of the freezer, they were — you guessed it — cold. It felt good to slide into my chilly jeans on a hot summer day. However, the feeling was fleeting, and my pants warmed up almost immediately after coming into contact with my skin.
I will admit that my jeans felt and looked clean and crisp. They weren't so dirty to begin with, but they definitely felt clean.
Sometimes I actually do like putting my jeans in the dryer to shrink them, because they stretch out after I wear them once or twice. My only complaint is that this couldn't happen, and my jeans were a little baggier than I would usually like. Then again, that's a me-problem and not directly related to the freezer wash method.
Grace Vinegar Rinse Method
Grace, who is a writer here at LittleThings, decided to try the 'vinegar rinse' method.
According to USA Today, soaking your jeans in vinegar not only cleans your jeans from bacteria, it actually locks in their color rather than washing it out.
Grace says:
First I had to clean my kitchen sink of the dishes that had piled up and give the sink itself a good scrub, because living with roommates isn’t perfect.
Then I just filled it with cold water, added a cup of vinegar, and let it sit for an hour. Then, I hung them up to dry to finish.
Once my jeans finally dried, they did feel nice and clean when I put them on. Not starchy or anything — nice and soft.
They smelled faintly of vinegar but, again, I like the smell of vinegar so this really doesn't bother me in the slightest. It will go away after I wear them for a bit anyway, as all scents do.
Emerald The Sun Soak Method
Another method for cleaning your jeans without washing them is to "soak them in the sun." Our lead writer Emerald decided to give it a shot.
Apparently letting your jeans soak in the sun and fresh air can give your pants a second life.
There isn't a lot of science to back this up, but Levi Strauss & Co. CEO, Chip Bergh, tells ABC News that a sun and air combination is a perfectly good way to clean your jeans.
Emerald says:
I left my jeans out on the windowsill all day and night long so that the sun could wash them.
The challenge was hoping it wouldn’t rain and also not knowing how the sun would clean them. As mentioned, the science behind this method isn’t exactly solid.
After leaving them outside all day and night, I finally put them on.
They felt kind of like when you wear jeans and they get stretched out, so you wash them and shrink them back down. In other words, they were a little snug.
Gwen Shower Steam Method
Last but not least, our writer Gwen tried steaming a pair of jeans in the shower. You may have already tried something similar to this to get the wrinkles out of your clothes.
USA Today says that all this method requires is hanging your jeans on a shower bar as you wash yourself. The steam from the hot water should freshen up your jeans without making the fabric swell the way submerging them in water might.
Gwen says:
I hung my jeans on the rail outside of the door while I showered. I also made sure to close the door and windows to maximize the humidity factor.
The jeans felt a little smoother the next morning after the “wash.” I think the humidity in the air actually helped with some wrinkles.
I really don’t think it did much of anything other than a little de-wrinkling. I expected the jeans to be damp after the shower, from the condensation in the bathroom, but they weren’t.
I even left them hanging on the shower bar overnight, but still they were totally dry in the morning. The jeans also smelled the same (they smelled OK from the start; I wouldn’t wear them smelly) before and after the shower.
Conclusions
Kate: My jeans weren't super-dirty to begin with, but they definitely felt clean when I took them out of the freezer and put them on. I would try this again between washes because it was so easy, but definitely need to dry and shrink them once in a while.
Grace: The truth is, I don't really care about jeans fading and don't have an issue putting them in the wash until they actually smell or are stained. If I ever get a really fancy pair of jeans I'm afraid of ruining in the wash, sure, I would try this agin — why not? It's kind of just a nice rinse, plus the faint scent of Easter eggs in the process.
Emmy: Since I like to be certain that my clothes are clean, I probably wouldn't try this again unless I had no other options. I couldn't really tell if it worked and if my jeans are any cleaner, and they were tight afterwards, so I don't think I'll be trying this again anytime soon.
Gwen: I would be open to trying this method again because it was so easy, but I'm not convinced that it worked. I'm thinking that the best strategy for this might be to get the bathroom extremely steamy. Maybe a really hot shower in a smaller bathroom with a towel sealing under the door would be ideal.
Which one worked best? We concluded that Kate's freezer method worked the best to freshen up jeans without throwing them in the wash. None of the other experiments damaged the jeans, but it didn't really feel like they were any cleaner or fresher smelling. Would you ever give one of these methods a try?
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