Tips to Remove Lint & Bobbles from Your Clothes

We often notice fuzz appearing on our clothes after a wash cycle.  This is referred to as lint and can be present on all types of clothes regardless of whether they’re new or old and is especially visible on dark clothing. Over time, we’ve understood that the appearance of lint is related to small fibers letting lose on other clothes. Sometimes tiny balls made of knotted fabric also appear on some clothes. These could ruin the whole appearance of your garment. These are referred to as bobbles. They are essentially damaged fibers which are torn or pulled from the clothes. They eventually get caught again in the clothing fibers during the tumbling process in the machine.

Lint tends to get combined with dirt, which makes for an unsightly appearance. For our new clothes, we’ve learnt that they are prone to getting lint while being manufactured. Old clothes, on the other hand, get lint during the washing process. In this article, we will highlight some essential tips on how to prevent and remove lint and bobbles from your clothes and keep them looking new for a long period of time!

Removing Lint and Bobbles from Clothing

1. Use Lint Rollers or a Garment Brush

These are your best bet when it comes to removing lint and bobbles from dry clothing. You could also use a sticky tape to pick it off your clothes, though the task may be tedious. One of the easiest and most genius ways of removing lint from your clothes is to wipe any dryer sheet on the fabric. It could help you remove lint in seconds with its anti-static properties!

2. Buy a Sweater or Fabric Shaver

This is one of the easiest ways to remove lint from woollens. A fabric debuzzer or sweater shaver is very user-friendly and a lot safer as compared to regular razor blades. Be super careful during the removal of fuzz balls. If you don’t focus enough, you’ll end up removing excessive fabric, making the material around the lint overly thin.

3. Use a Hairdryer to Remove Lint and Bobbles

When you feel that nothing seems to work on your lint-laden clothes, it’s time to take out that hairdryer from your cupboard. Take a fresh dryer sheet and dampen it a little. Then gently run it over the fuzz-covered clothing and simultaneously blow it with the dryer on the cool setting. This will help you achieve a crisp outfit in no time! The technique works for bobbles too.

Top tip: Place your clothing in a dryer with some microfiber clothes. Tumble till slightly damp. After removing from the dryer, use a brush designed especially for clothing or a lint roller for removing the leftover lint and bobbles.

Preventing the Accumulation of Lint and Bobbles

1. Learn to Identify Fabrics Before Washing Them

Over time, we have realized that it is equally important to identify the kind of clothes which let off lint or lead to the creation of bobbles. For instance, we made the mistake of washing our black pants with some fluffy towels. The results were disastrous! You might like to know that knit clothes and t-shirts also have the potential to produce a lot of lint. Other lint producing items include cotton socks and cotton underwear, napped fabrics such as towels, velour, sweaters, flannels, corduroy and so on. Therefore, we always ensure that we wash these fabrics separately. In fact, we avoid washing these fabrics with other clothing even if they fall into the same colour category. Man-made fabrics such as polyester are most prone to getting bobbles.

2. Try and Hand Wash Your Clothes

This is perhaps one of the most important tips for avoiding lint and bobbles on your clothes altogether. We’ve noticed that when we hand wash our clothes, they’re not undergoing tumbling inside a washing machine. This itself prevents thread fibers in clothes from getting broken. We understand that it could be quite time consuming and not feasible to hand wash your clothes daily. However, you could still hand wash at least your expensive pieces so that they don’t end up appearing unattractive due to the presence of lint and/or bobbles.

3. Be Extra Careful When You Wash Clothes in The Machine

When washing your clothes in the machine, we first separate the clothes basis the colour and type. When washing the clothes, we separate them into coloured and whites and take turns to wash them. Never wash all your clothes together. Experience has taught us that separating clothes basis colour helps in reducing the fuzz. We like using Surf Excel Matic Liquid for washing our clothes in the machine.

Another important pointer for preventing both lint and bobbles is turning your clothes inside out before putting them into the washing machine. Also, it’s best to opt for a delicate, short cycle, rather than a long one to prevent the creation of bobbles.

4. Understand How to Dry Your Clothes

Avoid using the machine dryer. Even if you do end up using it, use it for a very less amount of time. Take your clothes out the moment the cycle ends. Instead, use a clothesline or laundry rack to hang the clothes and let them dry naturally.