Halloween costumes can be costly, right? Every time the spooky season approaches, casual shopping turns into a zombie-like rampage made up of parents, teens and anyone else desperate for the perfect outfit. While wearing something new might seem important, reusing last year’s look is much better for the environment AND your personal piggy bank.
One of the best ways to keep your costumes in tip-top shape is to wash them effectively. Whether you’re refreshing an outfit leftover from last year’s celebrations or preparing to store this year’s purchase, we’ve got you covered.
Here are some Halloween laundry ideas to help you properly clean costumes before and after the Halloween season.
How to Wash Halloween Costumes Before and After the Season
1. Hand-Washing Your Costumes
If you’re the type of parent that goes all out for Halloween, you’re probably not just limiting yourself to using traditional fabrics.
Costumes with tulle, spandex, leather, feathers, sequins, and other embellishments definitely need to be washed by hand.
And even if your costume doesn’t have these materials, you may still want to consider hand-washing—this can help ensure its quality while helping remove stains. A lot of Halloween attires aren’t made to be worn for extended periods of time, so they’re even more vulnerable to wear and tear.
Follow these steps to achieve the best hand-washing results:
Add gentle detergent and fabric softener to cold water.
Use gentle movements to clean the inside and outside parts of your costume.
Rinse in cold water and allow to air dry.
2. Machine Washing
Costumes that are made of cotton, polyester, nylon, and acrylic may be machine-washable. Just make sure that you read the tags and use the proper washer settings.
Here’s how you can machine-wash your costumes:
Choose cold or warm water based on the tag and instructions of your specific costume.
Add in a gentle detergent, fabric softener and scent booster to shed any spooky odors.
Air dry the costume and pack away once complete.
3. Spot Cleaning
Sometimes the best way to clean your Halloween costumes is to not wash them at all.
You may get away with specifically targeting and cleaning a few spots if your attire is mostly clean, because—let’s face it—sometimes you only wear a costume for two hours tops!.
These tips can help you spot-clean the right way:
Identify what cleaning agent you need depending on the stain. In general, you can try out a liquid laundry soap or read our back-to-school and 4th of July stain removal guides for more specific options.
Apply the cleaning agent to the stain using your finger or a toothbrush.
Massage the stain for a minute or so using circular motions.
Wash the spot thoroughly with water and allow to dry.
4. Professional Dry Cleaning
Need a little bit more help? If your Halloween costume is needing some extra love and protection, you may want to have it dry-cleaned by laundry professionals.
This can help preserve the fabric while also removing the toughest of stains.
Speaking of professionals, our Denver laundromat may be exactly what you’re looking for. WaveMAX Thorton is the cleanest laundry service in town and we’ve got the reviews to prove it!
And as a bonus, there are so many things you can do and places you can visit in Denver while waiting for your laundry. If you’ve been asking yourself what the “best laundry near me” is, this is definitely the place for you.
We hope this blog helps you feel more confident in tackling all your Halloween laundry woes. From the WaveMAX Thornton team, we wish you a Happy Halloween with your friends and family!
