Jeans come in all shapes and sizes and nothing is more versatile when it comes to clothing. Jeans can be worn for just about any occasion and can be dressed up with a nice shirt or dressed down with a simple t-shirt. Jeans are even more popular these days because of the wide variety of colors that are available. Taking good care of your jeans will have you enjoying them for many years to come.

Because jeans are colored with indigo ink there will naturally be some color lost when you wash and dry them with your other garments. The best way to care for your jeans is to of course take them to dry cleaners, but this is too costly for most. With that in mind here are some tips to help you keep your jeans looking as good as possible:

•    Read the labels: All jeans come equipped with special care instruction sewn right in. Be sure that you read the labels as some jeans go against the norm and need to be washed in warm water as opposed to cold like most. Some jeans even say to dry clean only.

•    Don’t wash excessive pairs of jeans: Limit your jean washing to three or four pairs at a time. Because denim is heavy, too many jeans in the washer at the same time will diminish the effectiveness of the washer to clean the jeans. Instead of using more than three or four pairs of jeans, fill the remainder of the washer with lighter material clothing of the same color.

•    Inside out: This is perhaps the easiest trick to do. By turning your jeans inside out before you wash them you are lessening the impact felt by the jeans because of the washer’s agitator. This will help to keep your jeans from rapidly wearing down.

•    Be gentle: If you have jeans that have rips or holes in them use the gentle cycle to avoid making them any worse. Many jeans these days come pre-ripped and shredded and most of these will advise the gentle cycle on their care tags.
•    Avoid over drying: The more you dry denim the tighter it gets. Once your jeans are dry, take them out of the dryer immediately. Avoid over drying your jeans at all costs. Pay close attention to how long the dryer runs when your jeans are completely dry and make a note of the time so that the next time you will know how long to set the timer on the dryer for.

•    Avoid bleach: This sounds like a no brainer, but you would be surprised. Bleach can be found not only in the white plastic jugs these days, but also in many detergents. Bleach and jeans equals eighty’s music videos. If that is your goal, then go for it; otherwise make sure all forms of bleach stay far away from your jeans.

With proper care you and your jeans will look your best for many seasons to come. The only thing you will have to worry about is maintaining your weight so that you always slip comfortably into your favorite pair of jeans.