When it comes to laundry, the procedure of washing the linen didn’t change; but, the technique sure did. Many industry experts believed that instead of burning or discarding the contaminated linen, one could safely re-use it by just washing it the ‘right’ way.

In this edition, Rami Shaar, CEO, Washmen, takes time out to share his views on Linen Care during a Pandemic. Linen is one of the materials that brings with it a big myth of being difficult to care for. At Washmen, we receive explicit instructions to only dry clean linen. While this may be true for some linen pieces like suits due to structure, you will be shocked to know that a lot of linen in your closet will do just fine with traditional laundering...only if it is done right.

At Washmen, we pride ourselves on giving each material the exact care it deserves. Our team scans each clothing label, and then our experts determine the chemicals and machinery that are best suited. If we ever come across a piece that doesn’t sit well with the chosen service, our team instantly gets in touch with customers and provides options for applying a different service to the particular piece.

On washing linen

Two main concerns with linen are that it has the tendency to shrink and lose colour more quickly than other fabrics. A simple way to prevent this is to make sure that linen is not washed in hot water rather than in warm water. If your piece is of a colour that is vibrant and likely to bleed, it is best to wash with cold water. At Washmen, we use Miele’s WetCare program that is a state-of-the-art process designed to mimic hand washing at lower temperatures using eco-friendly chemicals from Kreussler (Germany). This is an extremely expensive technology to have, and in our mission to make sure we live up to our promise of quality, Washmen is proud to have 18 Miele machines (largest installation globally!), designed especially for WetCare.

When it comes to detergent at home, I would recommend a mild scent- & dye-free detergent for linen washing, steering far away from fabric softeners, bleach and not mixing linen with other sturdier fabrics. Many issues that people have with linen result from them trying to over handle the process.

Drying linen

Drying is also an essential part of taking care of linen, the best method is air drying. Linen is a lighter material that does not take long to dry, and a natural slow drying process is always key to ensuring the fabric’s strength remains. At Washmen, we have installed unique conveyor belts that air-dry thousands of items every day to make sure no fabric is unnecessarily exposed to heat.

Ironing linen

When it comes to ironing linen, we at Washmen choose to only stream press to ensure there are no damages with flat irons. For home, it is recommended to iron the linen item straight out of the wash, while it is a little damp, and iron only until the wrinkles go out.

It all comes down to this: Anyone being fussy over linen was wrong to begin with. If anything, it is our job to understand that this fabric existed before any fancy machinery or detergent ever did and still holds the capability to be taken care of in the simplest of ways to last customers for years to come.

One more thing...

Everything about the above, also applies to caring for bed linen which due to its size is often a task to wash and dry at home. During 2020, in their quest to keep home space as sanitised as possible, people sent more bed linen to Washmen than ever before. So much so that it pushed our team to work quickly and introduce a new pink bag only of homecare linens, which at the moment is one of our bestsellers. It allows people to have items like bedsheets, duvets, pillows, cases and towels professionally washed, dried and pressed at our facility so they don’t have to deal with the hassle of doing so at home.