Care for your clothes
Wash them right – for the sake of the environment and your clothes!
Thinking about how you wash your clothes will help to lessen your environmental impact and conserve natural resources – and your clothes will also last longer.
Washing instructions
The washing instructions for your garment sometimes contain extra information on caring for the item. Here are a few more tips on caring for certain materials and garments.
Details
Take off removable details and do up Velcro and zip fastenings before washing. Wash nylon tights and delicate garments with details in a laundry bag.
Chunky-knits
Chunky-knits should be reshaped and dried flat to maintain the original shape, which is why these garments are additionally labelled “Dry flat”.
Linen
Linen is a natural material and can easily get misshapen when wet. To restore the garment to its original shape, iron it with a hot steam iron. To keep its sheen, iron the garment on the reverse side.
Viscose
Viscose is a natural material and can easily get misshapen when wet. To restore the garment easily to its original shape, iron it with a steam iron.
Silk
Silk is a very delicate material and should be treated with care. Use a detergent for delicates when washing silk and do not stretch the garment while wet.
Wool
Often, airing woollen garments is enough. Use a detergent for delicates when you do wash them. Use the wool or hand wash cycle on your washing machine or wash by hand. Iron after washing to restore the natural sheen.
Denim
Wash jeans inside out to stop them fading. Remove them from the washing machine as soon as possible after the programme has ended to avoid creasing. Denim’s characteristic appearance is the result of a special dyeing method. As a result, small pigment particles may remain on the surface and can rub off.
Leather
Leather and suede items should be taken to a specialist leather dry cleaner.
Down jackets
Place tennis balls in the tumble dryer when drying down garments to distribute the down evenly. The down must be dried completely.
Rainwear
Rainwear should drip-dry. If you dry them in a drying cabinet, do so at a low temperature.
Washing clothes and the environment
H&M works actively on environmental matters related to production and transport in order to limit our environmental impact. The greatest share of energy consumption, however, occurs when you wash your clothes.
Energy consumption during the lifetime of a T-shirt from washing, tumble drying and ironing
Energy distribution during the lifetime of a cotton T-shirt. The “use” phase covers: washing 25 times at 60°, with tumble drying and ironing. (Source: “Well dressed?” By: University of Cambridge Institute for Manufacturing)
- Don’t wash clothes unnecessarily
Don’t wash clothes that are not dirty. Often, airing and brushing clothes is enough. - Lower the washing temperature
H&M always labels its garments with the highest permitted temperature. But you can select a lower washing temperature to save energy. Most detergents wash just as well at lower temperatures. Washing at 40°C uses around half as much energy as washing at 60°C. H&M recommends that heavily soiled clothes and underwear are always washed at the highest temperature allowed. But do not wash your garments at hotter temperatures than stated in the washing instructions. - Fill your washing machine
Sort the clothes by colour and washing temperature. Fill up your washing machine, but don’t stuff too much in. A washing machine is full when you can place a clenched fist on top of the washing without compressing the clothes. Use an energy saving programme – most modern washing machines have one. - Choose a “green” detergent
Use an environmentally friendly detergent that is free from optical whiteners and phosphates, since these have a negative environmental impact when released into nature. Dose the detergent as stated on the packaging. Overdosing detergent will not make your clothes cleaner. To get the dose right, you need to know whether you have hard or soft water.
Avoid fabric conditioners, although H&M recommends that acrylic garments are washed with fabric conditioner to counter static electricity in the garment after washing. - Avoid dry cleaning
Dry cleaning is a process in which the clothes are cleaned using an organic solvent. Dry cleaning has a negative environmental impact when the solvent is released into nature. A small proportion of H&M’s garments are dry clean only, because they contain details or materials than could change colour or become misshapen by washing at home. Today, there are also greener methods of dry cleaning that clean the clothes using only water and carbon dioxide reclaimed from industry. This type of dry cleaning therefore does not release chemicals. - Leave your washing out to dry
It is preferable to leave your washing out to dry since tumble drying and drying cabinets use a lot of energy. To reduce drying time, spin the clothes well before taking them out of the washing machine. - Give away your clothes!
When you no longer have a use for clothes, give them to an organisation that can extend the garment’s life.
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Washing
The temperature limit shall be 60℃. Machine washable.
The temperature limit shall be 40℃. Machine washable.
The temperature limit shall be 40℃. Should be washed with slow water current by machine or gentle by hand.
Use neutral detergent (i.e. mild detergent)
The temperature limit shall be 30℃. Should be washed with slow water current by machine or gentle by hand.
Use neutral detergent (i.e. mild detergent)
The temperature limit shall be 30℃. Should be washed gentle by hands.
Cannot be washed with water.
Chlorine-based bleaching
Chlorine-based bleaching allowed.
Do not use chlorine bleach.
Ironing
Should be ironed at high temperature 180℃-210℃
Should be ironed at medium temperature 140℃-180℃
Should be ironed at low temperature 80℃-120℃
Cannot be ironed.
Drying
To maintain the garment's original look it's important to notice the symbol that indicates whether it should be tumble dried or not. Never tumble dry garments that cannot take tumble-drying! If you choose to dry your garments in an airing cupboard you have to make sure that the temperature does not exceed the one given on the care label. Drying at room temperature is the best thing for many garments. Heavy knits should be reshaped and dried flat - H&M uses the additional text "dry flat".
Should be hang to dry.
Should be hang to dry in the shade.
Should be laid down to dry.
Should be laid down to dry in the shade.
Dry-cleaning/Leather specialist
For some of our garments we recommend dry-cleaning. The reason for this may be that the clothes contain details/materials such as shoulder pads, fur collars and acetate linings that may discolour or shrink if washed in water. Leather and suede garments should always be cleaned by a leather specialist.
Dry-clean with regular dry cleaning fluids.
Do not dry-clean. No stain removal with solvents.