Keeping your clothes pristine may seem easy, but sometimes clothes can gather dust, lint, fluff, and animal dander simply by wearing items throughout the day. Exposure to everyday life can mean that our clothes become a magnet for such debris.
However, to fix this issue, rather than buying a lint roller and constantly brushing yourself, cleaning guru Chantel Mila shared a laundry trick that means you won’t have to do any extra steps. The TikTok creator, better known as Mama Mila, recently shared three of her favourite cleaning hacks that everyone should know about.
When it comes to removing pet dander and annoying fluff that has clung onto clothes, you won’t need to worry about using a lint roller or Sellotape to remove them. Instead, all you need is to add a common bathroom item to the washing machine when doing laundry. Simply add a wet wipe to the load and watch it remove annoying fluff and pet hairs from clothing.
Chantel wrote in the video’s caption: “Remove pet hair and fluff from your clothes by adding a baby wipe to your load. The baby wipe creates static that attracts the hair and fluff so it stays away from your clothes.”
Adding a wet wipe to a washing machine helps remove lint, pet hair, and fluff by acting as a magnet that attracts fibres during a regular washing cycle. The friction and texture of the wipe, combined with its moist nature, bind the loose, clinging particles. This prevents the debris from sticking back onto the clothes. It works in the same way a dryer sheet would if you put it in the washing machine. Depending on the size of the load, you should aim to put between one and three wet wipes into the washing machine drum, according to PetBook.
Margeaux Baulch Klein tested out the hack for 10 News San Diego. She said: “The wipe certainly picked up a lot of dog hair. However, it didn’t magically attract every piece of lint in the washing machine to it like a magnet, so the seat cover still had some hairs sticking to it — although significantly less than before. Considering the size of the seat cover and how dirty it was, I would still say that this hack was a win. And, in the future, I would try adding more than one wipe to the wash to boost the cleaning power. Overall, this seems like a great laundry hack. While the lint traps and dryer sheets basically do the same thing, this trick is ideal for delicate clothes that require air-drying since it removes loose pet hair, lint and dirt in the washing machine, rather than the dryer. Plus, it leaves clothes visibly cleaner, so you have much less to brush out with a lint roller.”
However, the experts at PetBook urged people to be careful when using wet wipes in the washing machine. The experts explained that due to wet wipes being made from soft materials, there is a chance that they can decompose at high temperatures. Ensure that your washing cycle is at a low temperature to avoid any issues. The experts said: “Simple, effective, and without additional devices – the trick with wet wipes can indeed help remove pesky pet hair from laundry. However, environmentally conscious individuals should not use it permanently but as an occasional solution for particularly ‘hairy cases.’”
