How to wash a thrifted wool coat at home without ruining it
Professional dry cleaning is too expensive, but spot cleaning with wool detergent often fails to lift stains like food or dark marks. People resort to considering hand washing, soaking, or machine delicate cycles, but risk shrinking or destroying the fabric because they lack clear guidance on safe at-home cleaning.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1taking it to a dry cleaner
- 2spot cleaning with woolite
- 3soaking in a bathtub with cold water and OxiClean
- 4Using a zippered wash bag on delicate cycle
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I thrifted this white wool trench coat awhile back for three dollars and it has some small black marks on the collar, and there’s also a food stain on the pocket.”source ↗
“I know taking it to a dry cleaner is the obvious answer, but I don’t really have the money for that.”source ↗
“I’m wondering if I could just soak it in a bathtub full of cold water with some OxiClean and let it air dry? or would that shrink it? or possibly ruin it?”source ↗
“I have already tried spot cleaning it with woolite and that didn’t do anything.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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