Our first top tip is to avoid cutting off the care labels and tags. If you do this when you purchase your schoolwear you will not have access to the individual care instructions particular to this garment. Many children hate tags scratching around their neck which is why most our schoolwear suppliers now affix care labels to the sides of garments.

• 1.Wash dark colour schoolwear separately. You would think everyone knows this one but you still see people walking around with whites that are clearly no longer white. In addition stronger colours fade. Always wash like colours schoolwear with like colours where possible. We recommend that you divide your wash up into three loads as a general rule. (Whites, Colours and Darks). Always Wash whites with whites and if you use beaching agents or detergents such as DAZ, Keep It White etc they should stay white.
• 2.Know your detergents. Again it seems like such a basic requirement but you should always read the back of the detergents and see what their composition is. You will find many of them have bleaching agents in them which render them unsuitable for dark colour washes. “Cheapest price” or what is on special offer is not always best when it comes to choosing a detergent. You must consider the total cost of the clothing you regularly wash. If you have to replace school uniforms because of fading and bleaching you will find that those special offer detergents cost a whole lot more than you bargained for.
• 3.How much is enough. Nowadays most detergents come in liquid or capsule pre set doses. Capsules are always best as you do not vary the dose. If you use a washing liquid or a powder then it comes with a measure. Please adhere to the recommended measures and resist the urge to self prescribe the dose. Our schoolwear supplier, Deerpark, told us an unusual story; they received reports of fading of knitwear in a certain radius area. They tested the yarns and were satisfied that they were meeting their high exacting standard. They next spoke to the parents in the area about howt hey used to wash the garments and discovered that a new German discount store had opened a branch in the local area. Parents had switched from the mainstream brands to the German chains own brand washing detergents. Furthermore they discovered that parents were of the opinion that because it was a cheaper washing detergent they figured that it was not as strong as the main brands and as such they were adding more detergent than the recommended amounts to the cycle and bleaching the washes. Mystery solved!
• 4.Know what you are washing. Not only do you have to consider the colours you are washing you should also consider the material types, delicate, silks, cotton, wools, synthetic etc. All washing machines nowadays have programmes and cycles to suit most types of clothing. Study the school uniform labels carefully. What material composition are they made up of? Choose cycles that will wash the schoolwear according to its composition and colour.
• 5.Wash Schoolwear at the recommended temperature. Yet again another basic fact but very much overlooked. It is well known that high temperatures will shrink items, especially natural materials such as wool. If in doubt a 30 degree wash is always a safe bet.
• 6.Remove washed Schoolwear from washing machine immediately. When the cycle is finished you should remove the wet items from the washing machine immediately. This will avoid causing additional creasing. At this stage again you should pay attention to the care instructions. If the item is wool, hanging it will cause it to stretch. Your particular schoolwear garment care label will tell you exactly how to dry it. E.g. fry flat, use a dryer.
• 7.Beware of the Iron. Again your garment care label will detail the exact program or material type you should iron at. Never iron anything without referring to this information. Fortunately for us iron manufactures have developed new technology that enables the Iorns to detect the material composition it is ironing and then the iron automatically adjusts the temperature to suit. As this is a relatively new feature most of us don’t have this so for now we will have to read ironing care instructions and adjust setting manually. ~
  
  That concludes our 7 tips to prolong the life of your childs schoolwear. If you do this then you should get 2-3 years out of your Children School uniforms so that you can pass it on to the next chlild or donate to charity. While none of it seems rocket science you would be surprised how many parents out there ignore this simple common sense to their detriment.