The College Laundry Survival Guide
Ten rules for doing your own laundry without wrecking your clothes — plus a quick stain cheat sheet. Tape it inside the closet door.
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Garment care tips, behind-the-scenes stories, and the latest from our Arden Way shop — four decades of craft, written down.
Washing clothes too often wears them out and fades them faster, but washing too little is no good either. A garment by garment guide to how often to wash what you wear, how to tell when something actually needs it, and what over-washing costs you.
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Linen is the perfect Sacramento summer fabric, light and breathable and effortless looking, but it wrinkles fast and shrinks if you wash it wrong. How to wash and dry linen the right way, keep it from creasing, store it properly, and know when to hand it to a pro.
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Fall is full of the things we love, and most of them stain. A quick guide to treating the season's worst offenders — mud, pumpkin, apple cider, red wine, and grass — safely, plus when to leave a stain to a pro.
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Fur is skin with hair attached, which is why heat and dry air damage it far more than dirt ever will. Real fur, faux fur, and shearling each need different handling, and most of the damage happens in storage.
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When the Sacramento rain sets in, laundry takes forever to dry and picks up that damp, musty smell. Here is how to dry clothes indoors the right way, how to stop mildew before it starts, and how to rescue a load that already smells.
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Taking a garment in is easy. Letting it out depends entirely on the seam allowance the maker left behind. Here are the real limits of alterations and repairs, and how to show up to a fitting prepared.
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A burst pipe or flood does not have to mean losing your wardrobe, but the clock starts ticking the moment fabric gets wet. Here is why the first 48 hours matter, what to do and avoid right away, and how insurance claims fit in.
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Swimsuits rarely wear out from swimming. They die from chlorine left sitting in the fabric, sunscreen stains, hot dryers, and a winter spent folded away damp. Here is how to get more than one summer out of one.
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Cashmere and wool sweaters are wonderful to wear and painfully easy to ruin in a home wash. Here is why knits felt and shrink, how cashmere, merino, and lambswool differ, and when hand-washing is safe versus when to go professional.
ReadFour decades of garment know-how, distilled into printable one-pagers. Free to download — no email required.
Ten rules for doing your own laundry without wrecking your clothes — plus a quick stain cheat sheet. Tape it inside the closet door.
Every mystery symbol on your care tag, translated into plain English — on one printable page you can keep by the machine.
How to clean, fold, and store off-season pieces so they come out fresh next year — not yellowed, creased, or moth-bitten.