We’ve all had it happen, you buy a sweater, you wash it once, and when you take it out of the washing machine it has those pesky little pilling balls all over it! I know, it’s SO frustrating! Lucky for you, I discovered a new tool and it’s the BEST way to save your clothes and remove pilling!

You might be thinking, yeah, I’ve seen one of those before, they don’t work. When I was younger my mom actually had something similar and it sort of worked, but not really. Well this isn’t my mom’s knock-off version, Hyman Inc.’s new Vanish Deluxe Fabric Shaver is no joke!

The Vanish Deluxe Fabric Shaver is the only fabric shaver that comes with 3 different heads. Each head is designed to remove everything from lint, fuzz balls and pilling from all types of fabric, everything from delicates to wool sweaters, and even furniture! It’s perfect for your delicate sweaters, or skirts, great for your kid’s brand new school clothes, and even works on your upholstered furniture.

I have a couple favorite items that I’ve never put in the dryer, but somehow they still ended up pilling, so when I received the Vanish Deluxe Fabric Shaver I was excited to put it to the test. In the picture below you can see how pilly (if that’s even a word) my sweater was.

On my sweater I used the Heavyweight Screen and the results speak for themselves! It looks brand new again!

Here’s another closeup so you can really see the difference.

Using the Vanish Deluxe Fabric Shaver is a great way to preserve your clothes and help them last longer, by improving their appearance. And remember it’s not limited to just your clothes, you can also use it on fabric upholstery, car seats, etc.!

Here’s what I learned:

• The product works most efficiently when you empty out the lint trap often. I found that when I didn’t empty it often enough, it took me longer, and the results weren’t as good.
• It takes time to get results. It took me about 10 minutes to do the front of this sweater but you can see it’s totally worth it because my sweater looks brand new again.
• I started out using a circular motion but had better, faster results when I went in an up/down motion on the fabric.
• The brand claims that the product doesn’t snag, even on seams, however in the process of de-pilling my sweater the product snagged multiple times, sometimes even on the flat parts (it was probably user error).

If you have a need to revamp your furniture, or some pilled clothing, you can purchase the Vanish Deluxe Fabric Shaver at Bed Bath and Beyond or, for your convenience it’s also available on Amazon (but it’s more expensive). Have fun de-pilling, I know I did!!!

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#1 Secure the corners

The first trick was inspired by duvet covers we purchased for our girls’ shared bedroom (they got big girl beds!).  When I first put the duvet covers over their comforters, I noticed at one short end of the duvet cover (on the inside) there were two fabric straps hanging from each corner.  I immediately knew what these were supposed to be for, but I kind of wondered: (1) why are there only two sets of straps, and (2) what am I supposed to tie these straps to?

I came up with a solution to the problem by using an old t-shirt to create my own loops and straps for the duvet and comforter.  On each corner of the comforter I attached a strap to make a loop and sewed it onto the comforter. No one will ever see the comforter without a duvet cover over it, so it doesn’t matter that my sewing abilities are novice level. Next, on the inside of the duvet cover, I sewed two straps on the corners that didn’t have straps.

These sets of loops and straps make it really easy to keep the comforter inside the duvet cover from slipping down when my girls tug the covers up over themselves at night.  And they make making their beds super easy, too.

#2 Putting the cover on

I have to wash our duvet covers a LOT – little kids are messy!  So, I need a really easy way to get the duvet cover on, and off, the comforter. The easier the process is, the more likely I am not to put it off until another day.

Here’s my tutorial for the simple process to get a duvet cover ON a comforter:

1. Place the duvet cover inside out, flat on top of the mattress, with the opening of the duvet, at the foot of the bed.
2. Lay the comforter on top of the duvet and tie the straps of the duvet cover to the loops of the comforter.
3. Starting at the head of the bed, roll the comforter, and the duvet cover, toward the foot of the bed.
4. When the comforter is fully rolled up, tuck the corners of the comforter inside the duvet cover. (see picture above).
5. Next button/snap the duvet cover at the opening.
6. Holding the corners that were at the foot of the bed, unroll the comforter back up toward the head of the bed.

It reads like it is a little bit complicated, but I promise, it isn’t!  It is as simple roll it in, roll it out.  I also made a video tutorial – so you can see how it’s done, and how easy it is to do!

I hope these two simple tricks will help you enjoy your duvet covers more, while also making it easy to help you keep them cleaned regularly. No more that late-night tugging and fighting with the duvet cover!

Leah

Simple.Home.Blessings.

Looking for more Simple.Home.Blessings.?  Here’s what’s new over at my site:

Work on de-cluttering your home with our Hope for Homemakers group.

Check out my Simple Strategies for Quick Cleaning

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Since 2 years in a row I’ve ended up with wax covered linens I thought I’d take the chance this year to do a little video tutorial for how to get wax off fabric to show you just how easy it really is! Here’s the original blog post from last year.

See, it’s really quite simple, so next time you have a wax disaster don’t freak out, just pull up this video and I’ll help you get it out! This same trick also works on clothes, carpet and hard surface flooring. Those are all the places I can think of right now but honestly every time we’ve used this trick it has worked.

If you are already following me on YouTube, that’s awesome, but if you didn’t know I had a YouTube channel, with lots of great tips, then CLICK HERE to subscribe!

The post How to get Wax off Fabric and Everything Else (Video Tutorial) appeared first on Ask Anna.

Hi there, it’s Kim from A Real-Life Housewife! Since the weather is warming up and you may be folding and storing your sweaters for the Spring and Summer, I thought it would be a great time to show you just how to do that! In this tutorial, I fold and hang my cardigan, but you can use this very same method and skip the hanger if you’ll be boxing them up for a few months. I personally just leave them hanging in my closet all year round so it’s really important that they are folded, not hung up, to avoid hanger marks in the arms. I became a sweater folding ninja while slaving away at a dry cleaners during college. Follow these steps and you can become one too!

Step 1: Buttons

If your sweater has buttons, do them up. If there are a lot, do every other one.

Step 2: Lay it Flat

Lay your sweater face down on any flat surface, making sure the side seams match up.

Step 3: Tissue Paper and First Fold

To prevent wrinkles, cut a piece of tissue paper a little smaller than the width and height of your sweater and place it in the middle. Fold one sleeve over so that there are 1-2 inches between the top of the fold and the collar.

Step 4: Sleeves

Now fold the sleeve against itself so that it’s edge runs parallel to the fold.

Do the exact same thing to the other sleeve.

Step 5: Insert Hanger

If you’re going to hang it, place the bottom of the hanger near the bottom of the sweater and lift up on the sweater, sliding the hanger on until it’s in the middle.

Gently let go of the sweater and you are finished!

No more hanger marks in the arms!

Kim

A Real-Life Housewife

Disclosure: I have included affiliate links in this post but if you purchase through them you will not pay a cent more than you would otherwise. Thank you for supporting Ask Anna!

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She is amazing and I have followed her blog for a long time, always in awe of her incredible talents, photography skills and adorable children! I am SO excited to have her here on Ask Anna where each month she will share her creativity with us. But today she has an awesome cleaning solution to a problem that I know we’ve ALL run into – how to get makeup stains out of clothes! I hope you enjoy this tip and please give her a warm welcome to the team!

I think we have all been there. You know the moment you find the PERFECT blouse or top and it’s hanging on the rack calling your name. You find yourself holding your breath hoping that the size you need is available. You do a quick HAPPY DANCE when you see the tag with the size your needing, grabbing it quickly before someone comes up behind and snatches it off the rack before you can you draw it out from behind the stack in front of it. With great joy you hold it up and your HAPPY DANCE and JOYFUL HEART begins to sink, the moment you see it MARKED and STAINED with Makeup all over it. You quickly do a FRANTIC search for another one in your size, only to find this Makeup stained blouse is the LAST one available in that size. Panic sets in and you quickly grab a floor attendant hoping that they may be able to pull a Makeup free blouse out of their pockets. You know it’s hopeless but you ask anyway, just on the off chance there might be ONE just ONE hiding somewhere else in the store.

“Sorry, but what’s on the floor is all we have.”

The big girl inside you says don’t CRY!!!! However the I NEED this blouse in my life, begins to take over your already emotional nerves and all you want to do is CRY!!!

They offer you 10% pff the purchase price…Like that’s REALLY an incentive, NOT!!!! 10%, REALLY!! This blouse is covered in someone else’s makeup and you can only give me 10% off. ( that’s what my inside self is saying).

I was just about to put the Blouse back on the rack when (true moment) all of a sudden a still small voice said, BRANCH BASICS!! Okay, so maybe the voice was a bit louder then a still small voice. I about screamed, “YES!!! I’ll take that 10% from you, because I have Branch Basics at home and it’s going to take the DIRTY right out of this MAKEUP stained shirt, your trying to sell me with only 10% off.

OKAY!!! I’ll be honest here, I was a bit nervous but the nerves didn’t out weigh the FAITH I had in this awesome ALL NATURAL cleaning product. My only fear was that this was a WHITE, silky type blouse and I wasn’t sure if once I added the BB it wouldn’t cause some sort of discoloration or cause the makeup to be driven deeper into the fibers of the fabric. It’s not like is was a color that could possibly hide such a case, it is WHITE and everything and anything is going to show itself.

I grabbed my handy dandy BB bottle (Branch Basics just recently re-did their packaging) and held my breath and began to AIM!!!!!

Right before I started aiming my BB Cleaner, I thought I should probably go get a towel to put underneath the blouse to absorb some of the moisture. I should of probably done that first, but I was anxious to see what BB was going to do. Little did I know that I was about to be AMAZED!!

THIS IS NO JOKE!!!!

I couldn’t even grab my camera soon enough before the MAKEUP began disappearing. I was stuck in between GRAB the camera and WHAT, THE WHAT!?!?!?

The Makeup was literally VANISHING before my eyes, it was like those INVISIBLE ink kind of pens. I thought that I was going to have to let it sit for a few hours then run it through the wash, I didn’t have to do either. The Makeup was GONE, ALL GONE!!!! There was no residual stains, no discoloration, no driving it into the fibers deeper… It was like it had NEVER been there.

I had a BRAND NEW blouse with an extra 10% off!!! Though I still believe 10% should be more like 20%, 25%, maybe even 50% or is that just being GREEDY???

I am so thankful for Branch Basics Cleaning Standard:

• Human Safe Soap. Not harmful if absorbed, inhaled or accidentally ingested (REALLY). Doesn’t irritate eyes or skin.
• 100% plant based, 100% non-toxic, 100% pure soap.
• No coloring or foaming agents.
• No preservatives.
• No pesticides.
• No GMO’s.-Fragrance Free.
• Made for sensitive immune systems.

I am super happy that I remembered my BB cleaner I had at home, because of that I am ONE blouse cuter today!

Angelina

JoJo and Eloise

Head over to Angelina’s blog to see what she’s up to! She is incredibly talented from sewing, to recipes, you name it, she’s good at it. And her kids are adorable, I can’t get enough of their sweet curls!

Organic Butternut Squash Pizza

Isabel Garreton Spring Dress

Kitchen Towel Turned into an Apron

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