There’s an easy trick for how to wash a hat, without ruining its shape. This tutorial will teach you how to pre-treat, and wash your hats.
Continuing with my Love to Clean series, today I’m going to be sharing a no-fuss way for how to wash a hat.
This is a trick I learned many many moons ago from my mom. My dad has always loved to wear hats, and even as a little girl, I remember him wearing lots of baseball caps. The only problem with always wearing a hat is that you end up with a lot of dirty hats, or a really dirty favorite hat!
You would think, “hats are fabric”, so just toss them in the washing machine, but you don’t want to do that because all the tumbling inside the washing machine will make the hat lose its shape.
Luckily there’s an easy trick for how to wash a hat, without ruining their shape, and without having to hand wash it.
How to wash hats, here’s what you need:
- Dishwasher
- Dishwasher detergent (this is the one I use)
- White Vinegar (optional)
- Baking Soda (or Oxiclean)
Washing Instructions:
Before doing anything else, make sure to remove any crusty dirt from the hat, by rinsing with warm water and a wash cloth.
If the hat(s) are really dirty, and stinky, pre-treat the dirty areas by spraying them with white vinegar. Let the vinegar soak for about 10 minutes.
If there are really bad sweat stains on the brim, you can spot-clean them by sprinkling the stains with baking soda. Baking soda is a great stain remover, I use it to get stains out of all sorts of things! If you don’t have baking soda on hand, you can also use Oxiclean.
After sprinkling it on, spraying it with vinegar, or use warm water, if you don’t have white vinegar. Then lightly scrub the hat with a toothbrush, or other soft bristle cleaning brush.
After the hat has been pre-treated for stains (and stink), place the hat on the top rack of the dishwasher. I usually run the hats through a full cycle with a load of pre-rinsed dishes. However if you aren’t comfortable having dishes in the dishwasher too, then fill up the top rack with all your hats and run them all at once.
Use regular dishwasher detergent in the load, it works great for washing your hats! Or if you’re not comfortable with that, you can use vinegar.
After the dishwasher has finished it’s cycle remove the hats, lay them out on a towel to air-dry.
It’s as simple as that!
By pre-treating your hats and running them through the dishwasher your hats will be clean and smell fresh all over again!
If you have a wool baseball cap, older hats you love, or vintage hats, I do not recommend placing it in the dishwasher because the hot water could cause the hat to shrink or lose it’s hat form. I recommend using warm water and some dish soap, or other mild detergent to spot-clean the hats in the sink.
Also, never use bleach on a baseball hats, because if the bleach isn’t properly washed out, it could irritate your skin when you wear it next.
Did you know this is one of my most popular posts!? To see more cleaning hacks that people love, click on the titles below:
- How to Clean Between the Oven Glass
- How to Get rid of HE Washing Machine Smell
- How to Wash Pillows in a Front Loading Washing Machine
- How to Clean Baked on Grease off Pots and Pans
- How to Clean Oven Glass so it looks Brand New
- How to get Nail Polish off Wood Floors
- How to Clean your Dyson
- How to Clean Cloudy Glass
- How to Wash a Baseball Cap
- DIY Homemade Laundry Detergent and WHY it works so well
To read other easy cleaning tips in the Love to Clean Series, click the links below.
- Tips for Washing Windows and Mirrors
- The Benefits of Vacuuming and More
- How to Clean the Kitchen Sink
- How to Clean Retainers
- How to clean cloudy glass
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Hi Anna,
I loved this tip and I need it! Thanks so much!
Ginny
Did you use dishwasher detergent in the detergent cup with the full cycle?
Yep.
Hi, I’m a farmwife and we have a small seed wheat company in SW Kansas so caps are a long part of my life. This works well, but when you dry them, think about doing it over a small bowl or something shaped like the hat. That will keep the shape better. There are three different styles to these hats. There are short billed and fairly straight. Med. and then very long shades the sun better. There are very tall in the hat part, med, and then very short. The fashions come and go in these too. The point is, if your forehead is lower or your ears taller on your head, go with the shorter rise caps. If you need some air up there or space for thick hair or have a tall forehead, go for the higher rise.
Just a thought or two.
You can also wash your hat in the regular washer on small load, it is the spin cycle that is more problematic, put it on delicate or permanent press. then ‘block’ your hat on a bowl, pot, or wadded up nylon net to dry it.
I just put them in the washing machine gentle cycle >_>