10 Cheap(ish) Laundry Aids to Help Your Clothes Look Better
This is not a comprehensive list of everything we tested in previous iterations of this guide, just what’s still available.Mesh laundry bagsUnlike the bags we recommend, the (much pricier) The Laundress Mesh Bags don’t have elasticized zipper covers, which makes them less secure and prone to opening in the wash. We’ve also seen complaints about the delicate mesh snagging and ripping.We liked the Muchfun Honeycomb Mesh Laundry Bags, which are made from a thicker, honeycomb-style mesh. But the Bagail set that we recommend comes with more bags in a variety of sizes, and we’ve found the zippers to be sturdier and more secure over the long haul.Drying racksSweater drying racksThe Storage Maniac Sweater Drying Rack looks similar to our OXO Folding Sweater Dryer pick — and, at about $40 for a set of four, it’s about half the price. Unfortunately, it’s much harder to disassemble and fold for storage than our pick, and it feels wobbly.Fabric shaversThe ColdSky Rechargeable Fabric Shaver looked promising on paper: It has six blades and a convenient digital display, and it costs less than $10. In practice, it disappointed: It was loud, the battery quickly ran out of charge, and when the shaver was on its highest setting, it produced a disturbing smell of overheated metal.The Homeasy Fabric Shaver — a sleek, six-blade rechargeable shaver with three settings and a digital display—was previously a much-beloved pick. (And my own test model continues to function beautifully.) But over time, problems have emerged. One Wirecutter editor said that, after less than a year, the battery on her Homeasy shaver stopped charging; another said that the blades on hers began to malfunction after about nine months. These issues, combined with the company’s lack of available customer service, mean that we can no longer recommend this product with confidence.The Nori Trim is an attractive and effective six-bladed rechargeable fabric shaver that comes with two handy replacement blades. It worked just as well as our Conair Rechargeable Fabric Shaver pick, with a lint trap that’s similarly easy to empty. But it has only one intensity setting, and we simply couldn’t justify its cost—at around $60, it’s twice as pricey as the Conair shaver.Unlike the other rechargeable electric de-fuzzers we tested, the Beautural Fabric Shaver and Lint Remover is battery-operated. Not only was it less powerful than the rechargeable models, but we noticed that its performance declined markedly as the battery life wore out.De-pilling toolsSweater combs and stonesThe Dritz Sweater Comb and Comfy Clothiers Cedar Wood Sweater Comb were more difficult to use than our Naadam Cashmere Comb pick. These inferior combs have finer teeth than the Naadam model, forcing you to press harder to remove pills (increasing the likelihood of snagging your garment). They’re also somewhat narrower, so it takes longer to cover the same amount of surface area. And the Dritz comb in particular, with its cheap plastic build, felt less sturdy and refined.The Quince Cashmere Comb is virtually identical to our Naadam sweater-comb pick — same materials, same dimensions — except it’s not as well made. Our Quince comb arrived with visible blobs of dried glue where the metal mesh attaches to the wooden handle, and the mesh itself was a little uneven. While this didn’t affect its performance in our tests, it made it less appealing to use — and it could impact its durability over time. Still, if you’re looking for a less expensive alternative to the Naadam comb, this is a decent option.We tried two virtually indistinguishable sweater stones, The Laundress Sweater Stone (no longer available) and the Dritz Clothing Care Sweater Stone, but we don’t recommend either. Both shed flakes of pumice onto our knits, smelled sulfuric, and failed at their primary mission of de-fuzzing.De-lintersLint rollersThe Insta-ready Flint lint roller comes in a rainbow of hues and certainly looks cute. Alas, its allure lies in branding and aesthetics more than actual performance. The Flint roller’s adhesive is weak compared with the sticky sheets of our pick, the Scotch-Brite Lint Roller, and we found its sheet perforations frustratingly difficult to tear.Lint brushes and lint combsWe wanted to like reusable lint-lifters. Though they’re more expensive than disposable rollers, you don’t need to buy refills (or add more paper to landfills). Unfortunately, the OXO Good Grips Furlifter — which OXO suggests mainly for removing pet hair, rather than lint — was far less effective than the sticky rollers we tried.Of all the tools we tested for this guide, the LintRolled Lint Cleaner Pro was the one that caused the most damage. Even when we used a light touch, it immediately snagged and frayed a linty sweatshirt.This article was edited by Ingela Ratledge Amundson and Jennifer Hunter. Dorie Chevlen wrote an earlier version of this article.
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