Is It Better to Wash Clothes Inside Out? What Pros Say

Laundry piles up quickly and tackling it can feel like a hassle, but washing your clothes inside out is a simple step to make your laundry day go more smoothly, because it turns out there are plenty of benefits to doing so. There are also drawbacks to the habit. Here, two laundry experts weigh in with their insights on why you should (and when you shouldn’t) wash your clothes inside out.

Why You Should Wash Clothes Inside Out

Turning your clothes inside out before washing them helps protect colors from fading. Also, turning clothes like jeans inside out helps prevent irritation to other items with sensitive fabrics that can be damaged from rubbing up against zippers, buttons, and heavy materials. 

“Washing clothes and turning them inside out will help protect the outer fabric from friction during washing, which is crucial for preserving their color and making clothes look new,” says Forrest Webber, owner of Bear Brothers Cleaning in Huntsville, Alabama. “It can also protect the clothes prints and embroidery, and it will thoroughly clean the interior garments because it removes sweat, body oils, and skin cells from the clothes.”

Although it’s technically impossible to completely prevent fading in fabrics, turning clothes inside out slows down the process. So those favorite jeans or T-shirts that you love can last a little bit longer. 

“The truth is that, over time, even expensive cotton will fade and grow softer (this is how your favorite T-shirt gets the supersoft feel you want, and how your denim gets the perfectly broken-in feeling),” says Tom Ceconi, president of Heritage Park Laundry Essentials. “But if preserving color is your goal, you can wash these items inside out and delay the fading process a bit.”

Clothes That Should Be Washed Inside Out

Most clothing should be turned inside out before washing. This includes:

• Jeans
• Athletic wear
• Cotton shirts
• Bright colors
• Dark colors
• Delicate materials that do not have stains on them

Sweaty workout clothing is a great candidate for inside out washing. Sure, these items are made of performance fabric meant to wick away sweat, but according to Ceconi, “The fabric interior that comes in contact with your body takes the brunt of the sweat, oil, deodorant, creams, lotions, and—of course—odor.” This category also includes some sports uniforms (provided they don’t have dirt on them) and even regular clothing that has gotten sweaty.

If you have dark or brightly colored clothing and want to maintain the color vibrancy, turn the item inside out before washing it. “This will prevent the fading of clothes with dark or bright-colored garments and will maintain embroidery or screen prints,” Webber says.

Clothes That Shouldn’t Be Washed Inside Out

Although most clothes should be turned inside out before washing, some have other requirements. If you have stains on your clothes, you’ll need to pre-treat the stains and clean the items right side out. This helps remove the stains as well as possible. 

“The drawback to laundering clothing inside out is simple: less effective stain removal,” Ceconi says. “For this reason, we recommend washing stained items right-side out and, of course, pre-treating them.” This likely includes:

• Baby, toddler, and child clothing
• Clothes worn for yardwork or other ‘dirty’ projects
• Athletic wear that picks up field dirt (think: football uniforms, baseball pants)