What to Buy
I’ve done tons of research, read thousands of reviews, and tried dozens of products in my pursuit of how to properly wash wool at home. Here are my recommendations for what to buy to keep your wool in top condition for years to come!
Wool Detergents
This detergent is one of my absolute favorites! It is specifically designed for wool, gently conditioning the fibers while removing debris. It’s eco-friendly, too! The original scent has a beautiful, slightly floral smell, but it also comes in a Fragrance Free version that swaps the tea tree oil for coconut oil!
Soak is my personal favorite for a true unscented detergent, but they have a wide variety of fun and refreshing scents like Pineapple and Fig, too! It’s super concentrated, so this little bottle gets you 75 washes! It’s delicate enough for lace and silk, not just wool, and contains conditioners that soften your favorite sweater. They boast it has a no-rinse formula if you’re in a hurry, but a gentle rinse certainly won’t hurt either!
Ecover makes some of the best gentle detergents for washing your wool at home. As the name implies, they have strong eco focus, use only vegan and biodegradable ingredients, and make everything in a zero-waste certified factory! Their wool formula comes in a wide variety of scents in their native Europe, but I’ve only found the Waterlilly & Honeydew variety in the US. It’s a bright, refreshing, and unique scent in the laundry world!
If you’re on a budget, this is the most affordable wool detergent on the market. It’s not quite as effective or concentrated as some of the others, but it’s a tried-and-true, hypoallergenic formula that has been popular for decades! These days Woolite makes a wide variety of products, but only their Delicates line is actually intended for wool, so don’t get fooled into getting a big jug of regular detergent, just because it has “Woolite” on the label. But if you want a big jug, the Delicates comes in a jumbo size, too!
Kookaburra is a hidden gem of the detergent world! It’s biodegradable, hypoallergenic, gentle on fabrics, and works for both handwashing and washing machines. This one has a light floral scent, but there’s also a Lavender version if that’s your thing.
Dirty Labs has a strong eco-focus, making sure that all of its ingredients are as safe for the environment, your baby, and your pets as they are for your wool. It also features a special enzymatic cleaner called Phytolase to remove stains and odors. The ingredients are all hypoallergenic, biodegradable, vegan, and cruelty-free. The original formula has an absolutely gorgeous, slightly woodsy scent, but it also comes in Floral and also Fragrance Free versions!
Pro Tip: it comes in an even bigger, “refill” size, too!
Laundry Products
Mesh laundry bags keep your delicate wool items together, providing support and preventing tangles and damage. These garment bags from Kimmama are my absolute favorite! They’re thick and durable, have quality stitching, and a little elastic tab to hold the zipper in place!
Drying racks are an absolute godsend for drying wool items flat! Not only do they provide a much-needed flat surface, they fold up flat for easy storage. There are a lot that all look a like, but this one from SONGMICS stands above the rest thanks to its thicker, sturdier frame and second layer that doubles the amount of drying surface!
Wool likes to breath! If you have garments or blankets that you only use seasonally, breathable canvas storage bags are the perfect way to protect your wool from dirt and dust, while preventing any stuffy odors. These bags from Omygarden have sturdy handles and zippers, making them easy to use and sure to last for years!
Delicate garment brushes are the perfect way to get dust, dirt, and lint off of your clothes and blankets. Have you ever tried using a lint roller on wool? It sticks to the fibers as much as the lint! This German-made brush uses ultra-fine, natural bristles that are gentle enough for cashmere. These work great for fluffing up blankets, too!
While generally you don’t want to use heat with wool, a light steam is safe and effective for getting stubborn wrinkles out of sweaters or blankets. This one from Conair is my favorite, because it’s light, portable, and features five intensity levels, including a delicate setting perfect for wool!
Here’s a bonus! These aren’t for washing wool, but washing other stuff with wool. Or drying them, to be exact. You should never put wool garments in the dryer, but these 100% New Zealand wool dryer balls are the perfect way to keep the rest of your clothes and linens soft and wrinkle-free! Dryer sheets use unnatural chemicals to artificially soften your clothes, reducing their lifespan and damaging the fibers. Wool dryer balls like this give you all of the softness with none of the chemicals!