Dance your way to clean wool blankets 💃

It is officially winter in the southern hemisphere. If you live in a colder region, it is time to break out the wool blankets. Picture this: you open the laundry cupboard to find the wool blankets you haven’t washed since you bought them or inherited them from Nan.

Is this the year you finally pluck up the courage to wash them? Stay tuned, dear reader, we’ll talk you through how to give that old woolly blanket the new lease on life it deserves.

Washing wool blankets can be intimidating, but life is too busy to be overwhelmed by a blanket. We’ve got a solution to your woolly problem.

Wool 101

Wool needs a specific type of detergent: liquid and protease-free. Proteases are enzymes that break down proteins into smaller compounds. Wool is a fibre made from protein, thus it will slowly break down if washed with protease enzymes. Protease is the most common enzyme included in detergents, which means you can rule out almost all enzyme detergents.

⭐ Great wool options are OMO/Persil Sensitive liquid, Dirt Delicates, and Fab liquid. For those interested, we tested out many more in our wool-wash roundup.

In terms of washing, wool is a durable fibre. It can handle heat and it can handle agitation, but not both at the same time. As long as you keep that in mind, you’ll be golden.

Wet wool gets really heavy, and wool-suitable machine cycles are typically only rated for 2–3 kg. This means for large blankets, your best bet is handwashing rather than using the machine.

Wash process

We said ‘handwashing’, but in this case, it’s easier to let your feet do the work.

Fill a bathtub or large container with lukewarm water, around 30°C. You’re aiming for ‘comfortable to stand in’ rather than ‘burn your toes’ hot.

Thoroughly mix in the detergent, then add the blanket. Let the blanket soak for about 15 minutes so it fully saturates and the detergent can start doing its thing.

💡 If the blanket was only lightly used and just needs freshening up, a shorter soak and a gentle swish around the tub may be all you need. Wool does not need to be washed as often as plant-based or synthetic fibres.

Let’s dance

Once your blanket is soaked, it’s time to agitate it. What’s the easiest way to do that with something this big?

You put on your sundance shoes and step on it.

If you’re not sure where to start and are regretting the decisions that led you to this moment, try gentle stepping and shifting your weight around so the whole blanket gets some movement. Think more of a box step or awkward waltz than the Irish jig. It sounds ridiculous, but it works incredibly well and is less risky than trying to force it through a machine wash.

Pop some music on and aim for three to four songs, around 10 minutes.

To rinse off your blanket, drain the water, refill with clean water, and repeat the process but without detergent. You might need to do this twice if the blanket is particularly dirty.

Tub thumping (laundry edition)

For those who want to embrace the wool stomp, we have a curated playlist you can stomp to. Let down your hair, hike up your bloomers, and dance to the beat. When the playlist ends, we recommend taking a bow. If needed, an encore performance should take place, although we find that once is enough in most situations.

Spinning it out

Once you’re happy it’s clean, let the blanket cool if the water is warm, then transfer it to your washing machine for a spin-only cycle at the highest speed.

This helps remove as much water as possible without putting a strain on your machine. Washing is the risky part, but spinning is generally fine.

Lay the blanket flat to dry and reshape it if needed. Avoid hanging, as the weight of the water can stretch it out and leave it looking a bit warped.

If you’re reading this and thinking you’d rather outsource the whole situation, dry cleaning is always an option. But if you’re willing to give it a go, this method is simple, effective, and oddly satisfying once you commit to the tub dance.