How To Get Rid Of Lint On Clothes

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A fabric shaver is an effective way to remove lint bobbles. The razor blade is enclosed for safety.

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How to Remove Lint Bobbles and Fuzz Balls

Buy a fabric or sweater shaver. This my favorite method for lint removal. A sweater shaver or fabric defuzzer is simple to use and much safer than using a standard razor blade. But make sure you concentrate while you're removing the fuzz-balls, otherwise you'll remove too much of the fabric, and the surrounding material will become overly thin.
A sweater stone is like a pumice stone but designed especially for clothing. Just like smoothing away the rough skin from your feet, a sweater stone removes the rough parts from your clothes and the lint balls vanish like magic. This is a great standby to have in your purse for emergency defuzzing.
Use duct or sticky tape as a defuzzer. Cut a piece of tape and lay the sticky side on your clothes. As you pull it off, the pilling should come off with the tape. You can also buy lint rollers with sticky tape on a roll.
Use a very sharp pair of scissors to snip off each bobble individually. This is slow, but is a low-tech method of removing pills. Simply pull at the lint ball gently and cut off each one individually.

What Are Pills, Bobbles, Lint, or Fuzz Balls?

When clothes have been washed without care, you may see loose fibers start to appear on the surface of the fabric., The pills give a rough texture to an otherwise smooth fabric. There are many names for these tiny balls of fiber; pills, bobbles, lint balls, and fuzz-balls, to name just a few.

What Causes Lint Balls?

The cause of these lint bobbles can be puzzling, and some items of clothing are affected more than others. They occur during washing when a piece of clothing is subjected to friction. They can also result from regular wear and tear; the fabric being damaged by constant rubbing of the clothes throughout the day. For example, under the arms or where a seat-belt crosses the chest is often a site for fuzz-balls. You can take action to remove them, or better still, prevent them from happening in the first place.

How to Get Rid of Pilling on Clothes Using a Sweater Shaver

How to Prevent Pilling When Washing Clothes

In the washing machine, clothes are spun around and rub together. This friction causes damage to the fibers, creating unsightly pieces of lint. Here are some tips to prevent abrasion of fibers during washing:

Turn clothes inside out before washing them.
Use liquid detergent. This prevents abrasion damage from washing powder granules. If you do choose to use washing powder, make sure that it is completely dissolved in the water before adding the clothes.
Put vulnerable items into individual mesh laundry bags to prevent damage. This stops them from rubbing together and loosening fibers. I use mesh laundry bags. They come in various sizes, making them suitable for washing small lingerie items like bras as well as larger items like sweaters.
Wash different types of fabric items separately—for example, separate cotton from non-cotton and dark clothes from light clothes. The latter is important to prevent dark-colored dyes from transferring onto your whites. Don't include any fluffy garments or items that will shed fibers with other types of materials.
Use a lint-catcher with the wash. To make a DIY lint catcher, cut out a square of voile or netting (the kind of fabric used for a wedding veil). Then place it in the drum with your dirty washing. It will catch most of the fuzz and fluff produced during the wash.

Protect Your Laundry Against Fuzz Balls in the Tumble Dryer

Tumble drying can damage some types of fabric. The constant movement of the clothes during a cycle creates friction and abrasion, which can cause pilling. To prevent lint balls forming while drying your laundry, follow these easy tips.

Line-dry your clothes and use the tumble dryer as little as possible.
Dry knitted fabrics flat. This prevents the soft fibers from being pulled; knitted garments stretch with gravity when hung vertically to air-dry.

Other Ways to Minimize Pilling on Your Cotton, Wool, or Polyester Clothes

The amount of pilling depends on the type of fabric, the quality of the cloth, and how often you wear that item of clothing. Here are some tips to help minimize the likelihood of fuzz-balls on your clothes.

Before buying the article of clothing, test the fabric with Scotch tape to test the likelihood of pilling.
Buy quality. Longer fibers may cost more, but they fare better when washed.
Buy natural fibers. These are less likely to form surface pills.
Avoid contact abrasion when wearing. Protect delicate fabrics from rubbing when you are wearing them. For example, when driving, wrap a soft scarf around your seat-belt to prevent it from abrading your sweater.

1. Test Your Clothes to Check Likelihood of Pilling

Here's a simple test you can do before buying clothes. Take a small piece of sticky tape (Scotch tape or similar) and press it gently onto the fabric. Pull it off smartly and examine carefully. If you see lots of fibers on the tape, this means the material is vulnerable to pilling. If there are only a few fibers, you should have no fuzz problems providing the clothing is washed and dried according to its care instructions.

2. Fabric Quality and Price Can Affect Bobbling

The price you pay for fabric can sometimes, but not always, be an indicator of quality of fiber. Longer yarn fibers don't pill as much as shorter ones. In the manufacturing process, longer fibers can get damaged and broken. These are then mixed in with the short fibers and incorporated into cheaper fabrics. The relative scarcity of unbroken long fibers increases their value and price. Both fabrics made from natural fibers and ones made from synthetic fibers can suffer from fuzz balls. The length of the fiber in the yarn is the key factor, rather than its material or origin.

3. Natural vs. Synthetic Fibers

Natural fabrics shed as many fine fibers as synthetics, but these two fibers have different physical qualities. The fibers lost from natural fabrics break off from the main body of fabric. On synthetic yarns, these loose fibers form knots with fibers still attached and so are less likely to break off. These knots increase in size as other shedding fibers join the knot. These tangles are what we see as unsightly pills or bobbles on the surface of the fabric.

What Causes Fuzz Balls on Knits?

Fabric is made up of lengths of yarn that have been either woven or knitted to form a continuous mat. The yarn itself is a twisted rope of individual fibers, which vary in length according to their source. In general, the longer the fiber, the higher the quality of the finished yarn will be. Longer fibers are less likely to separate from their spun state and therefore less likely to create pills. Lint balls are tight tangles of fibers that have become loosened from the main twist of yarn. These tiny knots form on the surface of the fabric.

How to Minimize Fuzz on Cotton Clothes

Cotton is a common breathable fabric made from natural fibers, but it can still pill. Here are some tips to help you avoid getting lint balls on your favorite cotton items of clothing:

Wash non-cotton items separately. Do not include any fluffy garments or items that will shed fibers.
Turn clothing inside-out to minimize fuzz.
Put delicate fabrics inside a mesh laundry bag to prevent abrasion.
Use a lint-catcher with the wash.

Will Dry Cleaning Remove Lint Balls?

Dry cleaning is not designed to remove lint or fuzz balls. It is a method of cleaning delicate fabrics or those likely to shrink. It is great for removing stains and odors from clothes, but it doesn't repair damaged material. The process uses solvents instead of water or steam to remove ingrained dirt and proteins. Dry cleaning is often recommended as the best way to clean fragile and delicate fabrics as it is less likely to affect the physical structure of the cloth.

Why Does My Jacket Get Little Cotton Balls?

If lint balls are all over your jacket, then the cause is due to quality of the fabric, and the way the garment has been washed. Cheap fabrics are often labelled "dry clean only" and this is to prevent lint bobbling, and shrinkage. Alternatively, fuzzballs may only be visible on underarm areas, and across the chest. These are caused by abrasion from your arm moving against your body, and your car seatbelt rubbing against the jacket. You should follow the advice given earlier in this article regarding care of your garment.

This content is accurate and true to the best of the author's knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.