How to take care of your Norquest bag

Care tips for Norquest bags

If you are on this blog, we are pretty sure, you have either purchased an eco-friendly cotton/ jute bag or looking for one. Regardless, just as everything needs care, these bags need some TLC too. Check this out for some easy tips on bag care.

Cotton bags

Cotton is soft, breathable and extremely versatile. Cotton bags are biodegradable, aesthetically pleasing, printable and much more durable as compared to their plastic counterparts. However, cotton bags do need special care! Cotton, due to its composition, can collect dirt. You will need to understand how to care for your bag!. If you’re using the bag once or twice a week for running errands and grocery shopping, you will need to wash it!

The washing ritual should be more frequent as the bacteria from the fresh produce clings to the cotton bags and grows without you noticing. Ideally, you should wash your cotton bag 4-5 times every month if you use it for grocery shopping and once if you use it for carrying around essentials that don’t include anything fresh.

Now coming to the washing part, you can throw in your cotton bag with the laundry if you are washing on a cold setting. It is advisable to not wash it with warm water. Cotton shrinks and warps when washed in warm water. However, it is pretty easy to wash and takes very less time so you can even wash it with hands if you don’t want to throw it in with other laundry.

Here’s how to wash it with your hands

  1. Shake all the dry dust from the bag.
  2. Soak it in a bucket full of water and some detergent for 10 minutes.
  3. Gently remove all the stains by rubbing gently with your hands in a circular motion.
  4. Rinse the bag until all the detergent is removed.
  5. Let it dry naturally on a line. Don’t wring it too much, otherwise, you risk damaging the fibres. (as with your other clothes!)
  6. Your bag is clean and ready to use again!

Jute bags

Jute is one of the only few fabrics that do not need frequent cleaning, especially from the outside. Jute is highly resistant to dirt. Shake it a couple of times to clean it and you are good to go. However, it does require some cleaning which is mostly dry. Dry cleaning is more preferable as jute bags have the tendency to become discoloured, stained or mildewed if not handled properly.

If you must wash it with water, consider washing it manually. If there are stains, you can consider handwashing separately with cool water using a mild soap or detergent. It is advised to not wring or twist the wet fabric. This is because jute fabrics or burlap is greatly weakened by mishandling or putting strain on it.

Burlap can shed fibres hence it is always recommended to wash it separately. Jute bags should be air dried or line dried away from direct sunlight.

Canvas bags

Canvas bags are popular for all the good reasons. They are strong, durable and versatile. And canvas bags require little care. You can use stain removers and hard detergents on your canvas bags without having to worry about the damage.

If the bag is screen or digital printed, machine wash is not recommended. Wash it manually with your hands in cold water to clean the dirt. In case of heavy stains take some detergent or stain remover in warm water and scrub the areas that show heavy soiling.

If your canvas bag is dyed, wash it separately. If you wish to wash it with other clothes, do a colour bleeding test. If your bag doesn’t bleed colours, then it is perfectly ok to wash your bag with other clothes. After washing, wring out the excess water and dry it naturally on a cloth line. Voila! You get a clean, fresh canvas bag, almost good as new in no time.

P.S. All of Norquest bags are already subject to colour bleeding tests, we ask you to check just to be on the safe side!

If you have any doubts regarding how to wash bags, feel free to contact us.

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