Use Your Razor To De-Pill Clothing

Back when I was a cash-strapped student I learnt the importance of looking after my clothing so my favourite pieces would last as long as possible and still look good. I remember I had a wonderfully comfortable black knit jumper that went well with everything, but with all the wear it would ‘pill’. One night I wanted to wear it out but it looked so old and, well, I was embarrassed. Out of desperation I took to it with my razor and shaved the pilling off!  When I started, I was uneasy about accidently cutting into the fabric and ruining the jumper but the razor glided easily over the fabric and removed all the pilling. It looked like new again and I’ve been using a razor to de-pill clothing ever since.

Using a razor to de-pill clothing is a handy little trick because almost everyone owns a razor already, meaning you don’t have to buy an extra ‘specialised’ product. This saves you money and keeps your consumption and clutter levels low. The minimalist and frugalist in me loves this!

So today one of my tasks was to pull out all the pilled clothing from my wardrobe and shave the pilling off.

If you want to give it a go simply lie the garment on a hard, flat surface and shave using quick, short strokes. A disposable razor or safety razor can be used, and as I discovered today when I started to get sick of it, so can clippers. One jumper didn’t really have pilling but it was fluffed-up all over and it would have taken a long time if I didn’t just run the clippers over it. I also used the clippers to de-pill a loose knit cardigan with great results.

Finally, don’t forget that you can resharpen your safety and disposable razors using a piece of denim fabric. Here’s a bunch of videos demonstrating. Some say to go in one direction and others say its best to go in the opposite direction as well. I haven’t worked out which is best yet but both ways seem to work.