We all know that it’s important to take good care of our investment pieces — because we’ve spent so much money on them, of course — but if you take proper care of everything in your closet, your entire wardrobe will look better. In fact, if you’re extra careful with your less expensive things, they will last longer and look more pricey than they will if you ball them up and toss them in the wash without thinking.

The key to making your clothes last and look great is to know what the best choices for laundering are. You have a limited set of options, really: hand wash or machine wash, line dry or tumble dry, dry clean or … not dry clean. But the simplest options — machine wash, tumble dry, dry clean — are the ones that will ruin your clothes.

To keep your wardrobe looking great at every price point, try these laundry alternatives. You’ll be glad you did.

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Building a functional wardrobe means making smart choices about where to spend and where to save. A basic rule of thumb is this: Anything with a short shelf life should not be a splurge; save your money for pieces that will last more than one season.

So where can you cut corners?

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It’s inevitable - when planning an outfit for an upcoming event, I always go shopping for something new to wear. This behavior doesn’t do my pocketbook or the slew of clothing in my closet any favors. Truth is, I have plenty of clothing items to wear, but many of them just don’t fit exactly how I want. (A gaping waistline, the wrong inseam length, etc.)

Most of the items in question were found on sale, thus my “it’s not perfect, but it’s such a good deal” mentality. Yet these items end up gathering dust for reasons that, with the right tailor, could be very easily fixed. A snip here and a tuck there can instantly make a huge difference!

InStyle magazine recently published a piece on tailoring for perfection. Here are some tips for finding a skilled tailor, as well as what you can do to common items of clothing to create the perfect look.

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