Use This Bathroom Staple To Easily Remove Lint From Your Laundry

Lint and pilling on clothing and other fabrics is usually inevitable, even if you don't machine wash your garments. This has led to a range of inventions to remove all of those annoying textile fibers, including electric fabric shavers, double-sided lint brushes, and adhesive lint removers. You can also use an item that's probably in a pedicure kit under your bathroom sink: a pumice stone.

Known for its abrasive texture, pumice is a natural, porous, lightweight type of volcanic rock. It's commonly used to exfoliate callused heels and other areas of the body with dry, cracked, hardened skin. Some people even use them to clean their toilets, stoves, and tubs. Just as they can remove dead skin from your feet, pumice stones can remove lint from your fabrics within seconds. Although it's usually shaped into seemingly safe oval-shaped or rectangular stones before ending up on store shelves, there are still some do's and don'ts to be mindful of when using them on your clothing.

Removing lint with a pumice stone is just as easy as it is with any other lint-removing tool, if not easier. Place your garment, or any other item you wish to de-lint, on a hard, flat surface. You can also hang it up. Take the pumice stone and gently brush it against the fabric in the same direction as the grain. After a few strokes, you should see the lint particles transfer from the cloth to the pumice stone. When you start to notice a noticeable amount of lint on the stone, pull the lint off and start again with a fresh stone surface.

How exactly does pumice remove lint? The coarse texture of the pumice stone acts as sandpaper and essentially "shaves" the lint off of the cloth surface. This gives you comparable results to electric fabric shavers but for a fraction of the cost. Electric shavers typically cost at least $10. In comparison, you can purchase a pumice stone for about two bucks at Walmart.

If you've ever used a pumice stone on your heels, you know the tool presents the risk of over-exfoliation, which can remove the skin's protective barrier. The stone can pose some risks to your laundry items as well, particularly to garments made of a certain type of material. It should not be used on wool, mohair, or cashmere, as it can damage or even ruin these fabrics (via Molly Suds). 

For other fabrics, avoid passing the stone too vigorously over the surface, which can leave unwanted snags or remove more than just loose lint. Use short, gentle strokes instead. Another tip to keep in mind involves the direction of your strokes. Always move the stone in one direction, so if you use downward strokes, use only downward strokes. If you use upward strokes, use only upward strokes. A pumice stone can be a great, low-cost, and effective way to remove lint from your laundry, as long as you work gently and avoid damage.