Are you supposed to wash tote bags?

We love our tote bags for all kinds of purposes, rain or shine! Your totes, and also whatever you’ve managed to accumulate in them, may have come in contact with unwanted dirt or grime, so washing them on a regular basis is a good idea. While these reusable tote bags come in a variety of materials such as nylon, jute, cotton and plastic, they should be washed frequently—using different methods depending on the material.

You have had your cotton tote bag for a few months, and it’s due for a bit of a wash. But how should you wash your tote bag to ensure it maintains its shape and most importantly in a way that keeps the print as bright and bold as always?

Read on to find out how you can wash your cotton tote bag.

Spot Clean

If you have a stain on your tote bag, the easiest way to clean it is just with a spot clean, if you have a stain removing spray, just follow the directions on the bottle. If you don’t have a stain remover, great alternatives are baking soda mixed with a little warm water to create a paste which you can apply, leave for a little while and scrub off. Alternatively soak the affected area in solution of wine vinegar and warm water for a few hours and then rinse with fresh water.

Hand wash

If your whole bag needs a bit of a wash then we advise handwashing your bag, use your regular washing powder and lukewarm water to wash your tote bag. Gentle scrub your bag and try to avoid the print if possible as this can affect the colour and print if you scrub too hard!

Machine wash

Machine washing is not recommended because the wash and spin cycle can cause shrinkage and alter the colour and quality of your print. If you want to machine wash, we suggest putting your bag on a cool low spin cycle. By doing this you should maintain the size and print but do expect a slight distortion.

Wipe clean

If you’re cleaning a recent mark a simple wipe clean with hot water and soap will do the trick. For some of our bags like our Jutes a wipe clean is the only suitable method of cleaning as with other methods they may lose their stiff structure and become floppy!

Steam

Steaming your cotton bag is a great alternative to washing. Steaming will remove any creases, will clean long term discolouration, and may help to remove stubborn stains from your tote bag. By adding some essential oil or scented antibacterial liquid to your steamer you can also remove any unwanted smells.  

You may still have a few questions on how to keep your Ubuntu canvas bag squeaky clean. If so, see the FAQs below for more information.  

Can Ubuntu canvas bags be washed? 

Ubuntu bags should not be machine washed. You should hand-wash them instead. If you're in a pinch, please follow the guidelines above for a machine wash. Any bags with leather, sensitive designs, and other vulnerable additions should never be machine washed.  

How do you remove spilled lotion from the inside canvas tote? 

Remove as much of the lotion from the lining as possible. Sprinkle talcum powder or cornstarch onto the lotion-stained areas of the bag and leave it for a few hours. Remove the excess powder and wipe gently with a cloth and a mixture of mild detergent and warm water. Allow the bag to air dry. 

How to get sand out of my canvas bag? 

Remove all items from the bag and shake it upside down. This will get all the sand out of all the nooks and crannies. It's that easy! 

Can canvas bags be washed in the washing machine? 

Canvas tote bags can be machine washed; however, this should not be your go-to cleaning solution. Hand-washing is best.  

What is the best way to clean canvas? 

The best way to clean your canvas bag is to wash it by hand with a mild detergent or another cleaning solution like talcum powder or cornstarch. Wipe it gently with a damp, warm, white towel and allow it to air dry for the best results. This is best for maintaining washing safety during the occasional spot cleaning, too.

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You there! Yes, you in the darling Liberty print sundress- and-cardigan combination pushing your glasses up your nose, you. Your tote bag, dear, it's filthy and ruining the look of your entire outfit.

With summer right around the corner, this is a good time for us to talk about your tote and weekend travel bags, so you can keep them looking great from city to train to beach, or wherever you plan to go.

Lightweight Cotton Tote Bags

Let's start with the day-to-day tote bags — those lightweight cotton totes that you get for donating to fundraising drives, that come free with purchase at your favorite indie bookstore, or that you collect as your friends begin to get married and provide you with tiny water bottles and packets of Advil tucked neatly into reusable souvenir bags. You know the ones. You probably have at least five of them.

There's good and bad news about these bags. Let's start with the good news: They're super easy to wash. The bad news is that you're definitely not washing them often enough. Ho hum!

Tote bags that are used regularly will collect a great deal of grime, making them look, well, ratty.

Tote bags that are used regularly will collect a great deal of grime, making them look, well, ratty. And because we often toss our totes down on the ground, they're also gross from a bacterial perspective, which means that washing them regularly — every few weeks to months, depending on how often they're being used — is a very good thing to do.

Washing them regularly is also very easy to do; if you can do your own laundry, you can wash a tote bag, because they're almost always machine washable. There are a few things to note, however: Machine wash using cold water only. Cotton tote bags are highly prone to shrinking, so it's really important to avoid the use of warm or hot water. For that reason, you also shouldn't put tote bags in the dryer — even on a low-heat setting, they'll be likely to shrink. When the tote comes out of the wash it will be merely damp, thanks to the force of the final spin cycle, but it will look a bit crumpled. This may make you feel nervous! But don't feel nervous, it will turn out okay. The trick is to lay the bag flat and reshape it using your hands, paying particular attention to the straps or handles so that they don't dry all twisted up. If, after drying, the bag is wrinkled or the straps aren't laying flat, a quick going over with an iron on the medium setting will take care of that right quick.

And finally, if the tote is dyed in any way, you'll want to be sure it's colorfast before you wash it; if it has embellishments, it should be hand washed only.

Heavy Canvas Tote Bags

Heavier canvas tote bags, like the ever-popular L.L. Bean Boat and Totes, can be cleaned in exactly the same way as their lighter weight counterparts — in the machine, cold water only, reshape to air dry. The biggest difference here is that when the bag comes out of the wash it will be quite stiff and possibly creased in odd spots. That is okay! I really promise. You'll want to do your best to reshape the bag and then allow it to dry standing up. As it dries, the canvas will lose its stiffness and any odd creases will come out naturally.

In the event that your cotton or canvas tote bags have stains on them, it's important to pre-treat the spots using a spray like Shout or Zout before you launder the bags, since those stains will probably have been there for a while and will need the extra help to eliminate.

Thick Cotton Overnight Bags

Heavier quilted cotton overnight bags like those uber-polarizing Vera Bradley numbers can also go in the washing machine, but because they're often multicolored and not necessarily colorfast, there's a high risk of the dye running and bleeding into lighter colored areas of the bag. The best way to safeguard against that is to use a Shout Color Catcher in the wash. Just like with tote bags, use cold water to prevent shrinkage. However, unlike cotton or canvas totes, your overnight bag can go in the dryer, though it would be better to let the bag air dry. If you do want to machine dry, only use the low-heat cycle, as medium- or high-heat will be too hot for the cotton.

Nylon Tote and Overnight Bags

Nylon totes, like those great multicolored Hervé Chapelier numbers, are the most forgiving of the bunch, just toss 'em in the wash without concern for water temperature (cold is still best). You can skip the dryer with these because they'll basically come out of the wash almost entirely dry — any remaining moisture can be wiped with a dry towel and the bag will be pretty much ready to go (the straps may need 30 or so minutes to dry out completely).

Now that you know how (and how easy it is!) to clean your tote and overnight bags, you'll be looking so spiffy when you go on weekend jaunts and beach outings this summer!

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