So you want to do the right thing by the environment and have ditched plastic bags for your event in favour of promotional cotton calico bags. But what happens if your beautiful new bags made of natural materials end up getting dirty or stained? It turns out there are a few tried-and-true techniques to help keep your bags looking as good as new. Check out our best tips below.

Testing Your Bags Before Washing

First and foremost if your promotional bags have custom printing, you'll want to test them by dipping a small part of the bag featuring the design into a shallow bowl of cold water. Leave the calico bag to soak for 15 minutes. This is a colourfast test -- we want to be sure your design won't run or fade if the entire bag is put in water (though if your bag has been branded by Cubic Promote, this is extremely unlikely due to how we treat our bags to ensure colours lock-in).

Once 15 minutes is up, take your bag out of the water and wring it onto a paper or old cotton towel (to absorb the water) or onto your grass outside. If any colour is visible in the bowl of water or any coloured water comes out with the wringing, your bag is not colourfast, and you will need to manually clean each patch with a damp cloth to ensure your design doesn't bleed or fade.

However, if you don't get any colour in your water, then your bag has been properly treated during the print process, and it is good to go for a more thorough cleaning!

Washing Your Custom Calico Bags

Once you've confirmed your print can withstand a soak in water, the actual washing process is not too dissimilar from cleaning similar cloth products. To machine wash;

• Add the bag to your cold water wash (preferably with towels and cloths rather than clothes)
• Use a small amount of natural cleansing agent if the bag is visibly dirty
• Wash, rinse, and hang out to dry with the print facing away from the sun (to ensure it doesn't fade)

If you'd rather hand wash then simply fill your sink or laundry tub with an appropriate amount of cold water, gently rub and cleanse your calico bag until it looks clean. Then hand out to dry per above. If your bag is heavily stained, you may need to use a cleaning agent directly applied to the affected area, leave to absorb for half an hour, then come back to finish the process.

Why Washing Your Bags is Important

Part of what makes cotton calico bags so appealing is the fact that they're a natural fibre bag option that can be reused for years until they fall apart from continued use. They're sturdy, and they last a long time if you take care of them so gently washing your event bags to ensure they look great not only helps their appearance, it helps ensure they're reusable for a long time to come.

Don't toss out your dirty custom bags, give them a clean and a new lease on life today!