After Dashami: What to Do With the Saree You Just Wore

The saree came through six days of pandal-hopping, one anjali, and in all likelihood some sindoor. What happens to it this week decides whether it is still the same saree next October.

Do not fold it and put it away

The single most common mistake, and the most expensive. A silk saree worn for a long day carries body moisture and perfume into the fibre. Folded straight into a cupboard, that sits in the crease for a year.

Hang it in the shade for a day first — not in sun, which dulls colour faster than wear does. Then decide whether it needs cleaning at all. A saree worn once to an evening often does not.

When it does need cleaning

Dry clean only, and not at home. Zari does not forgive water: the silver core tarnishes and the thread goes dull and grey, and nothing brings it back. That applies to Banarasi, Kanjivaram, Katan and Kani alike — anything with real zari in it.

Tell the cleaner where the stain is rather than leaving them to find it. Sindoor is a different problem from food, and a cleaner who knows which one is looking at has a far better chance.

Storing it so it survives the year

• Cotton cloth, never plastic. A polythene cover traps moisture against the silk and tarnishes silver zari. An old cotton saree makes the best wrapper there is.
• Refold along a new line every few months. A crease left in the same place for a year becomes a split, and a split across a pallu cannot be repaired invisibly.
• No naphthalene balls. They stain silk. Dried neem leaves do the same job without the mark.
• Keep it off a wooden shelf directly — wood carries moisture and sometimes polish.

The lighter ones are easier

Cotton and linen and Kota can usually be washed at home in cold water without detergent on the border. That is most of the reason to own one.

Next in this series: the six weeks to Diwali and the wedding season, and what the quiet fortnight is good for.