Essential Tips for Maintaining Your Canvas Tote Bag: A Complete Care Guide

Canvas totes have become essential accessories - and we couldn’t agree more! Totes are eco-friendly, lightweight, spacious, multi-functional, and a better alternative to plastic bags. While the natural canvas color makes it extremely versatile to wear, reusing the tote frequently can lead to stubborn stains and surface dirt. 

We’ve put together a few simple steps to properly take care of your canvas tote to keep it looking and smelling fresh everyday. Our #TheBagThatStartedItAll tote is made of 100% GOTS organic cotton and our guide is based off the fabric of this tote, but all other types of fabrics can be applied to this as well. 

Before you begin, empty out items from your canvas tote.

Items you’ll need:

• small bowl or container
• toothbrush (new or unused)
• water
• mild detergent or mild soap 

1. Pour a cup of cold water into the small container and add a 1/2 of a teaspoon of mild detergent or mild soap. Best to avoid detergents or soaps with color as this could stain the fabric. 

2. Using the toothbrush, mix the water and soap substance until light bubbles start to appear to create the cleaning solution.

3. Dip the toothbrush into the cleaning solutions and shake off any excess by taping the toothbrush on the rim of the container. This will help from applying too much cleaning solution to the fabric and avoid creating an even bigger stain. 

4. Apply the toothbrush to the area of concern on the canvas tote and gently brush in circular motions and straight lines.

5. Repeat steps 3-4 where necessary until the area of concern are completely brushed over with the cleaning solution.

6. Let the canvas tote dry. Depending on the size of the stain or surface dirt area, it can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours to dry. For larger cleaning areas, it’s best to leave canvas tote to dry overnight. 

7. Ready to reuse!