To Hand Wash or Dryclean? 5 Secrets to Success when Hand Washing!

I am getting this question regarding "hand wash vs dryclean" more often and the answer is more complicated than you may expect. Some items hand-wash beautifully! But there are risks.

I always recommend you take your items to the drycleaner!


Why? 2 reasons: 1) Cleaning items always involves (at least a small) risk. And a trusted drycleaner has the experience and training to minimize these risks - and - worse case scenario - if something were to go wrong, a reputable drycleaner should help resolve any issues. and 2) How much is your time worth?

Many items people believe are dryclean only, really are not! Cashmere and many silks hand wash beautifully! That said - here are the solutions to the most common issues in hand wash!



RULE #1: NEVER HAND WASH AN ITEM WHEN THE LABEL READS "Dryclean Only" or "Do Not Wash!" They mean it! And beware the trim and other add-ons. Often a label will read . . . excluding trim (watch for this with leather trim!). I recommend not buying garments with labels like that - it means there is no way to clean that garment!

Risks: Water is a harsh solvent. Water may cause fabrics or linings to shrink, colors and trims to bleed, older fabrics, or heavily soiled (old stains) may rinse our with holes. Certain fabrics do not wash well - acetate and velvet come quickly to mind! And I would leave any leathers to the professionals. It is always a good idea to test a garment before committing the entire piece into the bath!

5 factors to consider when Hand Washing:


1) Stains: When you clean with water, BEWARE! If there are stains, and you do not remove them, they are likely set for life!



2) Pilling: Unfortunately, the price you pay for a sweater and whether or not it will pill are unrelated. Expensive garments are often made from poor quality yarn fibers that break easily. You can reduce pilling by turning it inside out before dipping - dry flat. A razor or shaver can do wonders. I do not recommend the stone or tape, both of which can make the problem worse.



3) Wrinkling: Hard wrinkles are normally created in the dryer. Do not overdry clothes - they should be slightly damp when they come out of the dryer AND do not overload the dryer OR your washer! Line drying can cause the same issue - the sun can overdry and/or bleach your clothes. Often these wrinkles become permanent! Wrinkles should be removed promptly - especially in knits - Once set they may become permanent.



4) Color Fading: Natural fibers do not hold color! That is why jeans fade so easily. Silk is also a natural fiber. Today's polyesters are amazing, and I would recommend that if you prefer black or navy shirts, to consider one of the new blended materials. Cold water and light drying (see above) are also recommend!



5) Color Bleeding: This applies to both trims and black (red or any bright color) and white prints. The only way to be sure is to test. And then you still can't be sure! Dyes are supposed to be fixed by the manufacturer - but often this doesn't happen. You can fix the color by soaking it a color fixative, but it is not always possible. I recommend consumers take item that fails back to where you bought it - I never understand why people forgive retailers for selling non-cleanable items. If more people held clothing manufactures accountable - perhaps the problem would lessen.. . . . .

Whoops - guess cleaning is in my blood, and I can't help having a (strong) opinion on the matter!

Save Time & Money, Read Garment Care Labels!

Did you know that in the US, the FCC requires that all wearable garments must have a care label attached, that offers at least one method of cleaning the garment?

There is no law that the method stated need be correct, but that at a minimum, law requires clothing manufacturers to try and give consumers a method to maintain the item. While this may sound odd, it is better than many other countries that require no such thing!

When you go shopping for clothes, take a moment to look at the care label. You can save yourself time, money, aggravation, and disappointment.

Most garments have a written care label, a content, and a symbol. All 3 give valuable information.

A few examples of written care labels:

Do not launder, do not dryclean, spot clean only: These items cannot be cleaned, so be prepared. This is often the case for polypropylene jackets or fancy gowns with lots of ornamentation. There are some cleaners that specialize in these sort of garments, however, it will all be by hand. Don't expect miracles on the stains, but do expect to pay a lot of money for cleaning, if you have that kind of cleaner in town!

Cold water wash, cool iron: This one is fine if you are doing your laundry at home. But if you are buying a shirt that you expect to have laundered for under $2 or $3 dollars, this wont be it. In fact, if you take it to the drycleaner - it most likely (not always) will be considered dryclean. This is one of the many reasons women are charged more for blouses. Does your blouse have this care label? Then the cleaner will likely dryclean it!

Do Not Dryclean: Clear enough, but if you do take it in for cleaning - point it out!

Clean by zirchonian (or wedding gown method): I have no idea what that is (I suppose I shouldn't admit that, but I have never met anyone with a strong explanation!). I think some old time wedding gown manufacturer tried to trade mark his "cleaning method" and got the name on care labels. Genius marketing! I read it the same as wedding gown method, which, I take to mean "BE VERY CAREFUL!" I love cleaning fine gowns, and many people are surprised that I wet clean at least 50% of the gowns, silk included. Beads, and other adornments often make gowns uncleanable in traditional drycleaning and the trains get incredibly dirty when dragged on the floor. Water is a great solvent for food and wine!

How and Why to Read The Material Content

• For labels that say cool water wash, the next step is to look at the fiber content. If the garment is over 50% polyester - well that's plastic and it will melt in commercial laundry



• Spandex (usually 2% to 5%) Also plastic, it needs a "cool" iron. This translates into drycleaning prices. Again, if you do your own shirts at home - its no problem. Home irons are always cool. But cotton blend shirts cannot be cleaned for a commercial laundry price!



• Rayon, tensile, viscose these are all derived from plant materials and considered dryclean only, cool iron materials



• Metallic, This is a new material being used in very fashionable circles that is giving the drycleaning world headaches. Typically the care label is dryclean only. At this point, I would not buy a garment with metallic. The problem is that metal and material shrink and stretch due to temperature in very different ways. This can create a very wrinkled look. Sometimes that is the intention and sometimes it is not. As a drycleaner, metallic is the one material that bothers me, because there is a good chance that the care symbols will be wrong! This is because the manufacturers are still trying to figure it out. They had the same issue with Spandex when it was first introduced, and I know that a lot of angry customers blamed their cleaner for a manufacturing issue!

Let's Get Sweaty!

Here it is, August already. What is a drycleaner to talk about? How about sweat? During the hot sticky summer months (like August and September where I live), going outside means that I am most likely going to sweat. Did you know that sweat can damage your clothes!? And that it is among the most difficult stains to remove from fabrics?

Now, you may be wondering, SO WHAT? It's just sweat, WASH IT OUT!

Most people think perspiration stains are no big deal, and that they can be easily removed in the laundry. Well that may be true some of the time, However perspiration stains are among the most difficult stains to remove from fabrics.

CONSUMER TIP: If you sweat in your clothes, clean them as soon as possible.

Perspiration not only stains fabrics, but the chemicals contained in it can affect dyes resulting in color changes. Although perspiration is mostly water, it contains a vast variety of chemicals all affected by the individuals own body chemistry; diet, medications, ingested, etc. Perspiration also contains fats and cholesterol. Perspiration can permanently stain protein fibers like silk and wool. Although the staining most commonly occurs in the underarm areas, it may also be found around the waist, on the back panel of a garment or inside the neckline.

Tears on the backside of men's shirts are often due to fibers weakened by perspiration - and I am talking all types of shirts here, cotton, rayon, silk, etc. By waiting even just a week before cleaning, your clothes can be damaged by perspiration!

Don't make the same mistake I did!

This is going to be more like a confession. A "do as I say not as I do."
Tonight I am going to a rather formal, rather large birthday party charity event. I was very excited!
So yesterday I went to my closet to get out a beautiful black dress that I only ever wore one time. You know the dress. It makes you look and feel wonderful. The perfect dress that you looked for for years - then found it felt even better when you wore it.

Well I got it out, and to my horror, there were some dirt marks on it.

I had put the dress away last year WITHOUT CLEANING IT.

I know why I did this:

• it looked clean
• I only wore it one evening
• and dry - cleaning is expensive.

The thing is, I know better. I work in drycleaning. If anyone wants their clothes to last - they need to clean them before storing:

• Soils left in material attract insects that can damage material.
• soils left in material oxidize over time and become more noticeable and harder to remove.
• soils left in material can pull color over time.

So now, as I mourn my perfect dress and prepare to go out and buy a new dress for tonight, I share this story so that you can learn from my mistake. Buying a new dress is much more expensive than the cleaning cost would have been - and that doesn't include the time or stress of running around last minute. . . . . OK well the last minute part may be a different problem.
The moral of the story: Clean your clothes before putting them away for storage!

What you should know about the Clean Show!

I just got back from New Orleans and am so excited about all I saw and heard about. I had never been to New Orleans and loved the chance to see the city (and the swamp, which I highly recommend seeing if you get the chance!).

It took me 2 days to walk the entire show - and I am going to present the few things that the general public may be interested in:-)

I thought the entrance to the show was very striking this year, so I included a photo for you!

The number one theme that ran through this show (besides clean of course) was a move to be more environmental. In an industry that is constantly under attack for toxic chemicals, detergents, plastics, etc. I loved seeing everyone trying to be green!

From green detergents for use by the cleaners to green detergents to sell to the drycleaners customer. The Association of Wedding Gown Specialists was touting their ZeroCarbon wedding gown preservation. There were two degradable plastic vendors and at least 4 reusable garment bag companies. I think the Green Garmento is a marketing warrior. They managed to get their bags as part of the Swag bag given to the stars at the Oscars!

However, I thought the Green Earth people took the prize for the best display. They provide an alternative solvent to drycleaners from the traditional perc (perchloroethylene) or hydrocarbon drycleaning solvents. It is a silicone solvent (D5), similar to the chemical used in many hand lotions and beauty products. Check out the Green Earth booth:

Green earth also is working on a laundry method that would use 90% less water! Check out this article http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/textile-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=74090

Finally, I want to share with you that I was on a panel at the show talking about automation. I was one of two cleaners selected because of using so much automation in our plant. There were also 3 vendors there provided these sorts of solutions. I found it interesting that the main sales pitch seemed to be reducing labor and cost - understandable. But I tell you what. . . . Automation allows a drycleaner to track garments and customer preferences better. AUTOMATION ALLOWS THE DRYCLEANER TO PROVIDE A BETTER CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE!

Thanks for reading:-)

How do you choose a good drycleaner?

One excellent way to find a cleaner is to look for one that is a member of industry groups and participates in both community (for example the BBB or Chamber of Commerce) and industry (Drycleaning and Laundry Institute, California Cleaners association) groups.

These groups share information and best practices so everyone who participates is a winner! On-going training is a must!

Like any industry, there are constant changes that conscientious drycleaner will keep up with; new types of garments, new and better equipment and techniques and better methods of communication.

This month is the Drycleaning Industries largest event. The CLEAN SHOW! Read more about this at http://www.cleanshow.com/.

I will be there - and I am presenting on a panel along with other respected cleaners.

It is both an honor and a responsibility:-)

The Truth About Green Cleaning!

Lets talk about green. I hear again and again from consumers that want "green" cleaning.

I often hear consumers wanting to avoid the toxic and carcinogenic dryclean solvent that is profiled in the news every few years. If your cleaner is conscientious - rest assured, no matter what solvent they are using, that drycleaning process is gentler on the environment than when you use your washer at home.

Over 99% of the solvent, soils and detergents are recaptured in the drycleaning process. These are disposed of in proper facilities. Solvent is added to the system on a monthly (or less frequent) basis. Compare that to the water and detergents that go into our sewer systems every time someone runs a washing machine. . . . what type of soils are in the clothes? Are the loads full? Normal detergents are full of phosphates that are very damaging to the environment.

YOU CAN HELP your drycleaner help the environment:

According to Green is Sexy http://www.greenissexy.org/2009/05/30/go-wireless-4/, 3.5 billion wire hangers go into U.S. landfills every year, and they sit in there for over a hundred years; reduce that number by returning your hangers (Gently Used!) to the drycleaners. The next time your non-washables travel to the drycleaner, BYOH – your drycleaner will thank you (hangers are expensive) and so will the Earth!

And by the way, take the plastic back to your cleaner, or to your grocery store. It cannot be recycled in most home recycling programs!

Thanks!