Tips from Dry Cleaners for Keeping Your Clothes Beautiful

Keeping Clothes Like New

No one likes it when colors fade, fabric wears out, and hems come undone.  To keep your clothes looking as good as new, follow these tips from dry cleaners to preserve washable and dry clean only garments.  Your clothes will last longer with regular cleaning and care. 

Clean your clothes regularly

Dress shirts should only be worn one time, suit jackets twice, pants twice—but should be freshened between every wear—sweaters every three wears. Properly cleaning your clothes regularly will ensure that problems don’t become disasters. 

General care tips

When changing out of your clothes, be sure to let suits, coats and shoes air out for at least 30 minutes before you store them in your closet.  Hang them up on a clothes rack or on a hanger outside your closet before putting them away.  Do not throw them over a chair as this can create new wrinkles. 

It's also important to rotate your sweaters and jackets like you do your shoes, to give them a chance to breathe and regain their shape. 

Turn off the closet light and don't leave garments near the window.  Sunlight can fade the colors on your clothes just like it does drapes.  Dyes are sensitive to prolonged sunlight or even to a light left on in a closet. 

In summer, be careful with lotions and sunscreen as it can fade or stain your clothes. 

Spray perfume and hairspray on before you get dressed.  The alcohol in the spray can fade, discolor or stain clothes.

 

Always clean your clothes before storing them for the season.  Untreated food and beverage stains can attract insects!

Never hang wet or damp clothes in your closet.  This can attract mildew. 

Never store your clothes in plastic bags.  It can trap in humidity that attracts mildew.  Use breathable cotton sheets or bags. 

Brush off any salt before cleaning clothes or taking them to the dry cleaner.  Salt can cause damage during cleaning.  If you have come into contact with salt (e.g.  pant cuffs brushing up against winter street salt), wipe with cold water and air dry.  Always point salt treated areas out to your dry cleaner.  Shoes are especially prone to salt damage during winter.  When you come home, wipe off any salt residue with a cold damp cloth.

General tips for at-home laundering
 

Wash in cold water
Hot water wears out fabrics more quickly.  Save the hot water for really soiled loads—kids' baseball uniforms, gardening clothes, dirty sheets—and wash everything else in cold.  Even if a garment says wash in hot water, washing in cold won't hurt it (washing a cold water garment in hot, however, can be damaging).  Your clothes will be just as clean, and the threads will stay strong.   

Wash clothes inside-out - Zip the Zippers


Protect the important part of a garment—the outside—by simply turning it inside out before you toss it in.  It may not seem like much, but embellishments on the outside of a garment, even screen printing, can be worn away or snagged by the inside of the washer.  Items with beading, embroidery, appliqués and other details should always be washed inside-out. Zippers will destruct your clothing. Keeping them closed ensures that they don’t snag another item in the load. The same can be said of Velcro which can stick to other fabrics and ruin a nice sweater if washed and dried together. Just don’t do it! 
 

Don't use chlorine bleach


Vinegar is a natural brightener that won't wear out the fibers of your clothing the way chlorine bleach will.  Plus, it's better for the environment—we love that.
 

Air dry


Dryer heat damages fabric over time.  Electric dryers cause shrinkage, color fading, and weaken the material fibers.  Instead, line dry clothing outside, or indoors on a drying rack.  You can also hang garments on plastic hangers in your shower or on a tension rod in an alcove.  If you simply can't air dry, use the lowest heat setting on your dryer.
 

Follow care label directions


Most people know they should read garment care labels, but something many people forget is to read the directions on their laundry detergent too.  Don't use too much—too many suds means the rinse cycle might not get all of the soap residue out of your clothing.  And use the right kind—gentle detergents for delicates, and regular detergent for sturdier items.

Cotton is a highly washable fabric but, because it's prone to shrinking, shouldn't be exposed to hot water or high-heat drying. Machine or hand wash using cold water, and air dry your fine cottons.

Linen, like cotton, is highly washable but also quite prone to shrinking. Machine or hand wash linen using cold water, and air dry or press immediately after washing. Because linen also tends to wrinkle, do consider pressing linen garments straight out of the wash.

Nylon is also entirely machine washable. It is, however, likely to become quite staticky. Hanging nylon garments to air dry, however, will take care of that, since static tends to develop in the dryer.

Polyester is totally machine washable. You'd have to work to foul up your polyester duds. Air drying, however, is always a smashing idea.

Rayon and viscose are like mogwai, in that you should avoid exposing both types of fabric to water. Always dry clean your rayon and viscose clothes.

Silk is beautiful and temperamental, highly prone to color loss, and susceptible to water staining. I wouldn't blame you one bit if you outsourced its care. But if you would like to take matters into your own hands, silk can be hand washed in cool water, using a silk detergent. The important thing to know about silk is that it doesn't love prolonged exposure to water, so your hand washing operation ought to be a quick one, no more than five minutes from start to finish.

Spandex is machine washable, but it hates chlorine bleach.

Wool (inc. cashmere, angora, mohair, etc.) fibers are likely to felt—that is, become matted and shrink—when washed. There are two primary reasons that felting occurs: agitation and exposure to fluctuating water temperatures. Given that, it's best to hand wash, rather than machine wash, woolens in cool water. 


 

Treat stains the right way, and right away


A spill or stain doesn't have to ruin a garment.  Read the directions on stain removal products too, even if you have used them before.  They may not be safe for every kind of fabric, or be recommended for every kind of stain. 
   

Hang safely


Use wide, padded hangers for delicate fabrics so the material of the shoulders doesn't stretch or wear out.  Don't cut hanger straps out of tops and dresses—use them to reduce stress on the rest of the garment.  Hang suit jackets on wide wooden hangers to help them keep their shape.  And give things room to breathe in your closet—they can touch, but don't cram them in.



Don't use plastic


Do not store clothing in plastic garment bags.  The plastic breaks down over time and can interact with the fabric, which can weaken it or change the color.  Plastic can also trap in humidity that can lead to mildew damage.  Garments need to be able to breathe, so wrap them in plain cotton sheets or a cloth garment bag to keep them safe.

“[Dress] shirts should only be worn one time, suit jackets twice, pants twice—but should be freshened between every wear—sweaters every three wears. Properly cleaning your clothes regularly will ensure that problems don’t become disasters,” Rhodes recommends.

Don’t use too much detergent

Rhodes says that laundry detergent companies are making a fortune telling you how much soap to use in your loads. He says, “With the new high efficiency front and top load machines a tablespoon of detergent is plenty! The removal of spots comes from properly pre-treating the items, temperature, agitation, and treating the item as soon as possible.” Read more about how to boost your laundry detergent.

Zip your zippers and no Velcro

“Zippers are the saws of destruction in your laundry,” says Rhodes. “Keeping them closed ensures that they don’t snag another item in the load.” The same can be said of Velcro which can stick to other fabrics and ruin a nice sweater if washed and dried together. Just don’t do it! It’s a good idea to avoid these other laundry mistakes.

Bleach is for spots only, not a whole load

Rhodes says that bleach can be added to an individual item but bleach does not remove spots, it simply removes the color of the spot. To explain this, he says, “Think about going to a night club and sitting under the black lights. You can always tell who uses bleach on their clothes because the spots shine through. We add bleach with an eye dropper to control the chemical and it is always rinsed out immediately. If you are unsure about if you can remove a spot, it is always far cheaper to go to the most expensive cleaner in town than ruin an item permanently.”

Washing in cold water is a fallacy

“Cold water assists in colorfastness. Shrinkage occurs in drying the material not the laundering and the idea of substituting any type of water for a dry-cleaning solvent is a huge risk if you don’t know what you are dealing with,” says Rhodes. He also says if you think a color could bleed it probably will: “Red, black, and purple are generally unstable dyes and when they are placed next to light colors there are likely going to be undesired consequences.”

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