Whats your take on dry cleaning clothes? Do you own any "dry clean only" clothes? Do you actually take them to the dry cleaner or do you try to do it yourself? What do they even do there? Can anyone recommend a good one nearby?
I have 3 wool peacoats I need cleaned and some of Braden's pants tailored.
Thx!
I have never dry cleaned anything in my life.
ReplyDeleteAdam's just closed (Lapel's on 15th and 85th-ish), so he just dropped off his suit this morning at Plaza Cleaners, to the left of Papa Murphy's on Holman. They said it would cost $17 for the whole suit, which is a great price. We just have yet to see if it turns out well in the end. We had a Groupon for National's Dry Cleaning on Holman but it was still expensive even with the Groupon.
ReplyDeleteWe dry clean Justin's suits every 3-6 months and our bed comforter every 6-12 months. It helps that we move that often and things get smooshed and dusty. Funny story: my dad is super particular about how his shirts are ironed (how many ways can you iron a shirt?) Early on in their marriage my mom would find my dad quietly re-ironing his shirts, hoping not to offend my mom. Eventually they struck a bargain to just dry clean them. Everyone's happy. Just like my mom said we would use paper plates for 2 years because she couldn't take the dishes. I must be seattle-itized because all I can think of now is whether we recycled those. rambling!
ReplyDeleteI do our coats and (theoretically) Michael suits 1x a year. I have used Blue Sky because I'm pretty squeamish about harsh chemicals. But they are definitely not cheap. I currently have a wool sweater that I'm considering getting rid of because I'm too cheap to have it cleaned and it's been drooled on one too many times at church.
ReplyDeleteA year too late, but I do want to add my comment to this thread anyway--in case anyone comes back for more details.
ReplyDeleteI actually used to work at a dry cleaner, and spent a semester writing a paper for my english class on dry cleaning (Yes, nerd alert).
To keep it simple, certain fabrics require dry cleaning because dry cleaning solvent doesn't expand the material where as water does. So, if it's dry cleaning only it's likely to wear out (or ruin) the fabric quickly if you launder it.
Also, you have to think of dry cleaning as an opposite of laundering. If you spill oil on your clothes, dry cleaning solvent will extract the oil. However, if you spill chocolate on your clothes, dry cleaning solvent won't do a thing for it (because it breaks down oil based stains, not water-based stains). But, dry cleaners know this and ask about specific stains to know if they should spot clean the stained area first WITH WATER, before they stick it in the machine.
I'll let anyone read my paper if you want. ;) Actually i just remembered it's online, broken down into different sections--but here's the link if you want to indulge (and give me a couple cents in my bank account) http://www.bukisa.com/articles/259861_dry-cleaning-be-an-informed-customer