Have you ever wondered what happens to your clothes after you drop them off at a professional dry cleaner’s? Well, after accepting your drop-off and tagging each item, the clothing undergoes inspection for any damage. Or, items left in the pockets etc. After being inspected, clothing undergoes pre-treatment for any stains, ensuring that your clothing comes back to you as good as new.

Once stains have been pre-treated, your clothing goes into a large machine and “washed” with a waterless chemical solution. After they’ve been “washed”, your items will then undergo inspection again to ensure that all stains came off the garment. If there are any that didn’t come out, they will undergo spot cleaning right away. 

Finally, after all the cleaning is complete, your clothing items are then pressed and hung, ready for you to come get them.

You may have noticed that a lot of your more formal clothing (and even some of your regular clothing) has a label that says “dry clean only”. Because some dry cleaners don’t offer pick up and drop off services. Dry clean only clothing can be a major hassle. When doing laundry, you may become tempted to ignore that label and throw it in with the regular wash. But, we definitely don’t recommend it. There’s a reason your clothes' labeled that way.

Different fabrics react differently when soaked in water and dried with heat. Silk, velvet, wool, and other fabrics, for example, will not come out the same way they went in. Silk could lose its shine and shape, velvet may lose its luster and texture, and wool will shrink so that it’s unwearable.

Just because the Internet says something doesn’t have to be dry cleaned, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea to try cleaning it at home. Always check the label and when in doubt, take it to the professionals.

As mentioned earlier, how often you should dry clean clothing will depend on a number of different factors like how often you wear the clothing and how dirty it gets, etc. Here’s a quick guide:

Business suits - Since suits don’t cut touch your skin, they don’t need to undergo dry cleaning after every wear. Suits should be dry cleaned every three to four wears.

Formal suits - Although, like suits, formal suits don’t touch your skin, they typically aren’t worn as often. Unless you wear them more than once or twice a year, formal suits must undergo cleaning about once a season, or after each wear.

Evening wear - Like formal suits, evening wear isn’t typically worn very often. And should, therefore, undergo cleaning once a season or after each wear.

Blouses - As long as you don’t spill or get any stains, button-down shirts and blouses can be dry cleaned after every three or four wears. You should however, wash your silk blouses after each wear. 

Pants and skirts - Like with blouses, as long as you don’t spill on your pants and skirts, they can undergo cleaning after every three to four wears.

If you have questions about what you should and should not have dry cleaned and the best ways to care for them, contact us and let us help you keep your favorite clothing pieces in the best shape possible. Also, learn more about dry cleaning by taking a  look at our blog post "How Does Dry Cleaning Work?"