Tips on How to Dry Clean at Home
What is dry cleaning? It is a way to clean fabric by using different liquid-based solutions to remove soils and stains. Dry cleaning offers many benefits. Stubborn stains are easily removed through the dry cleaning process, and clothing returns with a crisp, professional look. Nowadays, more and more people choose to dry clean at home. Because it's relatively expensive to pay others to do dry cleaning; what's more, some people simply do not trust others to clean their delicate clothes. This article briefs on the ABCs of dry cleaning as well as how to dry clean at home.
It was a Frenchman named Jean Baptiste Jolly who got the credit for starting the first modern dry cleaning business back in the middle of the 19th century. He came across the process by accident when his maid spilled kerosene on his tablecloth. Jolly noted that the tablecloth actually looked much cleaner after the kerosene spill and decided to expand his dye-works business to include a new cleaning service which he dubbed "dry cleaning."
After Jolly, other businesses cropped up which relied on kerosene and gasoline as the cleaning solvents. However, these two ingredients were found to be quite flammable so another dry cleaner named William Joseph Stoddard came up with a less flammable solution called the Stoddard solvent. Still, there were quite a few accidents due to the use of flammable solvents.
There are a few steps to dry clean at home. The first step is to always look for the label on the article of clothing to be cleaned, and look for the care instructions emblazoned on the label. You need to find the words "Dry Clean Only" on this label. This means that the clothes cannot be dumped inside a regular washing machine and washed with detergent and water.
The process requires the use of a chemical solvent. The most common chemical solvent required is perchlorethylene. Experience has shown that this solvent is quite effective at removing grease-based and oil-based stains from clothes. However, you have to be cautious when using the solvent because inhaling its fumes can make you very sick. This is also why it is quite important that all the perc be removed from the clothing after cleaning because some people find even trace amounts of perc to be quite irritating to the throat, nose, and eyes.
Before you can dry clean, you need to pre-treat the clothing fabric with the stain remover. The stain remover is often water-based so any stains that are water-based (such as soup) are easily removed. There may be some detergent and/or petroleum ingredients in this stain remover as well. Though it may seem funny to use a water-based solution for pre-treating clothes, there is only a small amount of water so it won't damage your clothes.
Examples of fabrics that require these methods are silk, rayon, and wool blends. If you want to dry clean embroidered dress shirts, you should have your shirts hand-ironed instead of machine-pressed. Avoid using starch when ironing clothes because it lessens the lifespan. If you want to dry clean at home, keep the above tips in mind.
