Dry Cleaning Your Clothes: Part One – Do It Yourself at Home

When you have fine items of clothing that need to be dry cleaned, you have two choices of how to best care for your garments. For several years, manufacturers have been producing do-it-yourself dry cleaning kits that work inside of clothes driers. These kits are easy to use and they also have stain fighting capabilities.

However, the neighborhood dry cleaner is still a good choice because they have all of the proper gadgets to keep your clothes clean and to repair small problems, too.

While there are many people who avoid buying clothes that need to be dry cleaned, it is challenging to avoid dry-clean-only clothes completely. Many items of clothing, like scarves, men’s ties, wool coats, and rayon or silk tops and dresses, need to be dry cleaned and now you can do this from the convenience of your home for much less than it costs to take your clothing to a dry cleaner.

When you dry clean your clothes at home, you will need to buy a special kit. There are three brands that work well: Dryel, FreshCare, and Custom Cleaner. They all work relatively the same by using three components that do not contain the harsh chemicals that dry cleaners use. Those components include a stain remover, a heat-activated cloth, and a dryer bag.

Most people will use the stain treatment before they put the clothes in the bag. Using the home dry cleaning product means that you need to know what the stains are on your clothes, because there are some stains that require certain products for removal. Dry cleaning kits are best at handling very small stains because the kits do not include the really strong stuff.

Once you have worked on removing the stain, your clothing is then ready for the dryer. Each dry cleaning kit comes with a reusable bag that seals with Velcro and keeps the items of clothing inside. Most dryer bags can only hold about five or fewer items. You will need to put a dryer cloth in the bag along with the clothes and the heat will force the cloth to release some steam and a fragrance that is reminiscent of the dry cleaning smell. The steam from the cloth will remove wrinkles; otherwise, the dryer clothes do very little else.

When you have used the bag so many times that it gets holes, you should throw the bag away. The bag is designed to keep the dry heat away from your clothes so that they do not shrink. It is also very important to remove the clothes as soon as the dryer cycle is finished, so that they remain wrinkle-free long after the home dry cleaning cycle is finished.

Home dry cleaning is best if you simply need to refresh your clothes or remove a very small stain. If you really want to get your clothes as clean as they were when you bought them, a professional dry cleaner is the only choice to make. They have the gadgets to press your clothes properly and cleaning solutions that will remove stains.