Can I Dry Clean clothes at Home?!

DaisyMoo

Hi Folks,

It's probably a really silly question, but I have quite a few bits and pieces that require dry cleaning. Our Local dry cleaners has closed which has prompted the question.

I don't own a steamer but I have a newish washing machine that has different types of wash cycles.

It would save me a fortune if there was a way I could do the dry cleaning myself.

Any hints / tips / ideas would be greatly appreciated

peb

Haven't tried myself - although a friend has - but there are sachets which you can but in places like Home Bargains which you put with the clothes in a tumbler dryer. Apparently it is a good refresh - she uses between dry cleanings rather than instead of I think

I don't have a tumble dryer!

Ebe_Scrooge

Many years ago I remember there used to be a laundrette near us that had a couple of dry-cleaning machines. Looked just like ordinary washing machines, but they filled with dry-cleaning fluid instead of water. I remember my Mum used to use them quite a lot, it was a lot cheaper than taking stuff to be professionally dry-cleaned.

I'm not sure if such a beast even exists any more ( probably not, due to 'elf and safety !! ) but it may be worth having a look in yellow pages to see if there is one near you ?

DaisyMoo

Sounds interesting Ebe, I shall have to go and investigate!.....

tryingtoruletheworld

Few bits I found online:

http://www.naturalhomemagazine.com/tools-and-tricks/green-dry-cleaning.aspx

and:


[FONT=Tahoma, serif]DIY - dry clean it yourself[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, serif]A recent Which? survey revealed that just one in 12 items come back from dry cleaners in an acceptable condition. But what's the alternative? We speak to Australian cleaning guru Shannon Lush about how to avoid being taken to the (dry) cleaners. [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]"There's no way I would use a dry cleaner. I don't trust them," says mother-of-two, Shannon Lush. And she's not the only one, because millions of people value her opinion. [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]One of the world's leading authorities on stain removal, the professional fine arts restorer has a deep knowledge of traditional cleaning techniques. Having done more for sales of oil-of-cloves in her home country of Australia than Delia did for cranberries, she is the author of the best-selling cleaning manual Spotless.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]And when a recent survey by consumer organisation Which said that just one in 12 items come back from British dry cleaners in an acceptable condition, the author isn't at all surprised. "It's a world-wide problem. People expect too much from them but you can do far more at home than a dry cleaner can." [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]Preferring to use natural products like vinegar and unprocessed wheat bran to get rid of stains, Shannon gets frustrated when people assume they can't solve their problems at home. [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]"Dry cleaning isn't magic!" she says. "To start off with, it's not 'dry' it's 'wet' cleaning. The only difference is that they use solvents instead of water. These solvents are good at removing organic material like grass stains and vegetable juices. But the moment the stain is oil-based (on man-made fibres) they can't do anything. The dry cleaners will immerse the item in a vat of solvent, hang it up and use a vertical steam iron. That's it.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]"At one time dry cleaners had a range of skills but now they can only do one basic type of cleaning. I've had dry cleaning companies asking me if I'll write a book for them because so much information about cleaning techniques has been lost." [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]With a million tricks up her sleeves for dealing with common stains, Shannon says there is usually no reason to use strong solvents on your favourite clothes. [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]"Say you've a grubby overcoat - perfect to take to the dry cleaners - instead of taking it, you can clean it with a pillow case, a kilo of unprocessed wheat bran and a small amount of white vinegar." [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]The noise on the end of the phone, alerts Shannon to the fact that I find her suggestion rather alarming. But thankfully she perseveres. [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]"Put the unprocessed wheat bran in a large bowl and stir it while adding one drop at a time of white vinegar, until the mixture clumps together like a lump of brown sugar(it should not feel wet). Then stick it in an old pillow case, put the garment in, tie off the top and shake. The vinegar will help break down the fats, oils and skin cells which build up on clothes, and the bran will act as a mild abrasive, removing all the muck. Then all you have to do is shake it out and it's done. And this process is no more or less effective than what they do at the dry cleaners." [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]It's tips like these that will surely make her latest book, Speedcleaning, which came out this month, a huge success. Shannon grew up in a household where tips were passed down from generation to generation. "Whereas in some families, the information about how to be housewives and mothers got lost, it didn't in our family. I learned my first stain removal tip when I was four. My grandmother taught me how to get ink out of fabric. With rotten milk. I thought she was having me on." [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]Not satisfied unless she manages to perfectly restore anything with a mark, she can vividly remember some of her biggest challenges. [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]"Somebody bought in nine suitcases full of silk clothing which had been stored in a basement. The basement had flooded and everything had filled with mould. You opened a case and it was like something out of a horror movie. The mould was moving. Each item had to be hand laundered and each speck of mould removed.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]"I used oil of cloves. Most people use bleach for mould, but it doesn't kill the spore, it just bleaches it white. So the mould will come back. Oil of cloves kills the spore and you only need the tiniest amount. A quarter of a teaspoon per litre of water." [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]Shannon says that advances in the cleaning industry, have created a generation of people dependent on products, rather than remedies. [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]"We've tried to make things 'easy care' for people and in the process we've lost the care. Many of the things our mothers and grandmothers did weren't that difficult but a lot of household wisdom has gone by the wayside. For example, if you want to get blood out of a mattress you rub it with a cake of soap and a damp cloth and it's gone. But now most people do all the wrong thing and set it. It's pretty simple, but if you don't know it's not simple." [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]Seven Top Tips[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, serif] [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]1. "Always wash and rinse handwashing in blood heat water. If you change the temperature a number of things will happen. You can set the soap in the fibres or if the water's too cold then the fibres will stiffen and if it's too hot, they'll go soft and fluffy." [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]2. "As a rule most people think there is no way you can wash a man's suit - but you sure can," says Shannon. "Men's suits tend to be better made than most women's clothes and the fabrics wash really well. All you have to do is follow the rules. Handwash it in blood heat water, don't use harsh detergent but use gentle soaps, rinse it in the same temperature water that you washed it in, then lie it flat and in the shade to dry, not in direct sunlight. [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]3. Blood. Wash fresh bloodstains through the washing machine on the cold setting. If you can't,(for instance on a mattress) use cornflour to absorb the bulk of the stain and cold water to rinse out. For old bloodstains, use cold water and a bar of soap. [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]4. "Don't assume you need to take your silk evening gown to the dry cleaners after the wedding," Shannon says."Use blood heat water and half a cap of cheap shampoo - the cheaper the better because it doesn't contain fruit oils. Gently agitate with your hands, for nothing longer than a few minutes. Put a bit of shampoo directly onto any greasy stains with your fingers and then rinse it in blood heat water, making sure that you rinse it clear, until there is definitely no soap left in the fabric." [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]5. Chocolate: First clean with soap and cold water. Then clean with soap and warm water. [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]6. The best fabric softener is 60g of bicarbonate of soda added to the washing powder, then add 120ml of vinegar to the rinse cycle. [/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]7. Choose soap powder based on its oxygenated properties and enzyme content. When soap powder comes into contact with water, it creates a chemical reaction and effervesces allowing bubbles of oxygen to attack stains. Enzymes attack proteins and fats. Cheaper powders tend to have bleaching agents and are not as good for your clothes.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, serif]Which? Report findings[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, serif] [/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, serif]* Spotless and Speed Cleaning by Shannon Lush and Jennifer Fleming are both published by Ebury Press, priced £6.99. Available now.[/FONT]

tigerfeet2006

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/22849/Hagerty-Dry-Cleaning-Kit

Savannah02K

I take two approaches to the 'dry clean only' label on my clothes:

1. I'd say about 80% of the time it's only on because the manufacturers want to protect themselves against claims for incorrect washing, i.e. washing at too dry a heat and spinnning on too high a cycle. If something doesn't have any natural fibres in it, or only a small amount, then I wear a few times (but with option 2 below in between) and then put item in an old pillowcase, knot that, wash on 30 degrees and either no spin or low spin cycle. I've never had a problem with anything on that.

2. If it is a garment with wool or silk in then in between each wearing I turn it inside out, spray it with Febreze (I use the Sainsburys equivalent, do test area first if silk), put it on a hanger and peg it outside. I can usually do that for a few goes before I take things to the dry cleaners.

Also, watch out for the 3 for 2 type offers on at the cleaners, that's when I get my stuff done.

DaisyMoo

Amazing - Thank you guys so much,
Really appreciate the help x

Ben84

Dry cleaning is just plain expensive and every time you clean something you have to visit the dry cleaners twice. So unless these items are particularly special in some way, I'd replace them with machine washable ones that are similar to save the time and money. Unless it's a very rarely worn item, the cleaning costs will exceed the item cost surprisingly fast in many cases so it's worth looking at how much these items cost you in dry cleaning expenses over a year for example?