A trip to the dry cleaners seems so last century, doesn’t it? It’s not quite a laundromat, and it seems to cater only to a specific clientele. If you’re not bringing a carload of laundry if it’s just one or two things, why not just clean them at home?
The fact about dry cleaning is it’s NOT that easy. Take it from Dutch Boy Cleaners! A few small mistakes can ruin your clothing. Not all fabrics are made equal, and dry cleaning takes all those details and differences into account. Even just 7% of a fabric blend can end up ruined if placed in a tumble dry or left to hang on a line. And many people turn to at-home dry cleaning kits that are available for purchase that you can use by yourself!
Unfortunately, they’re not perfect.
Physical Damage
The main danger with DIY dry cleaning is that it’s more complicated than it seems. The kits might advertise ease of use and few moving parts, but they also hide detailed instructions on handling specific blended materials and fabrics. One wrong move or skipped step, and you could end up with all kinds of problems.
Some fabrics shrink under specific amounts of heat or pressure, and At-home kits don’t account for these small percentages and can lead to shrinkage, expansion, or even tearing as the material breaks down. Professional dry cleaners like Dutch Boy Cleaners know how to avoid this and leave your clothes exactly the way they used to fit, without new holes to plan around.
Soaking and Staining
If you want to wash something, chances are that it is dirty. Whether from long-term wearing or sudden spills, clothes can become unpleasant during usage. Dry-cleaning kits primarily focus on the hard press and surface dirt removal, but not so much on the soaked-in stains and smells.
Improperly using a DIY kit can make minor problems worse or turn big problems into total disasters. Not to mention, to counteract or cover up the smells in clothing, the formula for at-home kits can have very unsavory scents. Your favorite dress may stop smelling like a spilled margarita, but it could start smelling like heavy-duty bathroom cleaners.
DIY kits can also create new stains and permanent wrinkles if the job isn’t done accurately or carefully enough. Any embellishments or patches that need to stay on might fall off if not properly sealed up or cared for, and you may end up needing to do repairs instead of laundry.
Dryer Damage
The primary step of dry cleaning is sealing up your soaked goods in a bag and tossing them into the dryer. Professional driers use heavy-duty machinery and thick, reusable bags that don’t break down, rip or interrupt the cleaning process. DIY kits use whatever bags are most accessible to mass-produce, so don’t be surprised if they’re a little on the thin or flimsy side.
A damaged bag can lead to damaging your dryer, and then you have a problem potentially worse than just wet clothing. Not only will it damage your clothes, embed in new wrinkles, and scuff up the fabric all over the place, it could get tangled in your drier if there’s not enough space. Or worse: catch fire. It’s a complex job that most residential driers can’t handle.
Let the Pros DIFY
If you’ve used a dry-cleaning kit before and had a problem here or there, but you think you’ve got the handle on how to make it work, then good for you. Or, you can try a professional such as Dutch Boy Cleaners out and let them do it for you with no extra hassle, worries, or complications. We will make sure to treat your clothing as if it was our own, as we have been textile experts for over 30 years.