Do you ever bother to check the little tags in your favourite clothes before laundry? Well, those tags of “too many” details sometimes point you in the right direction to clean your clothes appropriately.
However, sometimes, the tags may point us towards the path of dry cleaning when all we need is just laundry that can be done at home.
Yes, you read that right. Some of your favourite clothes despite the recommendations on the tags do not require the services of a professional dry cleaner. How then do you know which things you should dry clean and which ones you shouldn’t?
To help you make the right decision, we have assembled a list of clothing items that should be dry cleaned and those that can be laundered at home. The list below will guide you on the best laundry and dry cleaning recommendations for various wears.
Clothing Pieces You Should Dry Clean
- Embellished Clothes
Clothes containing embellishments such as beads and sequins suffer high chances of damage if subjected to the regular wash cycle. This is because the embellishments are hand-stitched or left to hang freely on the cloth.
As a result, extra care is required to preserve the beauty and organisation of the embellishments and taking it to a dry cleaner makes the most sense.
- Dark-coloured Silk
Most dark-coloured silks tend to bleed on washing, leading to discolouration, fading of the brilliant dark colour and staining of other clothes. As a result, laundry may not be the best option for this category of clothes.
How do you identify this category? Simply try adding water to a portion of the cloth and dry with a white material. If it colours the material, then it should be taken to the dry cleaner.
- Suits
Suits require careful maintenance to preserve their crispness and fine texture. It is recommended to have your suit dry cleaned to give it a brilliant crispy appearance and prolong its lifespan.
- Pleated Materials
Even if pleats remain completely intact after washing, ironing pleated clothes to preserve the folds and pleats can be extremely stressful. With professional handling and re-pleating machines, dry cleaning services are most suitable for items with pleating.
- Badly Stained Items
No matter how bad the stain on an item may be, be rest assured that with dry cleaning, your cloth can be restored to normal. The powerful cleaning action of dry cleaning chemicals makes it the perfect option to fix tough stains, grease and oil stains on your clothing items.
- Fragile Materials
Fragile synthetic materials like chiffon and rayon tend to tear if hand-washed and are prone to shrinkage on exposure to heat. To preserve the originality of materials like these, the services of a dry cleaner are best required.
- Materials with Linings
Subjecting clothes with linings to regular washing can damage the cloth because water can break the interlinings. To prevent any damage to cloth materials with lining, dry cleaning is the most suitable option.
- Leather and Suede
There’s a constant debate about how necessary it is to dry clean leather and suede materials instead of washing them. Here’s what we recommend: it’s better to have your nice looking high-quality leather jackets intact with no shrinkage or chances of a crack in the fabric than to take the risk of having it damaged.
Dry cleaning seems to meet this recommendation. Hence, to avoid any risk of damage, why not dry clean it instead?
- Furs
Animal furs are quite different from traditional cloth materials. Due to their nature, furs, especially those having the skin on their underside, should be dry cleaned to avoid shrinkage of the skin when exposed to water.
Also, the delicate nature of vintage furs like fox stoles requires them to be handled by professionals. Hence, they should be taken to dry cleaning experts.
Clothing Pieces That Can Be Washed At Home
- Linen and Cotton
In the absence of embellishments, these materials have no problem being washed at home. However, to preserve the colour and prevent fading, they should be washed with warm or cool water since heat enhances the fading of colours.
- Cashmere and Fine-haired Wools
Soft natural fabrics like cashmere are sensitive to harsh cleaning solvents like dry cleaning chemicals. As a result, they should be hand-washed instead. Be sure to use a mild detergent and warm water for washing them so that you can prolong their lifespan.
- Synthetic Fibres
Dry cleaning synthetic fibre pieces like polyester, acrylic and nylon is not an advisable option. Hand-washing these delicate materials works superbly.
Alternatively, washing in a washing machine, with cold water, will work wonderfully as well. A noteworthy precaution to remember is to leave them lying flat or hanging dry to prevent wrinkling.
- Light Coloured Silks
Just like for dark coloured silks as previously discussed, light-coloured silks also require extra care. However, if it does not bleed( upon testing with a white paper on a wet patch of the silk material), then it can be hand-washed at home.
If you still have any doubt on whether your light coloured silks can be washed at home, it’s best to leave it to the services of a professional dry cleaner.
- Denim
Most people are sceptical about washing their jeans due to the high chances of discolouration and bleeding because of the dye. On the other hand, dry cleaning your denim can leave it unnecessarily starchy and creased, which is not what you want.
To minimise or prevent colour bleeding from hand-washing your denim, turn it inside out, soak it in warm water and wash with a colour-safe detergent for about 45 minutes. After washing, rinse with cool water. Lastly, don’t forget to hang it dry.
We hope you found some of the tips helpful. For more details about dry-cleaning in London, do well to reach out to our experts. Call us today on 020 7328 5621 if you need an expert and affordable dry cleaning service.
