It’s all about saving money these days, isn’t it? Dry cleaning can suck the life out of your monthly budget if you are not careful. Yes, it is a great convenience to drop your work clothes off – or if you are really spoiled, have a dry cleaning delivery service – but is it really necessary?
Unless you are dealing with a tricky fabric, a cashmere sweater, or a serious stain, you could probably skip the dry cleaner and do it yourself – and you don’t need a fancy steam dryer to get the job done (would be nice though). For everyday work clothes that just need some “freshening up” and wrinkle removal, a home dry cleaning product such as Dryel can do the job nicely.
The Dryel In Home Dry Cleaning System - Starter Kit
comes with a large fabric protection bag, 3 dryer-activated steam-cleaning cloths and a fine fabric stain remover kit. First, you should check the garment for stains and use the stain remover and pad according to the directions. One comment – the stain remover works fine for small stains, but anything larger than a quarter can take some time due to the small bottle tip. Also, use a lint roller if needed before placing garment into the bag – you will get better results. The instructions say that you can place up to 4 garments in a bag, but if they are especially large - like men’s long sleeve shirts, it doesn’t work as well. The garments need room to circulate around the steam-cleaning cloth. Place clothes and cleaning cloth in the bag, close, and then put into dryer on medium heat setting for about 30 minutes. Immediately hang the garment(s) after steaming to help the remaining wrinkles fall out. Follow up with ironing if necessary – a good idea for work shirts.
An additional tip – If your dryer has a “cool-down” cycle before the timer goes off, remove the clothes while they are still hot and hang them to prevent further wrinkling.
Of course this doesn’t replace dry-cleaning altogether, but it does cut down on the number of trips to the dry cleaners, helping to save
some serious cash.
