I was the kid who always read the labels on my clothes-- line dry this, hand-wash that, and actually followed through with the manufacturer's guidance. Why? Who knows. I guess I'm a little crazy. But since these labels have never hindered me from buying particular items of clothing (like I suppose they do for some), I seem to have accumulated a wardrobe made up of these "special care" pieces. The primary cleaning instructions: Dry Clean Only.
Which made me think: What is "dry" cleaning? How does it affect my clothing? And since dry cleaning is not something I, a college student, can afford on a regular basis... can I do it myself?
Read on for some laundered enlightenment....
I'm sorry... I completely had to. Perhaps I will blog about hairless cats later considering my mild obsession.
Dry cleaning originated in the mid-19th century, and was invented by Jean Baptiste Jolly, a dye-works owner, when he noticed that a table cloth became cleaner after his maid accidentally overturned a kerosene lamp on it. Kerosene is mixture of petroleum hydrocarbons (for my science buddies), and is a solvent for organic compounds. To simplify a bit, stains can be divided into two broad categories: water based or non-water based. Using the general chemistry principle of "like dissolves like," one would use water (with a detergent) on "wet" or water-based stains (ketchup, coffee), and similarly a solvent on "dry" stains like grease or oil.
So right off the bat we now know that "dry" cleaning just means that the cleaning process involves no water, but it isn't exactly moistureless. Considering kerosene is highly flammable (hence why it was used to keep lamps lit), it's markedly too dangerous to be smearing all over our clothes. Subsequently, the current solvent for dry cleaning is tetrachloroethene, commonly known as "perc." Essentially when one drops his or her clothes off at the dry cleaners, first any blatant stains are pre-treated, then the clothes are soaked in perc, dried, and voilá! Fresh clean clothes.
While this seems like the easy solution, dry cleaning has a reputation for shriveling the life-span of clothes, along with talk of perc being a possible carcinogenic and/or toxic waste. So, if indeed you are reluctant to drop off your garments at the dry cleaners, try mastering the art in your own home! This is a task I've been diving into lately... well, sort-of. Though I wasn't able to find any truly "natural" dry cleaning methods that actually worked, there are at-home dry cleaning kits. Also it's important to know that most of the time items that say "Dry Clean Only" can frequently be handwashed with a mild detergent and water.
It really comes down to identifying the fabric you're working with and it's nature. A simple rule of thumb: garments made natural fibers like silk, cotton, and linen can generally be handwashed at home, while synthetic fabric blends (i.e.rayon), and pieces made of leather, fur, or delicately embellished should be left to the pros.
Goodluck with your future stain-fighting ventures!
