How to Prepare Your Clothes for Dry Cleaning

Distressed about the stain you found on your favorite silk blouse? You can take several steps to ensure that your dry cleaner gets the best results possible.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Notebooks
• Notebooks

1. Keep care tags or labels on garments.

2. Do not wash, dry or iron in stains if you know you are going to take the item to the cleaners anyway.

3. Avoid pretreating stains, especially those on delicate fabrics and on clothes that are dry-clean only. You'll get best results when you leave these stains untouched and bring the item in immediately.

4. Include a note that explains the source of the stain and how long it's been there. Better yet, explain this to the cleaner personally.

5. Empty pockets of makeup, change and other items at home.

6. Notify dry cleaners ahead of time of any preexisting tears or damage. Otherwise, they might not clean your garment for fear you'll think they caused the damage.

Tips & Warnings

• Dry cleaners are professionals, but some stains lie beyond even their cleaning capabilities. Fabrics that generally require dry cleaning include silk, wool, linen and rayon.