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Step 1
Shop around for dry cleaning deals. To lower your dry cleaning bill, look for weekly discounts. Check your neighborhood paper for weekly discounts on men’s shirts and women’s dresses. Patronize dry cleaners that will clean your clothes using a bulk pricing model rather than charging for each individual piece.
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Step 2
Reduce the amount of designer clothes you purchase. Designer clothes are constructed using fabrics that are primarily dry clean only. Your fine linens, jersey, boucle, suede and wool cannot be washed at home under any circumstances. To lower your dry cleaning bills, wear your designer duds for special occasions only.
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Step 3
Tumble clothes in the dryer after each wearing. To remove odors from your clothes, combine clothes with fabric softener sheets in your dryer. Allow the clothes to tumble for a minimum of 5 minutes on low heat. Once the cycle is finished, immediately remove clothes from the dryer, Place clothes on hangers to prevent wrinkling.
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Step 4
Hand wash clothes. Stock your shelves with gentle, but inexpensive liquid soap to lower your dry cleaning bills. Mix a tablespoon of a mild detergent with a few cups of warm water. After rinsing the items with cold water, lay the clothes flat to dry. After hand-washing arrange the clothes carefully to retain the shape of the garments.
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Step 5
Use the dry cleaners for pressing only. As an alternative to the full dry cleaning service, have the dry cleaners press your clothes only. This one step will reduce your budget drastically, yet give you the same crisp look of freshly clothes from the dry cleaners.
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Step 6
Convert your dryer into a dry cleaning machine. Use an at-home dry cleaning kit to remove stains and odors. Apply the cleaning solution provided in the kit to spot clean stains. Do not use the at-home kit as a long term alternative to dry cleaning. At-home dry cleaning is best used to freshen up clothes after a few wearings.
