Garment Care & Cleaning Tips

Washing clothes too often can fade the color of your garments and weaken the fabric over time. Some clothing items, like underwear, socks, and t-shirts should be washed after every wear. More durable garments that don’t rest as closely to sweat glands will hold up to a few wears without needing cleaning. Your jackets, jeans, and some other types of pants only need to be cleaned when they’re soiled or develop an odor.

Most people know to separate their darks and whites, but that doesn’t mean that all dark clothing should go together. Clothes that have “permanent press” or “delicate” on their labels should only be washed in those cycles. Heavier clothes can be washed in gentler cycles, but those options might not be sufficiently thorough for heavier clothes or bedding. When you buy a garment, read the care label. Know which of your clothes require hand-washing, gentle cycles, or are dry clean only.

Washing your dry cleaning might save you a few dollars in the short term, but in most cases, you’ll also ruin your garments. Clothing manufacturers don’t want you to accidentally ruin their clothing, so they make sure their labeling indicates the best cleaning recommendation for your garments. In other words, trust the label.

Some clothing should be folded and others hung, but most textile manufacturers leave that piece of information off of the clothing label.

As a general rule:

Hang: Blouses, trousers, dress pants, dresses, jumpsuits, jackets, overcoats, blazers, suits, and dress skirts and pressed shirts.
Fold: Sweaters, casual shirts, and heavy pants. If you don’t have drawer space, fold sweaters over a hanger to avoid misshaping the shoulders.

We offer a convenient pick-up and delivery service, but you don’t always need to take your clothes to the cleaners or break out the iron for a couple of minor wrinkles. Hang your garment from a towel rack or the shower curtain rod as close to the source of steam that you can without getting your garment wet. After you finish your shower, allow a few minutes for your clothes to air dry out any moisture.