Sometimes taking care of your clothes can fall to the wayside.  There are so many important things that you need to do during the day that often take priority over caring for your clothing.  However, it’s very important to take care of them.  If you take good care of them your clothes will last a lot longer.  You’ll save money in the long run because you won’t have to buy new clothes often.

Hanging Clothes

It’s important to using clothing hangers in your closet to keep your clothing looking nice.  If your clothes are hung up they will have fewer wrinkles.  This is especially important for business clothing.  You’ll want to keep your business attire looking nice between dry cleaning appointments.  Children’s clothing can also benefit from hanging in the closet.  Baby clothes can be hung in the closet or folded and put in a dresser.

Protecting Clothes

Like many people, you may have some clothes in your closet that you don’t wear often.  Sometimes these clothes have sentimental value, such as a wedding dress.  Other clothes may simply be too fancy for everyday wear.  Using a dress cover is a great way to protect these clothes.  The cover should be a little longer than the piece of clothing and a little wider than the hanger.  For the sentimental clothing, including the wedding dress, you may want to get a special garment protector.  Prestige Cleaners even offers a special wedding dress preservation service to keep your wedding dress nice and clean.

Weekly Routine

It’s a good idea to take one day out of the week to inspect your clothing.  This may seem like a lot of work, but you’ll be able to catch a lot of problems before they get out of hand.  For example, if a piece of clothing is missing a button or it needs to be altered you can easily get it fixed.  You can get these minor problems fixed with clothing alterations and mending services at Prestige Cleaners.

Baby Clothing

Sometimes baby clothing can require extra care.  When you first buy baby clothing you should always wash it before your baby wears it.  Doing this will avoid skin irritation.  One cleaning practice for baby clothing that’s growing in popularity is using a specific laundry detergent for the clothing.  This is a good idea if your baby has very sensitive skin that reacts to your normal detergent.  However, most people use one detergent for all the clothing in their home, which is a good idea.

One thing to be aware of when you’re considering the care of baby clothing is that a baby may go through several outfits in a single day.  Spit up or just eating meals can get clothes dirty quickly.  You may need to wash your baby’s clothing often.  Doing this can wear out the clothing quickly, so it can be a good idea to have enough clothing to last several days with multiple changes per day.  This way you’ll only have to wash the clothes once or twice a week instead of every other day.

Making sure to take care of your clothing on a daily basis will help your clothing last.  Combining home clothing care with specialty dry cleaning care at the best Utah dry cleaners will keep your clothing looking great all the time.

Making sure your clothing is sorted properly when doing laundry is very important.  You’ll get the best results if you follow a few general sorting rules.  These rules will help you at home and when you send your clothes to a Salt Lake City dry cleaner to be cleaned.  Here are a few simple sorting rules.

Look at the Tags

Each piece of clothing has a tag that features symbols to tell you how to care for it.  These symbols tell you exactly how each piece should be washed and dried.  Most pieces will have standard instructions of washing and then drying in the dryer.  Some pieces may need to be hand washed or air dried.  As you look at the tags you can sort the clothing into piles.   The first can be the clothing with standard instructions.  Another pile may be hand wash items only, and a third pile may include clothing that can’t be put in the dryer. Some items may also require you to take them to a professional dry cleaner.

Sort by Color

Once you’ve separated the clothing by the care instructions it’s a good idea to break down the pile by color.  White and pastel clothing should be put together.  Clothing that has a print with a white background should also be included in this first pile.  Putting these together will help prevent staining from dark colored clothes.

The second load should be dark colors.  This pile can include dark jeans.  Other items may be black, dark blue, purple, and so on.  If these items are placed in another pile they could potentially stain other pieces of clothing.  It’s much safer to put them in their own pile.

Bright colors can be put in a third load.  This can include red, orange, yellow, pink, and other colors.  Many of these colors are known to stain very light colored clothing.  Having all these colors together will help prevent a laundry disaster.

Mixing Piles

Usually this isn’t recommended, but you can mix some piles if you don’t have enough clothing to make up load of laundry.  However, if you do this you need to be very aware of what colors and clothing you are mixing.  If you’re mixing colors it’s best to mix the dark and bright colors.  These colors are less likely to stain each other.  Mixing bright colors and light colors would be a problem.

If you mix two piles that require different types of wash cycles you should choose the gentler cycle that’s required.  The piece of clothing that can be washed at a heavier setting will still get washed with the gentler cycle.

You can follow several other clothing sorting rules if you’d like.  There are a few common rules that are helpful.  Another option may be to sort clothing by stains.  You may want a pile that has only stained clothing.  If you do have a pile of clothing with stains it’s a good idea to send it to a dry cleaning service at Prestige Cleaners.  It’ll get taken care of right away.

There’s more to caring for your clothes than just putting them in the washer and dryer. Here are just a few tips on how you can care for your clothes that you may have not known.

• When you buy a new item of clothing with buttons, dab the center of each button with clear nail polish to seal the threads.
• Occasionally rub zipper teeth with wax to keep the zipper working smoothly. A small candle works well.
• Whenever you want to de-wrinkle clothes in a hurry, run hot water in the bathtub and hang your clothes on the shower rod. The steam from the hot bath water will remove the wrinkles.
• Do not iron clothes that are stained or soiled. The heat will set the stains.
• Discuss any stains you have with your dry cleaner so they can be flushed out to prevent a spot.

Most people will rotate through their winter clothing and their summer clothing to make more space in their dressers and closets. When they do, they need to make sure they are packing their clothes away the right way to prevent moths from creating holes in your clothing and ruining your favorite sweater or mildew from forming.

You may have never known that new garbage cans make good storage containers for clothes. As long as they are airtight you shouldn’t need to add any mothballs. Keep in mind that fumes from mothproofing products filter downward. So when you get mothballs or anything you use to keep moths away, you should put them high in the closet.

If you want to prevent mildew from forming in humid climates, corrugated boxes can be used to store your clothes. You will need to coat the boxes with shellac to keep the moisture out. Now if you want to prevent mildew from forming in your leather purse, you will want to fill the purse with crumpled newspaper and leave it unfastened.

Here are some tips when caring for your shoes:

• You can remove scuff marks on shoes with baking-soda paste.
• When you want to keep shoes shiny after you’ve polished them, you can spray them with hair spray.
• Salt residue which is common on winter boots can be cleaned using a cloth dipped in a solution of 1 cup water and 1 tablespoon vinegar. This also will work on leather and vinyl.
• Sprinkling a little salt on shoes and leaving them overnight can help control moisture to keep away odors.

When looking for a Utah dry cleaning company who will help care for your clothes, don’t look any further. Prestige Dry Cleaners is the best Utah dry cleaning delivery service you will ever work with. Our guarantee is excellent and quality service with your utmost satisfaction and convenience in mind. We care about your clothes just as much as you do and want to provide quality service.

How many times has it happened; you wear your favorite pair of white jeans and every stain imaginable seems to land squarely in your lap, or while taking your child to a  school play, you notice a fruit juice stain on their outfit.  We have all been there, and most of us either rush to the restroom, dab water on it, and try to dry it using the hand dryer, or we grab a moistened hand wipe and try to scrub it off.

It is a natural instinct, albeit a futile one.  The water causes the stain to bleed and when it dries, you end up with a stain that now has a glaring line of demarcation around it.  To make matters worse, the heat from the hand dryer probably caused the stain to set into the fabric.  Don’t throw in the towel, and relegate your favorite clothing into the yard-work pile.  Using the proper ingredients and techniques can safely remove most stains from washable fabrics; however, there are some rules and limitations.

Always take non-washable garments, or those labeled dry-clean only to a dry cleaners for proper care.  It costs very little compared to ruining the fabric in the process of trying to remove the stain yourself.  Act quickly, before stains set into the fabric.  Once a stain sets in, it can be practically impossible to remove.  Always blot; never rub fabrics.  Rubbing causes the fibers to weaken, not to mention it can mat fibers and create pilling.  Work from the outside in to avoid spreading the stain, or you can end up with a bigger stain than you started with.  Always test stain-removal techniques on a hidden area of the garment.  The last thing you want is to cause the dyes to bleed.  Never launder or dry a stained garment before pre-treating it.  The stain will set in to the fabric, effectively creating a very expensive dusting cloth.

Be prepared; keep these basic supplies on hand.

Absorbents – (cornstarch, talcum powder, salt) Sprinkle on certain stains, wait 15 minutes, then scrape off before treating.

Detergent – Choose a mild, clear, liquid dishwashing detergent.  It is an effective all-purpose cleaner.  Apply it straight, wait 5 minutes, then flush or dab with water.

Bleaches - (lemon juice, white vinegar, 3 percent hydrogen peroxide, ammonia) Dilute lemon juice or vinegar with equal parts water.  Ammonia should be mixed with 2 parts water to 1 part ammonia; never use on wool or silk.  Use a cotton swab to dab the bleach, or place paper towels underneath the fabric. Use an eyedropper to flush the stain with the proper bleach.

Denatured Alcohol - Breaks down certain stains and evaporates without leaving residue.

Mineral Spirits - Use for greasy stains, such as tar and air out clothing after using.

Glycerin - Good for ballpoint ink.

Mixed Solvents - An all-purpose stain remover good for greasy stains.  Find it on the laundry aisle of your local market.

ŸDigesting Agent – Contains protein-eating enzymes.  Good for grass, blood, and other protein stains.  Found on the laundry aisle of your local market.

ŸCloths – Clean, soft ones for dabbing.

ŸSpray Bottles - Various sizes for holding treatment solutions.  Do not forget to pick up a few travel sizes for when you are away from home.

ŸEyedropper – For flushing stains

Once you have the proper tools, you will be able to remove almost any type of stain.  However, keep in mind that it is better to choose dry cleaning for certain stains, especially those on delicate fabrics such as silk, or wool.  With that said, here are some guidelines for treating some of the most common stains.

ŸGrease – Remove grease stains with a mixed solvent, and then follow up with mineral spirits if necessary.

ŸProteins – (blood, grass, or eggs) Soak in a mixture of cold water and detergent.  After soaking, flush with white vinegar or hydrogen peroxide.

ŸFruit and Vegetables - Start with denatured alcohol, and then flush with white vinegar.  Finish by using dish detergent to remove any residue.

ŸLipstick – Apply a mixed solvent, and then flush with white vinegar or mild bleach.

ŸRed Wine - Act quickly before stains have a chance to set in.  Dab on denatured alcohol, then flush with white vinegar.  For sturdy fabrics, coat areas liberally with table salt.  Once it turns to a pinkish color, lay the garment over a sink or a bowl, and pour hot water through the fabric from above.  If the stain is still visible, seek the services of a dry cleaner.

ŸWhite Wine - Flush with cold water and launder as usual.

ŸTea - Flush with lemon juice, then follow up with stronger bleach if needed.

Coffee – Flush with white vinegar.

ŸGum or Wax - Use ice to freeze, or place the garment in the freezer.  Once frozen, scrape or crack the stain off.  If residue remains, take it to a dry cleaner.

ŸChocolate – Start with a mixed solvent then follow up with a digesting agent, if necessary.  Mustard – Flush with ammonia solution, and then wash using dish detergent.

ŸMud - Scrape off, and then soak in a solution of warm water and laundry detergent.  Follow up with white vinegar or peroxide, if needed.

ŸBallpoint Ink - Rub glycerin into stain, and let it stand for 20 minutes.  Wash with dish detergent.  If you are in a pinch, an alternative is to spray with an inexpensive hair spray, and then flush with water.

ŸFelt-Tip Ink – Flush with denatured alcohol, then wash with dish detergent.

Now that you know what to do, there is no need to panic over a stained garment.  However, always err on the side of safety and choose dry cleaning rather than treat any garment you are unsure of, including delicates, such as wools, silks, and lace.  This stain removal guide will help you take care of your clothes.  Given the proper care, they will last longer, and you will save yourself the time and money it takes to replace them.

We all want to look good, don’t we? And one important part of this is being dressed in beautiful clothes made with fine-looking (and often expensive) fabric such as silk and wool. But how do we take care of such fabrics that get dirty through normal wear, as well as occasional boo-boos such as wine spills or ink stains caused by a defective pen.

Wet cleaning vs. dry cleaning

Really, there are clothes that need special care. You see, it is not sensible to wet clean some clothes. By wet cleaning we mean hand-washing or dropping it onto the washing machine. Wet cleaning makes use of detergent soap and shampoo. And sometimes, some fabrics don’t react well to detergent, as there may be strong chemicals that can damage the textile. Other disadvantages of wet cleaning include the possibility of shrinkage, distortion, faded color and water marks. Also, some stains are not easily removed using wet cleaning or spot cleaning.

And this is where dry cleaning can help.  Dry cleaning helps to:

- Make the stains go away. Dry cleaning can do what wet cleaning can’t: it breaks down the oils and grease that cause the stains.

- Make your clothes last longer. The grime, grit and dirt in the clothes actually have an abrasive effect on the fiber, tearing down the fabric more quickly. Actually, dry cleaning can help make your clothes look like new! We must, however, remind you that some fabrics should be dry cleaned in moderation.

- Makes the clothes retain their brightness and color. Some fabrics are prone to fading and water marks when wet-cleaned. In contrast, dry cleaning protects the brightness, color, as well as softness of the fabrics.

- Wash hard-to-clean items. These include comforters, thick blankets, rugs and upholstery.

And of course, dry cleaning is convenient, as you can just go to your trusted dry cleaner (like Prestige Dry Cleaners) to do the job for you. Prestige Dry Cleaners has built a solid reputation as one of the top Utah dry cleaners.

When you look at the label of your clothes, you will usually find washing instructions, whether the clothes are machine washable, or “dry clean only”. Please note that dyes, fabric and materials will vary, so it is best that you test a portion of the cloth first before you have it washed or dry cleaned. For help in taking care of your clothes, take a look at this garment care guide from Prestige.

Here are some fabrics that are best dry-cleaned, and why:

Acetate or acetate polyester.  Best dry-cleaned. The fabric may shrink when ironed. But the dry cleaner should also know at what temperature the clothes will be cleaned without shrinking.

Linen. To maintain the fabric’s crispness and to ensure that it is creaseless, this is best dry cleaned. However, if you want some softness to the linen, you can also hand wash it.

Lyocell.  This can be machine washed or dry cleaner. When you iron this, make sure that the iron is only moderately warm.

Rayon. This material should be dry-cleaned, although it can also be hand washed using lukewarm water. Please note that “washable” rayon is not recommended for dry cleaning.

Silk. Have pure silk dry-cleaned to avoid distortion and water marks on the fabric. As with rayon, “washable” silk does not respond well to dry cleaning.

Cotton. Dress shirts made of cotton may be dry cleaned once in a while.

Wool and suits. For stains, you can spot clean with the use of a wet sponge. Best dry cleaned, but not too often to lengthen the life of these fabrics.

Aside from dry cleaning, Prestige Dry Cleaners has a list of other services to help you with your clothing needs. We have a pick-up and delivery service for convenient laundry cleaning. We also preserve wedding gowns and restore clothes that have been fire or water damaged.  Please visit us to ask about our other services.

Our prices are very affordable and our value-added services can actually help you save time and money.

In taking care of your clothes, it is best that you leave it to trusted SLC dry cleaning professionals who are committed in making sure that your clothes (particularly the expensive ones) look their best, longer. We have the experience and expertise to clean your clothes, the right way. Our motto in Prestige Dry Cleaners is to “Take the hassles out of looking great.”