Learn to dry-clean your clothes at home!

We all love to buy branded clothes and delicate items for ourselves; yet one thing that troubles the most about them is getting them dry-cleaned every time we wish to see them fresh and clean.

Leaving them at the dry-cleaners for a couple of days and then paying high charges for cleaning is something that frustrates a lot.

So, how would that be if you get to know that you can dry-clean your “dry-clean only” items and delicate work clothing at home also? Though the task is not that simple and would require a lot of care before doing but still it is not impossible. Atleast you can give it a try once as it is not that costly too.

So, given below are the tips that you can follow to dry-clean your clothes at home but before that do remember that not everything can be treated at home. If your clothes are too soiled with mud, coffee etc or if the items to dry-clean are your stuff toys or clothes which are made of leather, suede and fur then clearly, these cannot be treated at home. It is better to get them dry-cleaned from a professional only.

So, here are the steps to dry-clean your clothes –

1) To begin with the process, you need to buy a dry-cleaning kit which is easily available in supermarkets and department stores.

2) Look at the garment to be treated properly. Look for the big patches of stains.

3) The dry-clean kits come with a stain-remover solution or a stain-remover pen. Use the available one to pre-treat the big stain on your cloth.

4) Simply apply the solution and rub it on the stain. Be careful that you don't treat the entire cloth with the stain-remover as it can damage the cloth.

5) It is advisable to first treat a hidden area of the cloth to check if you are able to do it well or not and also to know if the solution is really effective.

6) After treating the stain with the stain remover, use the special bag provided in the kit.   

7) You need to keep the clothes to be treated in the bag. At one time, you can keep 2 to 3 clothes also. Do remember that you don't have to stuff the bag as the clothes would need space to rotate.

8) The dry-cleaning kit also comes with a dry-cleaning cloth. Put that also in the bag in which you have put the garments to be treated.

9) At this level, check the instructions on the kit and as given in the instructions, accordingly put the put the clothes in the bag fully zipped in your washing machine's tumble dryer.

10) Time the tumble dryer as recommended on the packet. Ideally, it is not for more than 30 minutes.

11) The cloth provided in the kit comes with special chemicals which tend to evaporate in the steam that comes from the tumble dryer. This helps in giving the freshness and mild cleaning to the clothes.

12) After that, take out the clothes from the bag.

13) Keep the bag for later use as it is reusable and hang the clothes on a hanger and let them dry.

14) If they dry wrinkle-free then they can be stored and used immediately however, if not then iron them.

15) Do remember that you may not iron them by sprinkling water or by excessive steam.

16) The ideal way is to use a steam iron.

17) All done, retain the clothes in the closet where some air could pass through them.

18) If you still see the stains on any area of the cloth. Treat it with the stain-remover again and repeat the process.

19) If not then your clothes are ready to be used immediately.

20) Keep the kit for later use.