I work in a dry cleaners - ask me anything!

[PinkParade]

Want to know what really happens to your clothes?!

Why is it so expensive no idea! I think it's probably a combination of the machine being expensive, the whole process uses lots of energy and you need a fair amount of space (so rental costs will be high). I don't know how much the chemicals cost but definitely more expensive than water and washing powder. Plus we have to have insurance in case anything goes wrong.

washing wedding dress depends what kind of material the dress is. If it's polyester, cotton etc. then I'd have a go at washing it in the bath yourself (you'll need to be able to get the whole thing wet to avoid "tide marks"). If it's silk or something that shouldn't get wet then you could try dry cleaning but it's a bit hit and miss and things like grass stains will probably not be removed. Time probably makes it more likely the stains will be difficult to remove but it's not a given.

You're doing a great thing here OP (I've also worked in a dry-cleaner once upon a time, could probably still operate the shirt steamer at a pinch ;) ).

My most disgusting one was a woman who came in with a bag of dirty clothes for just regular washing (we had an ordinary washing machine and took in laundry by the kg, handy for some tourists). When we opened the bag it turned out she'd shat herself, and the large turd was just swinging there inside the yoga trousers. She hadn't even emptied it out. She said nothing. Not when she dropped it off, not when she picked it up.

banivani that's disgusting! Did you wash them?! We do laundry by the bag. Always check everything before accepting though and if something smells bad or is a bit weird we'll check more thoroughly.

I worked reception/sorting and just did other odd bits in the actual cleaning (like shirts) so I didn't have to deal with this. I just heard my colleague scream in disgust. He threw all the clothes she had into a hot wash without emptying the shit and let the washing machine break it up and flush it out. I don't think he washed the clothes twice either (but he washed the machine out afterwards) haha. Small revenges ...

Hi OP,
Recently I brought my 'good' wool coat in for dry cleaning. When I went to collect- it was a different coat. Very similar, same brand but different colour and different length.
-Absolutely sure that they've tried to give me a different coat.
...I refused to accept this coat and left it with the drycleaner.

I've told the dry cleaners th hat this is NOT my coat.... he says he'll lool at the cctv but a week later and still, there's no news on my original coat!

• Do clothes often get mixed up/lost in the drycleaners?
• What can I do to get my lovely coat back?

Oh god banivani that's awful, we absolutely would not have washed that.

Averagethreebedsemi argh what a nightmare. Mix ups and losses do happen but they're very rare in my experience. We tag every garment with a number that matches the customers ticket to stop this happening.

Did they tag your coat as soon as they took it in? Or was it busy so they put it to the side to tag later? If a very similar coat came in shortly after they could have mixed up the tags.

How to get it back? Hmmm, do you have pictures of your coat? I think the only thing you can do is keep pestering them about it. Try and speak to as many people who work there as possible and hope that one will take a proper interest. It happened once to us that a customers coat got lost (it had been sent away for cleaning) we weren't able to get it back and she ended up going through head office and getting compensation but it wasn't for the full cost of the coat. I know my manager felt really bad about it (but that doesn't help the lady with the missing coat!)

Has anybody ever brought in bloody clothes? Aka have you ever dry cleaned for a serial killer?

Same as @DobbyTheHouseElk about my wedding dress. It's lace. Any point dry cleaning that now?

Cleaning for serial killers? nope, I've never seen anything with more than a tiny blood stain on it so no serial killers lol. We did once get a guy come in with a completed job application form that listed a spent conviction for pushing his girlfriend down a flight of stairs but that's as criminal as I've seen. He didn't get the job...

shakenfizzydrink my wedding dress is lace and came up a treat in the bath. The professional wedding dress cleaning is always a bit hit and miss and I don't really know why (I don't see how they do it because the wedding dresses get sent away for cleaning).

Feel free to not answer this but if you can what do you think of the at home dry clean kits that use a dryer? (Lakeland stock them for anyone who hasn't seen them!)

Do the items get laundered individually, as in load 1 suit, load 2 coat or are they laundered by customer or just mixed everyone on the day?

at home dry cleaning kits I've never used one so I'm not sure how well they work. You won't get the extra bits that you get with dry cleaning like the pre-treatment of stains and pressing/finishing.

How items are grouped for cleaning it's just like doing a load of laundry so we have these big hampers and when a hamper is full that's a load and it all goes in together. We separate lights, darks and colours and do as many loads as we can get through in the day.

Thanks for answering - there are usually pre-treatments in the kits :) I am shocked that it is all put in together to be honest, makes dry cleaning seem even more expensive somehow. :(

Hi OP, how the hell do you get out tomato/chocolate and paint?? My toddler comes home so messy, unfortunately i don't know what sort of paint it is, but it didn't come out with washing up liquid like it sometimes does

Very interesting. I know absolutely nothing about dry cleaning as have never had anything done.

I’d like my feather duvet done though. How would this be done? How can something be clean if it’s never been wet?

I’d love to send washing to be done weekly but the thought of someone having to separate my dirty clothes is horrendous

I’m amazed it is all washed together, I don’t know why I thought fronthe price it was treated individually. But I don’t know what dry cleaning actually is. So this thread has been insightful thanks

Dry cleaning = solvent cleaning. It is really best for getting rid of grease/similar dirt. For example if you spill a candle full of candle wax on your table cloth - pop it in a dry cleaning cycle and that liquid just melts it clean out. However all water based stains are really no go - like sweat and urine. There are tricks to work at them too obv but basically that’s it. I was told the story of a elderly male customer mentioning/complaining that his dry cleaned trousers felt stiffer and stiffer. My boss them soaked them in a bucket of water while he watched and the water got more and more yellow ... all accumulated sweat and little drops of piss from the trouser front. 🤢

Normally a feather/down duvet would not be dry cleaned but water washed. It then needs to be tumble dried properly because if not dry it will smell. A dry cleaning machine soaks the clothes in the solvent, then drains the solvent and raises the temperature in the mchine to evaporate the rest of the solvent. If this isn’t done right the clothes will have an unpleasant damp feel and smell.

I wouldn’t be keen on sleeping in a dry cleaned duvet. Remnants of solvent and so on. Doesn’t feel fresh. They should be able to help you give it a professional clean though.

I'm an ex dry cleaner! I felt for you lot with last summer's weather op!

Does a lot of stuff get forgotten and left with you? What do you do with it?

What happens to all the solvent after you've used it?

@banivani

Thanks! I suppose maybe they’ll just wash it in an industrial sized washing machine which I wouldn’t be able to do at home. Would that be a same day service do you think? We’ve only got one.

Removing stains we don't do that much laundry tbh so my knowledge of getting out stains isn't that great. I'd try shampoo. Or get some stain remover. Some stains just don't come out though!

cleaning a feather duvet yes, this would be washed, not dry cleaned. We have to send duvets away because we don't have a large sized washing machine, just a household size one. Sending things away takes a week minimum so no same day service. Other shops may offer this or you could try going to a self service laundrette - they sometimes have large washers and dryers (you'd need to make sure it was dried really well).

Getting weekly laundry done some people do this! We don't sort the clothes though. We ask either that the customer signs to say they're happy for the clothes to all go in together or they have to bring it in pre-sorted.

Does a lot of stuff get forgotten and left? there's always a few old bits and pieces hanging around but they generally get picked up eventually. If anything is left for ages and we can't contact the customer it gets disposed of. We have a wedding dress that hasn't been picked up and it's just been sat on the shelf for ages - no one wants to throw it away!

solvent used we use the green earth solvent which is silica (sand) based. Its much more environmentally friendly than the traditional perc solvent. I'm not sure what happens to the solvent tbh, the old stuff gets collected when we get new deliveries.

it's just like doing a load of laundry so we have these big hampers and when a hamper is full that's a load and it all goes in together. We separate lights, darks and colours and do as many loads as we can get through in the day

But surely you don't have tags on the items while they are in the actual washing machine, so if you are loading everybody's stuff in to be washed together how do you avoid mixing it up ?

So my delicate top could be in this machine with some guy’s vomit stained suit or pissy trousers or cat-pissy sofa cover?

In a process that doesn’t clean as well as laundering?