9 Dry Cleaning Hacks: How to Keep Clothes Looking Good

For those who are truly interested in a great menswear collection, carefully selecting each item is only half the battle. Maintaining a garment to look good and to be able to wear it longer is another challenge of its own. Today, we’ll discuss nine simple hacks you can use to supplement (and even avoid) dry cleaning, and how to perform each of them at home.

How much money do you think you spend on dry cleaning per year? A huge return to those who want to wear a nicer garment is the perceived cost of what it’s going to take to maintain those clothes. It’s a bit of a status symbol at large firms like Goldman Sachs, for example, to spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars getting your suits and shirts cleaned.

The average American home spends $500 on it alone. Unfortunately, at the time of writing in April 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic has been very hard on this industry. It’s still an important part of maintaining your wardrobe and it’s not always possible to avoid it.

 The ironic thing is that wool, silk, and other natural fibers that aren’t in direct contact with the skin have many self-cleaning properties. In many cases, this will make dry cleaning unnecessary; for example, in the lanolin oils found in wool, which are antimicrobial.

Cary Grant claimed to have never taken his suits to the dry cleaners and he had some in his collection that were over 50 years old–and chances are he probably wasn’t very smelly! While this is an extreme take, dry cleaning does damage the dye and weave of your clothing and can damage your garment over time.

So, this means you really only want to use dry cleaning as a last resort, perhaps for a really bad smell, stain, or a misshapen jacket. The good news is that we’ve come up with nine dry-cleaning hacks to help you spend less time and money away from the cleaners and more toward things that you actually want to do. Plus, you won’t be as scared to eat that rack of ribs with your jacket still on.

9 Dry Cleaning Hacks To Keep Clothes Looking Good

1. Start Treating Stains Immediately

After eating in a nice jacket and a drop of mustard hits your collar, don’t wait to take it to the dry cleaner. Start mitigating the stain immediately. If you’re out and about, here a few ways to start dealing with it:

Using a clean utensil, scrape off as much of the food or sauce from the garment as possible.

Blot the stain gently with little club soda but don’t crush or rub the stain into the fabric. You can also use plain white bread to blot as much of the food or sauce up as possible. Please note that this must be plain white bread that does not contain fat. So, no pastries or focaccia, or the problem will be worse.

Keep a stain remover wipe in your wallet for just an occasion. Blot gently and avoid the temptation to rub too hard.

Even if you can’t get the stain out entirely, you’ve made a good start and the dry cleaner will have a much easier time getting the rest of the stain out.

2. Use A Clothes Brush to Clear Away Debris

As we go about our day, dust, food, and other residues can sneak their way onto and into the garments we wear, particularly in fibers like ones commonly found in a suit. Over time, this grime will build up and sink its way into the fabric. This will cause potential food or smells for moths to take advantage of in the future.

A clothes brush made out of something like horsehair will use its bristles to clear out the dirt and debris without harming the fabric. Doing this once every few wears will help the garment from getting grimy over time. If you just stained a small spot, you can take water and a small cloth, and dab the stain.

If it still persists, you can apply a small amount of stain remover and press it. Don’t spray this directly as too much can damage the weave.

3. Do A Spot Test On Silk Garments & Accessories

Before you try dry cleaning a silk garment yourself, a good trick you can try to make sure that the fabric is sturdy enough is called a “spot test.” You’ll want to place a small amount of water on the garment that’s not visually noticeable with whatever detergent you planned on using such as the back blade of the tie.

Make sure you can live with a small mark if this trick does not work. You’ll then want to run a cotton swab over that area.

As some of the clothing’s dye leaks onto the swab, it’s best to then take it to a dry cleaner or be very careful if you continue to try to spot clean it. If it doesn’t bleed, you can be a bit more aggressive with hand washing or machine washing on a delicate cycle. 

4. Tumble Dry Garments With Ice Cubes

Did something get crammed into the back of the closet? Crammed into a suitcase? If you have a dryer and some ice cubes handy, you can avoid going to the dry cleaner and painstakingly hand steaming your garments. The warm air from the dryer will slowly melt the ice cubes creating steam.

Do this on dry clothes for the minimum amount of time to smooth out wrinkles. 

5. Try These Three Methods to Remove Odors!

Here’s a list of things you can do to remove odors from clothes before bringing them to the dry cleaner.

5A. Hang garments outside

If your suit or sport coat is smelling like a wet dog, try leaving it outside on a sunny day with a slight breeze for a few hours. The sun’s ultraviolet rays serve as a natural bacteria-killer. This will also help activate the oils in wool.

Breeze will also help remove any lingering substances, which also might be clinging onto the garment. This will serve as particularly helpful when trying to remove the scent of tobacco out of a jacket. If you’ve been to a smoky casino or bar, that smell always sticks to clothing.

5B. Spray a bit of vodka onto your garment

If the smell is particularly strong, you can get a fan and spray a mist of vodka towards the garment to kill off any extra odors. Doing this process one to three times should help remove any moderate odors, which might be clinging onto the garment.

This is also a great hack for deodorizing vintage clothes with that distinct smell.

5C. Freeze smelly clothes

Stashing stinky clothes overnight in the freezer has been known to dramatically reduce the smell of smoke and other strong odors.

6. Use A Pressing Cloth when Ironing Suits

While shirts are very easy to iron, suits can be a bit tricky. They have a third layer of inner lining or canvassing which can bubble up or wrinkle a bit funny if not handled properly. You can also burn the wool of the suit if you directly apply the iron to the fabric. Pressing like this can cause the fabric to become unnaturally shiny and warped if done incorrectly.

Using a pressing cloth adds a layer of protection to the suit from the iron. This will allow the user to iron the body of the suit without worrying about burning the fabric or loosening the seams. 

7. Tub-Wash Suits with Lemon Juice & Vinegar

If you have an old and severe stain or smell on a suit or in a garment that hasn’t been cleaned in a long time, this trick will work wonders for you as a last resort.

Fill up the tub with cold water and submerge the suit in question. You then want to take a teaspoon of lemon juice and/or vinegar and apply that to the water. This is because the acidic properties are effective at penetrating the wool fibers and killing off any germs that may have picked up along the way. Press down on the problem areas and allow to soak for half an hour. When you return, drain the water and press the fabric to remove any excess water.

You may never look at your clothes the same way again when you see how much dirt comes out of it. You then want to put your garment on a sturdy hanger and wait for it to dry before brushing it to get it to a pristine condition. You can even do this outside, as we mentioned before, for maximum effect.

8. Schedule A Bi-Annual, Off-Season Dry Cleaning Run

For unavoidable dry cleaning, schedule a twice-annual off-season dry cleaning run. There may be some things that you need or just want to dry clean, but often they are never cleaned when we actually want to wear them. Case in point, winter coats that you notice are dirty just when it gets cold outside.

The key is to plan ahead, so that you’re ready when you need them. In the summer months, gather up your tweed jackets and overcoats and bring them in to be cleaned, so they are ready when fall arrives or perhaps do this just when the season is ending. The same is true for your linen suits and lightweight shirts. Bring those in at the first snowfall or in January.

9. Avoid Staining Your Garments in the First Place

Try to avoid overly sweating or getting them dirty in the first place. While all these techniques can be very effective at removing dirt and odors from garments that are recommended to be dry cleaned, one of the best lines of defense is to avoid it all together. 

Even Cary Grant broke his own rules on screen after a day of dodging crop dusters.

While you shouldn’t be overly fussy or afraid when wearing dress clothes, if you have a tendency to be a bit messy, avoiding certain foods or perhaps drinking wine while wearing those garments might be your best line of defense for keeping things clean.

To ensure that you don’t ruin your favorite shirt or your best suit, it’s ideal to have a set of clothes which are made from some workhorse material, perhaps something a little bit older, to wear so that you don’t mess up that nice stuff.

Conclusion

Quality clothing is an investment and there’s no shame in hedging your bets. if you don’t think it’s worth a risky situation. Keep them looking good with these smart and easy dry cleaning hacks!

Outfit Rundown

Today, I’m wearing a green cable net sweater from Brooks Brothers and a blue and white checked casual shirt, along with dark denim, dark green boots from Taft, and, of course, my Fort Belvedere shadow stripe socks with gold and burgundy stripes. And, of course, you can always find socks like these and other great accessories at the Fort Belvedere shop.

Have you tried these techniques or do you immediately take your garments to the dry cleaner? Share with us how you do it in the comments!