LITTLE ROCK — Q. I am dressing as well as I need to for my new job and I agree with your articles that it makes a difference. But the cost of the right clothes set me back enough. At more than $2 per shirt, cleaning clothes that I can wash myself is costing me more than $700 a year. This is more than I can afford at my entry-level position. Can I get away with avoiding this expense, if I do a good enough job of ironing? And if so, what do I do about the small stains on my shirts that I’m afraid I’ll iron in permanently? (By the way, my dry cleaner did that themselves twice already, not to mention losing an occasional wrist button.) Any help is appreciated.
A. Before I get into doing your own laundry, I want to emphasize the importance of a good cleaner. I think you are better off finding another dry cleaner/laundry. Yours seems to be taking too little care in laundering and maybe using too much pressure when ironing your shirts. Having clothes cleaned by professionals should not cause such havoc.
In previous years, a few readers have berated me for my remarks about patronizing a top-quality (and therefore, more expensive) dry cleaner/ laundry. When I have written that professional cleaners carefully stuff the sleeves of pressed garments with tissue paper and provide other refined services, these readers have complained that they would rather take their newlycleaned garments off the wire hangers and re-hang them at home than pay the extra cost for such meticulous service. That is certainly every person’s right. But I don’t agree. Finding just the right clothes in stores is a costly and time-consuming task. After I have done that, I want them to continue to look new (or at least good) for a long time. I believe the professional cleaner/launderer who takes extra time packaging my garment is not doing so as a cosmetic device. He also uses more expensive cleaning fluids, changes them more frequently, pre-spots garments before cleaning them, hires more skilled pressers, and generally provides more knowledgeable service. Yes, it can be expensive, but I feel the slightly higher prices are worth it in making you look better and in making your clothes last longer. Also, if you have shirts professionally laundered and ironed, you can often wear them twice.
As to whether you should do your own shirts: Are you really a good ironer? If so, go ahead. And if not, you might consider adding a couple of the new high quality no-iron shirts (100 percent cotton, not polyester mixes) to your collection. Unlike the sleazy easy-care blend shirts of the past, these days establishments such as Brooks Brothers and L.L. Bean make all-cotton shirts that look as if they were ironed — as long as you are vigilant, removing them immediately from the dryer and hanging them up carefully.
To answer your question about the stains your shirts have developed, my dry cleaner tells me it has to do with the cleaning and bleaching solutions that your cleaner uses. For laundering garments at home, here are a few do-it-yourself tricks. Try not to let stains sit! I usually treat any stains by putting liquid detergent right onto the stain, letting it sit from five minutes to overnight, then washing. For stained shirt collars, brush a little hair shampoo into the collar before washing the shirt. Shampoo dissolves body oils. For underarm deodorant stains: soak the stain in white vinegar for 30 minutes. To prevent: let deodorant dry before dressing.
While we’re discussing doing your laundry, it is essential to be finicky. For your clothes to look meticulous, you must either spend the cost of a topof-the-line professional drycleaning establishment, or do your laundry in a (perhaps overly) fastidious way. My friends poke fun at me when I tell them some of my laundering procedures. I’m sometimes embarrassed to admit that I have told my sister I will only lend her something to wear if she promises not to launder it, but instead returns it to me to launder in my methodical manner.
A few of my laundering obsessions: 1. Separate colors into piles of “whites,” “lights,” “darks” and “reds.” 2. Turn any even slightly special garment inside out. 3. Place a garment that is in any way delicate or embellished into a zippered mesh bag. 4. Never use hot water. 5. Don’t over-dry; remove promptly from dryer (sometimes while still slightly damp) and hang immediately.
And to return to the subject of professional cleaners: Really good laundries do not press shirts so that the sleeve buttons are broken or knocked off. But if, on occasion, this happens, they should automatically replace the button without your request or even without your knowledge.
Send questions for Male Call to:
lois.fenton@prodigy.net
High Profile, Pages 41 on 03/18/2012