One major factor that creates distinction between dry cleaning and washing at home is the ‘Use of Water’. While cleaning your dirty clothes and upholstery at home requires lots of water, cleaning agents, and your hands or a washing machine, dry cleaning follows a thorough and methodical process to clean clothes and remove dirt without water. However, if you are unable to decide whether to go for a laundry near you dry cleaning service or to wash clothes at home, you need to understand the basic differences, conditions, and purposes between washing at home and dry cleaning, with pros and cons.
So, let’s dive into the discussion, and we will start with definitions.
What is Dry Cleaning? What are Its Uses?
Dry cleaning is processed without water but with a liquid solvent. The clothes do not get wet during cleaning. However, the liquid solvent used in this cleaning process evaporated quickly.
Clothes and dresses made with wool, velvet, acetate, silk, suede, and leather require dry cleaning to avoid damage and maintain their delicacy, shape, design, and fit.
What is Washing at Home? What are Its Uses?
To put it simply, cleaning our regular clothes at home with our hands or a washing machine is called washing. Here we use ample water and detergent/soap. In this process, the fabrics get wet, and we scrub them to remove dirt and stains. Next, we rinse the fabric and put it in the sun or an open space to get it dry.
In general, clothes made of cotton, polyester, linen, nylon, polycotton, viscose, etc, can be easily washed by hand at home.
Dry Cleaning Vs. Washing at Home: Pros & Cons
Both dry cleaning and washing (at home) have their pros and cons. Let’s understand them with a bird’s-eye view.
- If you have dresses with tags ‘Dry clean only’, you must go for the dry cleaning option instead of hand washing or machine washing at home.
- Garments or upholstery that have caught tough oil stains, grease, or chemical stains, dry cleaning works better on them than normal washing.
- If you have expensive dresses made of silk, leather, rayon, acrylic, suede, or wool, you must choose dry cleaning service over hand washing. Emerging this sort of dress in water may result in shrinking, discoloration of the fabric, and loss of shine.
- Dry cleaning maintains the delicacy of the fabric and retains the shape and the fabric structure.
More or less, you can take these points as pros of dry cleaning. When it is all about pros and cons, the dry cleaning process hardly provides disadvantages or cons. Though, in some cases, it leaves the chemical residue, stain, and odor on the garment and becomes the cause of irritation. On the other hand, washing at home is an affordable and environmentally safe option. We do it every day. However, choosing dry cleaning service for regular clothes may end up staining our pockets.
To Conclude
So, it can be said easily that dry cleaning or washing at home both have their good and bad. Choose them wisely according to the needs of the fabric of your garments and upholstery. Check the tag on garments and the cleaning instructions, and choose the option between dry cleaning and washing at home.
We, Das Laundry & Drycleaners, your laundry near you in Kolkata, can manage both your dry cleaning and laundry needs at the best price with free pickup and delivery. We are waiting to hear from you.
