At Classic Cleaners, we’re history buffs. Did you know that dry cleaning dates back to ancient times?  In the ruins of Pompeii, there were found records of professional clothes cleaners called “fullers”. The Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute, an authority on all facets of dry cleaning, explains that a type of clay known as “fuller’s earth” was rubbed into fabric to absorb soil and grease.  (Centuries later, the Paris firm of Jolly-Belin was credited with being the very first dry cleaning firm.)

It’s fascinating to learn that fuller’s earth is very much in use today.  In fact, the U.S. is one of the largest exporters of the substance, which is found mainly in southeastern states.  Fuller’s earth has quite a number of modern commercial applications, including:

• Artificially aging the fabric of costumes to make them look older than they really are.
• As an ingredient in cat litter.
• To absorb grease off brake bands and winches of cranes and oilers.
• As a facial mask for skin care.
• To treat burns.
• To decontaminate the clothing and equipment of chemical/biological/radiological/nuclear emergency responders.

While Classic Cleaners history doesn’t go back quite as far as the fullers of Pompeii, our company has quite a story of its own. The first store was opened in January, 1985 in northeast Indianapolis, under the original name Professional Cleaners. Since that very first year, Classic Cleaners has been a member of the Dry Cleaning & Laundry Institute, the premier international trade association for garment care professionals since 1883.

You might say Classic Cleaners are the modern-day fullers of Indianapolis!

–Reb of the Classic Cleaners Blog Team

Despite the name, dry cleaning isn’t actually dry – the process does involve liquid, only that liquid isn’t water.  The basic goal of dry cleaning is the same as with laundry (should we call laundry “wet cleaning”?) – to remove dirt and stains from garments.

Have you ever thought about how washing actually gets clothes clean?  According to scienceclarified.com, most of the dirt that collects on clothing (or on our bodies or on dishes, for that matter) is surrounded by a layer of oil.  That’s the reason washing clothes in water with no detergent would not affect the dirt. (Since oil and water don’t mix, the water could never approach the dirt!)  That’s where detergent  and laundry soap come in – the detergent molecules attach at one end to the oily dirt, with the other end “attached” to the water molecules.  The dirt is “pulled” into the water, and it can then be rinsed right down the drain.

So why can’t we launder all our garments? Certain fabrics (silk, rayon, and wool blends, for example) don’t do well when put into water: 

• The fabric shrinks
• The garment shape becomes distorted
• The fabric fades or changes color because of a chemical reaction

How Stuff Works explains that water molecules interact with certain fibers to make them expand, contract, or change.  Because dry cleaning solutions have a chemical makeup that is different from water, garments typically don’t shrink or fade.  At the same time, though, the dirt and stains “attach” and float off the clothes.

At Classic Cleaners, we know both cleaning and laundry play an important part in protecting your wardrobe.  We carefully check the care labels of your garments and use the dry cleaning or laundering process that will produce the best cleaning results.  We even go the extra mile and clean your garments by hand when needed.  At Classic Cleaners, we keep those molecules marching in exactly the right direction!

—Reb of the Classic Cleaners Blog Team

From March 4 to March 10, 2010, we are offering a very special special! 50% off all men’s and women’s pants. It’s time gather up all of the pants in the house you need laundered or dry cleaned and make them spiffy for spring!

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team

Top 10 things to look for when choosing a dry cleaner

Post series intro

10. Knowledge of dry cleaning
9. Membership in a dry cleaning association
8. Clean stores
7. No odor on clothes
6. Properly removed stains
5. Skillful ironing
4. Intact buttons
3. Simple repairs made
2. White garments white
1. Ready to wear!
0. Environmental responsibility

I hope you’ve enjoyed this series on what to look for when choosing a dry cleaner. It’s also been a fun exercise for me, and new items continue to come to mind. For example, great customer service and great locations are also things to look for.

Of course, this series dealt mostly with the more concrete aspects of dry cleaning results, and I think we’ve covered a lot of ground. If you can verify that your dry cleaner does all of the above well, then you have in all likelihood found a “keeper.”

We’d like you to take a look at Classic Cleaners in light of the points above. We believe we can offer you extremely consistent dry cleaning results that are very hard to beat in the Indianapolis area. Thank you very much for giving us a try!

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team

Top 10 things to look for when choosing a dry cleaner

Post series intro

10. Knowledge of dry cleaning
9. Membership in a dry cleaning association
8. Clean stores
7. No odor on clothes
6. Properly removed stains
5. Skillful ironing
4. Intact buttons
3. Simple repairs made
2. White garments white
1. Ready to wear!
0. Environmental responsibility

OK, I had an additional “thing to look for,” and it’s an important one. It’s great when you find a dry cleaner that offers superb customer service and fabulous cleaning results, but if that business is an environmental disaster in the making, then it’s doubtful that their customers would find that acceptable. After all, people care about their community.

There are strict laws governing how dry cleaners handle and dispose of dry cleaning solvent and other substances. Beyond the basics, however, there are many ways in which dry cleaners can go the extra mile and do things like recycling.

As we say on our Environmental Responsibilities page, Classic Cleaners was the first dry cleaner in the Indianapolis area to receive Certified Environmental Drycleaner certification from the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute. We have never been cited for an environmental violation and handle all dry cleaning substances with the highest level of care.

We also recycle wire hangers and plastic bags, collecting these items from customers. In the Indy area, we believe we offer an unbeatable level of environmental responsibility, and we are constantly looking for new ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team

Top 10 things to look for when choosing a dry cleaner

Post series intro

10. Knowledge of dry cleaning
9. Membership in a dry cleaning association
8. Clean stores
7. No odor on clothes
6. Properly removed stains
5. Skillful ironing
4. Intact buttons
3. Simple repairs made
2. White garments white
1. Ready to wear!

Every garment you receive back from your cleaners should be ready to put on and proudly display to the world (if it is indeed intended as outerwear!).

Many of the “things to look for” we’ve covered in the series deal with this issue, but even stranger things are possible when less-than-reputable dry cleaners are involved. Garments can come back completely ruined, sitting serenely on the hanger as though nothing has happened. We’ve heard horror stories of garments drained of their color, stripped of beads and sequins, shrunk down to tiny sizes, and so on.

Such travesties are rare, of course. More often one sees garments that show no signs of having been cleaned or pressed, which can happen if the dry cleaner skips a step or the entire process. One also sees garments that are wrinkled from improper cleaning, pressing or handling.

Although, like anybody else, we can’t claim 100% perfection, we feel we offer unbeatable quality control in the Indy area and that you’ll be very pleased with the results. Should you ever have any concern about a garment that we’ve cleaned for you, please tell us. We’ll definitely take care of the situation!

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team

Top 10 things to look for when choosing a dry cleaner

Post series intro

10. Knowledge of dry cleaning
9. Membership in a dry cleaning association
8. Clean stores
7. No odor on clothes
6. Properly removed stains
5. Skillful ironing
4. Intact buttons
3. Simple repairs made
2. White garments white
1. Ready to wear!

This one seems pretty obvious, doesn’t it? White garments should come back from your dry cleaner sparkling white, and that’s what we offer here at Classic Cleaners!

We use special enzyme-based detergent that gets dirt out beautifully in cold water, which is better for garments and prevents shrinking. We also always use clean, well-filtered solvent in our dry cleaning process.

If you get garments back from your dry cleaner that are dingy and gray, it could be because they are using dirty dry cleaning solvent. They may be using too little detergent or substandard detergent.

Beautiful white clothes are the essence of our premium dry cleaning and laundry service. Try Classic Cleaners, and you’ll see the difference!

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team

Top 10 things to look for when choosing a dry cleaner

Post series intro

10. Knowledge of dry cleaning
9. Membership in a dry cleaning association
8. Clean stores
7. No odor on clothes
6. Properly removed stains
5. Skillful ironing
4. Intact buttons
3. Simple repairs made
2. White garments white
1. Ready to wear!

It sometimes surprises our customers that making simple repairs is a feature of our premium dry cleaning and laundering. If something is wrong and we didn’t do it, then we shouldn’t have to fix it, right?

But that’s not how we think here at Classic Cleaners! Making simple repairs is part of offering you the best dry cleaning and laundering service possible. For example, suppose you give us a polo shirt to clean with a seam coming undone on the side. If we were to clean and steam the shirt without first neatly sewing up the seam, we could damage the garment further. Moreover, that’s an easy repair to make and doing it results in a happier customer–always our goal.

Obviously, if a garment is severely torn or otherwise damaged, we will alert you to this fact before we do anything further. Some repairs aren’t “simple” and may require a fee–or may be impossible. In most cases, though, we can fix it in a jiffy!

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team

Top 10 things to look for when choosing a dry cleaner

Post series intro

10. Knowledge of dry cleaning
9. Membership in a dry cleaning association
8. Clean stores
7. No odor on clothes
6. Properly removed stains
5. Skillful ironing
4. Intact buttons
3. Simple repairs made
2. White garments white
1. Ready to wear!

We are now beyond the six things to look for when choosing a dry cleaner that My Dry Cleaner suggests; the rest are all ours!

Shirt buttons can break at any time. Sometimes we receive shirts from customers with broken buttons, and sometimes buttons break during the cleaning process. Our process is very gentle, but sometimes buttons are on the verge of cracking and finally “give up the ghost” during washing or pressing.

It doesn’t matter where or why buttons break, however, since the Classic Cleaners Guarantee is always the same:

We guarantee that there will be no broken or missing buttons on your laundered shirts, or we will clean three additional shirts FREE!

How do we do this? We have a very large and varied supply of buttons to use to replace buttons of different colors and sizes. It’s just one more feature of our premium dry cleaning and laundering!

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team

Top 10 things to look for when choosing a dry cleaner

Post series intro

10. Knowledge of dry cleaning
9. Membership in a dry cleaning association
8. Clean stores
7. No odor on clothes
6. Properly removed stains
5. Skillful ironing
4. Intact buttons
3. Simple repairs made
2. White garments white
1. Ready to wear!

My Dry Cleaner opines,

Check the quality of ironing. The most often neglected areas are the crotches of pants and the underarms of blouses or jackets.

If anything, My Dry Cleaner is understating the importance of ironing. In fact, ironing is more of an art than a process. Naturally, we have made it as systematic as possible and have separate stations for every part of the garment. To get good ironing, however, you need really skillful people.

Another place to look at is the pockets of pants: you don’t want a visible pocket outline. The side seams of pants are another area that requires precision work, and crisp collars are a must.

At Classic Cleaners, we believe we offer the best clothes ironing in Indy. If you haven’t tried us yet, please do–we think you’ll be greatly satisfied with our ironing and every aspect of our work!

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team