It’s only fitting for the “Best Dry Cleaners in Indy” to have stores and pickup/delivery routes in three of the nation’s “Best Places to Live.” With stores in Carmel, Fishers, and Noblesville, Indiana, you might say Classic Cleaners is in all the right places. 

It’s the right time, too, because:

• Money Magazine’s August issue ranks the town of Fishers #8 on its “Top Ten Best Places to Live” list, citing Fishers’ low unemployment and its affordable housing. Classic Cleaners Store has a store at 11501 Geist Pavilion Road) and one at 9538 E. 126th St. in Fishers, with the  Westfield store (14635 N. Gray Rd.) just at Fisher’s western edge.
  
• Meanwhile, the city of Carmel won the Number 14 spot on the Money Magazine list. The article highlighted Carmel’s arts and leisure opportunities and its outstanding math and reading school test scores. Classic Cleaners has no fewer than five stores in Carmel: 5790 E. 131st St., 14550 Clay Terrace Blvd, 9893 N. Michigan Rd), 12707 Meetinghouse Rd.), and 12560 No. Meridian St..
  
• When it comes to retirement, Noblesville is golden”, writes Tom Spalding in the Indianapolis Star, noting that Noblesville was named to MSN’s Sperling’s Best Places. Another accolade for Noblesville was being finalist for the National Civic League’s All-American City Award.

Wherever you live in and around Indianapolis and its northern suburbs, you can take advantage of Classic Cleaners’ free home pick up and delivery services.  From Fortville on the east to Pittsboro on the west, all the way to Cicero on the north, and down to 42nd Street on the south, Classic Cleaners casts a wide net of customer service.

Since 1985, Classic Cleaners has taken pride in its reputation for high quality dry cleaning and laundry along with its superlative customer service.  With all the awards and praise for Carmel, Fishers, and Noblesville, Classic Cleaners can be proud of the company locations it keeps!

 by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

Ring the Bottle

It was come one, come all at the Summer Festival last Friday

Classic Cleaners Store  combined efforts with neighbor merchants at Bridgewater (146th St. and Gray Road) and with other area businesses to offer kids and parents a good time.  

Classic Cleaners Store #14 Manager Misty Elliott

Complete with a “bouncy houses”,  pony rides, and carnival games, the festival offered fun for family members of all ages, with plenty of pizza and Sno Cones available for purchase. (Oops! Dripped Sno Cone color or pizza sauce on your clothes? No worry – you didn’t have far to go to find dry cleaning experts to come to your rescue!) 

In addition to Classic Cleaners, participating sponsors included Gilmore Chiropractic, Fleming Family Dentistry, Cool River Pizza, Bridgewater Café, Walgreen’s, F&M Jolly Trolley Sno Cones, and the Primrose School at Bridgewater. 

Family festivals are always fun, but, invariably hard on kids’ clothes. Even washable garments need to have stains treated before they’re put into the laundry.  The weekend following the Summer Festival proved a great time for families to try out our Classic Cleaners’ Fluff and Fold laundry service, the perfect solution for families with high volumes of laundry and – not enough time! 

Pizza grease on shorts?  Tomato sauce on shirts? Blue Sno-Cone color on everything from socks

Sno Cones for everyone

to skorts? Our Classic Cleaners’ professionals are used to seeing it all following a festival.  After applying our gentle but highly effective laundering methods, we had fun folding and organizing clothes of every size and color into beautifully finished and folded piles – all ready for family fun activities to come! 

 by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

While Classic Cleaners’ General Manager Steve Arnold and the other 24 members of the 4th Virginia Company were cooking wild turkey at Conner Prairie Village’s civil war re-enactment last month, Arnold realized, their vintage uniforms were absorbing the smell of the campfire.

Interesting.  Although Classic Cleaners has earned a reputation for expert stain removal, it’s often true today that garments with no stains still need dry cleaning in order to remove smells.

Back in Civil War times, clothes were left out in the open air to get deodorized.  Today, Classic Cleaners’ technicians use an ozone-making machine the size of a small space heater. Clothes are exposed to the ozone within a closed-off room.  Just a few minutes with the ozone machine equals the effect of a couple of weeks leaving clothes to air outside!

Classic Cleaners Partner Steve Arnold at 4th Virginia Company

Clothing in Civil War times was made to last for many years.  Battlefield soldiers often didn’t have the luxury of owning several changes of clothes (average monthly pay was $11!).  Still, the hand-brushing soldiers used to restore the “nap” to fabrics is still used as one of several garment hand-care techniques at Classic Cleaners today.

You may not be in the habit of cooking wild turkey over a campfire, but clothing absorbs odors from many sources, and clothing needs periodic professional deodorizing.

When Classic Cleaners returns your garments to you at the counter or at your home, you may be assured those garments are not only clean and pressed – they can pass the smell test!

by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

“Shorts are a garment worn by both men and women over their pelvic area, covering the upper part of the legs,” begins a Wikipedia write-up. “They are called ‘shorts‘ because they are a shortened version of trousers, which cover the entire leg.”

Yes, we know. 

the long and the short of - shorts!

IN FACT, THE JUNE MONTHLY SPECIAL AT CLASSIC CLEANERS
IS $3.00 OFF EACH PAIR OF SHORTS!

Shorts styles have changed over the many years our Classic Cleaners technicians have been taking care of clients’ clothes.  Whatever type of shorts you can name – you can bet we’ve cleaned or laundered shorts just like those. (At Classic Cleaners, we check the care label instructions on each garment to see if your shorts belong with your fluff-and-fold laundry order or should be dry cleaned.)
 
Cargo shorts? You bet our professional dry cleaners in Broad Ripple have handled those!.  (Cargo shorts have numerous pockets – don’t forget to search the pockets before turning them over to be dry cleaned or professionally laundered and pressed.)

Bike shorts? Check.  (Originally worn by cyclists to reduce thigh chafing, bike shorts have been adopted as street wear for women under tops or under skirts, our dry cleaners in Carmel. see quite a number of these.)

Jeans shorts? Of course.  (Made out of denim,  jeans shorts may also be called “jorts”. Jeans shorts are popular with both men and women, our Indianapolis dry cleaning technicians report.)

Board shorts? Even those.  (Board shorts were originally designed for surf boarders, but men often wear this easy-going combination of shorts and a bathing suit. Our Classic Cleaners pickup route in Cicero often brings in board shorts.)

Zip-offs? Yes.  (Zip-off shorts are long pants that zip off at the knee, so the wearer can go from pants to shorts and back as the weather changes.)

Flood pants? My, yes.  (These go down as far as the calf, so they’re sometimes called “shants”.)
 
Skorts? Rarely, but yes. (These shorts have a piece of fabric in front that makes them look like a skirt.  The style shows up at our Carmel dry cleaners location every so often.).  

From creased khaki shorts to plaid golf shorts and everything in between, the long and the short of it is this:

When it comes to shorts, at Classic Cleaners, we’ve seen ‘em all!

by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

In cleaning their clothes, Civil War soldiers knew that, to avoid shrinkage, they had to be aware of three elements:

•   Mechanical action
•   Moisture
•   Heat

The stains on their uniforms, which were made from wool or a cotton-based (denim-like material), generally fell into three categories:

• Grass and mud stains      
• Black  powder
• Food stains

Civil War re-enacting is a fun hobby and a terrific way to study history.  Classic Cleaners’ partner Steve Arnold certainly thinks so. Posing at the far left of the photograph below, Arnold was taking part a  2001 re-enactment of the first major battle of the Civil War, Manassas, which took place in 1861 in the state of Virginia. The uniforms worn by the re-enactors  were actually reproduced on 100-year old looms, copied from photographs of the original uniforms of the Liberty Hall Volunteers from Lexington, Virgina. 

Clothing back in Civil War days was made to last for many years. Garments would be reworked and repaired until they were threadbare, and yet people took a lot of pride in the appearance of their clothing.  Needless to say, battlefield solders had to make do, brushing their uniforms as best they could, as well as washing their garments in lakes or streams.

Hand-brushing garments, as a matter of fact, is still one of several hand-care techniques used at Classic Cleaners today for treating challenging stains and for restoring “nap” to fabrics (although black powder is rarely a problem nowadays!).  In place of the crude lye soaps of Civil War times, skilled Classic Cleaners technicians have available an assortment of specialty cleaning chemicals to help restore and clean garments of every vintage!

Classic Cleaners' Steve Arnold in Civil War Re-enactment at Menasses Battlefield

Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

Classic Cleaners vs. The Toughies

Every profession has its special challenges, and dry cleaning is no exception. Over many years of perfecting the art of garment care, Classic Cleaners professionals have honed tools and techniques for dealing with special problems.  Here are some of the more common “toughies”:

Toughie fabrics:
Leather
Suede
Multiple fabrics in one garment – wool with spandex, cottons with silk

Toughie reds:
Red garments
Red wine stains, beet stains

Toughie stains:
Mustard
Ink (especially on silks)
Caramelized sugar stains
Oxidized oils

Toughie mysteries:

1.    Stains the customer forgot about (For example, champagne spilled on a wedding gown will dry clear, with the stain showing up only after the fabric is cleaned)

2.    Stains the customer doesn’t tell us about (The more we know about a stain, the more likely we are to be able to remove it.)

3.    Customers forgetting to notify us to suspend route service while they’re on vacation.

The old cliché “When the going gets tough, the tough get going” might have been coined to describe the Classic Cleaners team of professionals.  Our goal – keep you lookin’ good!

by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

At Classic Cleaners, we’re used to restoring heirloom garments- in fact, that’s one of our specialties. From wedding gowns to vintage clothing that’s been in the family for generations, we take special pride in bringing special garments and prized linens and quilts back to their former glory.

Just last month, though, we were able to work on one of the most unusual garments ever to come into a Classic Cleaners store.  Have you ever wondered what would happen if clothes could talk?  Well this skirt had lots to say…
 
This May, alumni of the old Fishers High School will hold their 50th high school reunion. (The 1960 graduating class numbered only twenty students!)  In preparation for the reunion, one of those former students asked us to help restore her fifty year-old senior skirt! The skirt was badly stained and the dye had “bled”. 

That’s where the professional expertise of our own Leon Neal came to the rescue! By knowing exactly the right kind of cleaning solvents to use on each part of the garment, and by using specially designed tools for meticulous hand cleaning, Leon was able to restore the precious senior skirt to new life, well in time to play what is sure to be a starring role at the Fishers High fiftieth. 

Is there some special garment that has precious memories for you?  Perhaps there’s an embroidered pillow cover, a tablecloth, a quilt, or maybe a certain shawl or kilt that holds a story? Let Classic Cleaners professionals bring those memories back to life! 

by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

This is one of Classic Cleaners’ excellent dry cleaning stores in Fishers. This is an excellent location for residents of Fishers and the Geist area. It is accessible from 116th St. and Olio Rd.

This Classic Cleaners location has a special locker room where you can pick up and drop off your dry cleaning 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

Classic Cleaners
11501 Geist Pavilion Rd.
Fishers, IN 46037

Phone
317-576-1644

Hours
Monday-Friday: 7:00 am-7:00 pm
Saturday: 8:30 am-4:30 pm

• Express drop-off and pick-up service is available 24 hours a day

Tuesday Specials
Plain slacks and skirts $5.99
Plain business shirts (on hangers) $2.20

In addition to our great stores, Classic Cleaners offers a FREE home pickup and delivery area for all of your dry cleaning and laundry items! We believe we offer the Indianapolis metropolitan area’s best and most convenient dry cleaning and laundry locations and services. Please visit Classic Cleaners soon and enjoy true VIP-level customer service!

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team

This is one of Classic Cleaners’ excellent dry cleaning stores in Fishers. This is a highly convenient location for residents of both Fishers and Noblesville. It is easily accessible from 126th St. and Indiana 37 (Huntington Ave.).

This location also offers convenient drive-thru service!

Classic Cleaners
9538 East 126th St.
Fishers, IN 46038

Phone
317-845-1244

Hours
Monday-Friday: 7:00 am-7:00 pm
Saturday: 8:30 am-4:30 pm

• Drive-thru service is available during regular business hours

Wednesday Specials
Plain slacks and skirts $5.99
Plain business shirts (on hangers) $2.20

In addition to our great stores, Classic Cleaners offers a FREE home pickup and delivery area for all of your dry cleaning and laundry items! We believe we offer the Indianapolis metropolitan area’s best and most convenient dry cleaning and laundry locations and services. Please visit Classic Cleaners soon and enjoy true VIP-level customer service!

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team