Your heart sinks when you’ve dropped something on your favorite outfit. Your silly spill could have completely ruined your most expensive piece. The fear of a permanent stain sends you searching for a miracle solution that helps you salvage your outfit.
You’ll come across the most bizarre remedies that involve using a very specific solvent/solution combined with water of a particular temperature and certain method of scrubbing. Many times, even after you’ve followed everything to a tee, the stain remains…and you may have further damaged the cloth.
There are some DIY home remedies that do work every now and then but there are much more that do not.
Check out these 5 common clothes cleaning ‘solutions’ that are ineffective:
1) Club soda is better than water:
How many home remedies have you come across that have suggested you use club soda instead of water? According to the claims, the bubbles of club soda agitate the threads of the cloth allowing the pigments to separate from the fiber.
The concept is true, the threads do need to be agitated but there is no need for club soda – water and scrubbing work just as well.
2) More detergent means cleaner clothes
Detergent cleans clothes so using more of it should make our clothes cleaner right? Wrong! Detergent is a solvent and it mixes with the stain to break it down. A balance of water and detergent is required to remove the stain. When too much detergent is in the water, it cannot be adequately rinsed out and remains on the cloth.
3) Bleach improves the power of detergent
Bleach helps brighten your whites and remove stubborn stains. With that being said, it’s important to note that bleach and detergent cancel each other out. If you have a bleach tray in your washing tray, use it. If you don’t then pour in the beach 5 minutes after the detergent has been dropped off into the wash.
4) Rubbing the stain from the top
You’ve seen commercials of detergent that suggest you pour it directly onto the stain, scrub the stain ‘head on’ and then pop the cloth in the washing machine. By rubbing the stain from the top, you’re just forcing the stain deeper into the fibers – making it more permanent. Stains need to be removed from the inside out.
5) Dry-cleaning doesn’t involve liquids
The term dry-cleaning has led people to assume that no liquids are involved in the process of dry-cleaning but this isn’t true. Dry-cleaning simply means ‘without water’. Instead of water, conventional dry-cleaners use a chemical called PERC to clean your most expensive clothes.
PERC is less viscose than water and seeps rights through clothes. It has been used in dry-cleaning for decades but scientific evidence has shown that it is harmful for the environment and to humans.
NY Organic Dry Cleaners uses an Ego Green Cleaning that doesn’t involve dangerous chemicals like PERC. Our organic dry-cleaning solutions are safer the environment, your health and your clothes!
To avail our organic dry-cleaning services, schedule a pick up by filling out our online form or visit us at our shop in Rego Park, NYC. Feel-free to call 718-459-7770 for more information.
