Ever wondered what happens to your clothes when you take them to the dry cleaners? The hush hush of what happens behind the counter? Fear no more, as we are going to take you behind the curtain and reveal the exact process for cleaning clothes professionally.

Step 1
We inspect your clothes thoroughly for any stains, or any plastics or artwork that might melt when in contact with the solvents. This is basically a safety process for your clothes. We also check pockets for any nasties that may be hiding in there. Sometimes we find tissues and the odd pen, but trust us when we say we've found waaaaayyy worst things lurking in pockets.

We then issue you a ticket with your order number, and tag your clothes with the order number and your customer ID (most likely your name or phone number) so none of your clothes go missing or get muddled up with anyone else. You wouldn't believe the amount of people who wear the same Hugo Boss suit to work!

Step 2
We take all the orders of the day and separate them into light and dark piles. We do this so that the lights stay light, otherwise your white t-shirt could end up looking grey if mixed in with the darks.

*We also don't wash each garment individually. Firstly, it's more economically and environmentally friendly to fill the machine to the max capacity of clothing for a wash. We will only individually wash garments if they have a high contamination risk due to a heavy colour bleed. This has nothing to do with the solvent but the way the clothing was made, mostly due to the colour dye used for your clothes as a cheap alternative for the manufacturer of your garment*

Step 3
We go back and check again for the stains we found in step 1, and then treat them with special cleaning detergents and heavy stain removers.

Step 4
We then clean the clothes! The dry cleaning machine uses the solvent perc to clean the clothes. If you're wondering what makes the dry cleaning process "dry" you can read all about it in an earlier blog post.

Step 5
After a thorough clean of your garment, it's off to get pressed. Pressing is a little bit like ironing, but a lot faster! Pressing uses steam + a ceramic iron to achieve a sharp finish to your clothes. The ceramic iron is better to use than a traditional metal iron as it never ever creates iron or burn marks on clothes.

Pressing is a dying trade skill as most dry cleaners now use steam cabinets and machines to de-wrinkle and finish clothes, but we use tradition methods (ie man power!) so we can ensure every single piece of clothing is hand finished to perfection.

Step 6
Your clothes are hung on a rack after pressing and ready to be sorted back into its original orders. We double check each order to clarify no items are missing or misplaced (again, all the Hugo Boss suits look exactly the same!)

We pack the clothes with polly wrap to ensure no dust or dirt can soil your newly cleaned clothes. Then it's off to the front of the shop to wait for your collection. However, a lot of customers tend to forget that they have orders waiting for them in our shop, so your suit could be hanging for quite a while before you realise it's missing!

Conclusion
Once you break down the dry cleaning process it is almost quite similar to your routine for home laundry. There is no big secret in dry cleaning! We literally clean your clothes because that's our job and we are good at it!

If you're still wondering why Dry Cleaners make 'over the counter' a mysterious place then remember: Dry cleaning uses heavy duty chemicals to get rid of tough stains. These are not your ordinary run of the mill stain removers. For some it could possibly be a health and safety issue.

If you're still not convinced and have your own conspiracy theory we would love to hear it! Leave a comment down bellow or tag us on Facebook. The best theory gets a free clean on the house!