Good dry cleaners--ones you can really trust with your vintage clothes--are as hard to find as honest auto mechanics and worth their weight in gold, especially if you're a vintage reseller and can work out a volume discount. But many people aren't so lucky, making do with so-so dry cleaners who may or may not do a good job but will definitely take a chunk out of your wallet. (The term "taken to the cleaners" comes to mind.) Wouldn't it be great if you didn't have to depend on those turkeys to clean all of your dry-clean-only garments? Even if you dearly love your dry cleaner, perhaps you'd like to cut down on your dry cleaning bill with a little do-it-yourself cleaning and save him or her for the really big jobs. 

Well, you frugal soul, you've found the right guide! Read on for our lab-tested tips 'n' hints:

1. HOME DRY CLEANING KITS. This is an obvious one, but it never hurts to mention the obvious. There are a few brands out there; we find the kind with the bag is more economical in the long run because you can buy refills rather than a whole new kit. But whichever brand you buy, they seem about equally effective; good for routine light cleaning (e.g. cleaning a dress that you wore to the office or on a date and it isn't actually dirty). The kits usually come with a stain removing solution which doesn't seem terribly effective unless the stain is pretty light or fresh.

2. COMMERCIAL STEAMERS. Sometimes a garment doesn't really need to be cleaned but is merely in need of wrinkle removal and freshening up. Or perhaps the garment is washable but can't be ironed. If you find yourself sending a lot of clothes to the cleaners for these reasons, it is probably worth it to pay $125 or so for a commercial-grade steamer. These are sold in regular housewares stores these days and ours is our favorite tool. The machine looks like a canister vacuum cleaner with a vertical pole sticking up out of the canister. You hang the garment on the pole, wave the steam wand over the garment and like magic, wrinkles disappear and smoky smells dissipate.

3. DEALING WITH DIFFICULT SMOKE ODOR. Some garments, such as those that came from smokers' homes, are too stinky for a steamer to freshen. Commercial odor-eliminating sprays might help if the odor isn't too badly entrenched in the fabric. We find they're pretty lightweight as far as odor removal goes and in effect simply overlay stinky cheap perfume on the icky cigarette odor. It's more effective if you air the garment out for a few days after using the spray. An old-school trick is airing (preferably outdoors) by day and enclosing the garment in a garment bag with charcoal by night for a couple or few days. Charcoal absorbs odors very well and, better yet, doesn't emit a tawdry perfume odor. Just get some ordinary Brand X charcoal (not the quick-lighting kind), put a pile of it in a cloth tote bag and hang it around the garment's hanger. Then put the whole thing in one of those cheapo garment bags from the 99-cent store.

4. MOTHBALLS FOR MILDEW ODOR. Garments that have sat in someone's basement or garage for years usually have mildew stink on them. As long as you don't have actual mildew spots on the garment, you can make it fresh again by storing it in a cheapo garment bag for a few days with mothballs. Of course then you have mothball stink, but the mothballs will have killed off the mildew odor and all you need to do now is air the garment out for a day or two.

5. VINEGAR FOR PERSPIRATION. If a garment isn't terribly sweaty, you can dab off the perspiration with a sponge and dry it in front of a fan. This will work with a variety of fabrics that you'd never want to throw into the washing machine, such as silk or rayon.

6. OXYGEN CLEANERS FOR STAINS. We've had success with soaking cotton, linen and rayon garments in cold water with this type of product. Even tough perspiration odors and stains disappeared, and then with careful cool-air drying and a good steaming the garments were good to go. But beware, use this method only with natural or light-colored fabrics or else the color will run or fade.

7. DRESS SHIELDS/UNDERARM SHIELDS. This isn't a cleaning method, of course, but as the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And you men out there take heed, too! Just because they're usually called dress shields doesn't mean you shouldn't have a pair sewn into your favorite suit jacket. Eeew, we've seen our share of nice suits and tuxedos with disgusting stains inside. But with underarm shields in place, his 'n' hers fine garments won't end up with tough-to-remove perspiration stains and they'll last years longer.

Thanks for reading our guide! Please let us know if you've found it helpful.

Ciao,

Kathleen from World of Style Vintage