After we had our home burgled I had to clean it from top to bottom. It felt kind of dirty at home, as though all of our possession had been contaminated by the crime. I know that everyone whose home is broken into or the victim of a crime at home goes through similar feelings of creepiness and a need to clean. I thought it might be useful to start a blog to discuss how to clean the house or the best cleaning services to use to help your house feel like a home again. It should be useful to anyone who has gone through a bad experience and needs a fresh start in their own beloved home.
Cleaning after a crime
How Does Dry Cleaning Work, Anyway?
Warren Nguyen
Have you ever stopped to think about the term "dry cleaning" before and wondered how they're able to launder your clothes without any liquid? Actually, it's a little misleading, as the cleaner will use a chemical solvent instead of water, as it does not affect the garment in the same way. What else should you know about this process, and should you be taking more advantage of the service in any case?
Superior Clean
While your washer and dryer combination may be very handy, these machines can nevertheless be quite hard on delicate fabrics and may cause damage to your clothing items over time. Some manufacturers insist that you dry clean, while others merely advise, but it's often a good idea to send anything valuable off to be serviced instead.
The solvent used in the dry-cleaning process does not penetrate the fibres within the garment and contains little to no water. However, before any cleaning work can begin, each item needs to be carefully inspected.
Step-By-Step Process
- Usually, the item will be tagged with a piece of paper, stapled to the edge and given an identification number. Sometimes, an iron-on strip will be applied which has a permanent barcode, should the customer be regular. Occasionally, garments in a particular condition will be cleaned together no matter if they are from different customers, and this tagging process allows the worker to segregate everything at the end.
- Each garment must be inspected before being cleaned to see if anything has been left in the pockets or if there is any existing damage. Problems will be noted before the cleaning process gets under way and is reported back to the customer.
- Sometimes, stains will need to be pre-treated before the item makes its way into the solvent cleaning process.
- When all this has been done, the dry-cleaning stage can get underway using water-free, chemical solvent. This involves gentle agitation in a drum machine with several cycles possible before everything is rinsed off.
- Next, each item of clothing is inspected to make sure that it has been cleaned effectively. Should any stains remain, they will be treated with steam to get rid of any traces.
- Finally, some items may need to be pressed to get rid of any wrinkles, but they will otherwise be made ready to return to the customer. They may be covered with a plastic protector to make sure that everything is kept clean on the way back to you.
Scheduling Your Load
As you can see, this is a much kinder way to look after your clothes, and you should get used to sending them to your local dry cleaner. Make an appointment for dry cleaning pick up so they can pick up your laundry and take care of everything for you.
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