Clean Up After a Holiday Feast: A Guided Tour

It's basically impossible to go through holiday meals and keep the linens and table clothes perfectly clean.  The most important thing to remember when food and drink if spilled is that TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE.  It's always best to wash stained items or take then to your cleaner as soon as possible.  If your table linens are colored or have colored embroidery check for colorfastness before using the various stain removal products.  Anytime a stain is not washed out before drying it can become more difficult to remove.  So here are some tips for the most common holiday spills: How to get out CANDLE WAX - Gently lift off the larger pieces.  Treat with a solvent based removal product.  Wash in the hottest water safe for the fabric.

Hot to get out WINE and COFFEE STAINS - Lightly touch with an absorbent towel to draw up the liquid or put paper towels under the spill.  Blotting can actually spread the stain.  After dinner, rinse in cool water, treat with a mild detergent and white vinegar.

How to get out SALAD OIL - This is the worst because it can yellow with age if not removed.  Cover a big spill at the table with absorbent powder.  Shake off after supper.  Apply a mild detergent mixed with household ammonia, ASAP.  Wait 5-10 minutes and wash in the hottest water safe for the fabric.

How to get out CRANBERRY - Rinse with cool water and treat with a mild detergent and white vinegar before washing.

Home Dry Cleaning Kits: Do they work?

Home drycleaning Kits: What They Can and Cannot Do Drycleaning & Laundry Institute, the premier trade association for garment care, utilized its research and testing expertise to gauge the effectiveness of home drycleaning kits, and found that in general they do not provide complete removal of all types of stains. They also cannot remove ground-in soil. These products can freshen garments by removing odors and imparting a pleasant fragrance.

What do you get in a home drycleaning kit? Garments are freshened when they are placed inside the dryer with the cloth, which is activated by the heat of the dryer. Up to four garments can be placed in a bag (along with the dryer-activated cloth) when using one of these products. The stain removal solution (which is dispensed form a plastic bottle) is applied directly on the stain, while the user holds an absorbent pad underneath the stained fabric.

Consumers are instructed to apply the solution until the stain is no longer visible or until it is evident that the stain cannot be removed. For kits that employ only a dryer-activated cloth, consumers are advised to use the cloth to remove stains. All kits recommend removing stains before garments are placed in the dryer.

What can you expect? In general, most of the products work well on freshening or removing odors such as smoke. Therefore, these products can be successfully used to freshen garments; for example, removing odors from sweaters after winter storage.

In terms of stain removal, DLI found that most of the products work well on water-based stains such as cola. Stains that are oil-based (ketchup, lipstick) presented more of a challenge for the home drycleaning kits. In some cases, these products caused the stain to spread, which created a bigger stain. None of the products removed ground-in soils, which consumers typically see as "ring around the collar" or dirty cuffs.

Can home drycleaning kits cause damage? When using a home drycleaning kit, consumers should beware of the following types of damage they could induce when using the stain removal solutions: rings, chafing, broken fibers on a loose weave, local shrinkage on crepe or water-sensitive fabrics.

DLI's testing found that home drycleaning kits failed to completely remove stains such as ketchup, lipstick, and cuff soil, resulting in a less-than-satisfactory appearance. This article is thanks to the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute (http://www.ifi.org).

Free Employee Perk

In this month's (June 2010 page 94) Inc. magazine, there is an article listed "10 Perks We Love" that list 10 benefits that employers offer their employees that are unusually thoughtful.  The very first one listed is pick-up and delivery dry cleaning service.  PRESS Dry Cleaning can bring this service to your company for free no matter the company size.  Over the last few years, companies have made cutbacks in the fringe benefits they offer their employees.  Delivery Valet Dry Cleaning is a benefit that companies can offer that doesn't cost them anything! Are you a company in Atlanta that would like to offer their employees another perk without affecting your bottom line?  Then, contact PRESS Dry Cleaning today at (678) 207-0919 or www.pressatlanta.com.