Tide Dry Cleaners. We don't have a local one but we have enough clothes and are in Cincinnati enough we can use them. I do actually have stuff dry cleaned after every wear. These things cost more than enough to mandate proper care.

I agree. It's important to think about ways of caring for clothes that avoid dry cleaning. Long ago my mother needed to wear a sweater that she usually had dry cleaned (and she had it cleaned often), so she decided to hand wash it. My mother said the water turned black when she hand washed the garment. That was the end of casually sending off clothes to the cleaners for us. Aside from suiting- which really should be treated as practicalgal does- I hand wash/delicate cycle most everything and it works out great. I've heard you can wash all kinds of things in Miele's machines- at one point Vogue did a piece (possibly an advert) on putting high fashion, complicated clothes through Miele's machines. There is no Tide Dry Cleaners where I live (NorCal.) We have shops that farm out their cleaning to huge places where I fear the clothes come back dirtier than how they went in.

Ideally, I wash my clothes after every wearing. I live in Phoenix and sweat is part of the life. I'd rather wash my clothes to death than wear something wrinkled and possibly smelly in public. As for dry-cleaning, I no longer work outside the house but back in the day I used a dry cleaner pretty much every week or two. In recent years, I do keep a box of the dry cleaner sheets handy - it's 20 minutes in the dryer and if you haven't worn or used something in recent months, it's a great way to knock the dust off. I do use spot treatments and prewash when needed.

I wear my office/work clothes several times before washing. I wear mainly black synthetic stretch slacks and shells. I put a jacket over this. Its kind of my uniform. I will shake out my clothes, and hang on a coat tree that I have in the room. I will damp clean a spot as needed. After 2 wears, they get washed. The jackets less often. My jackets I do hang back up into my closet. I do not have a demanding environment and my clothes never wear out.

I basically do the same with my chore clothes. My chore clothes may or may not get washed each wear, depends on activity. If I just cleaned the house in them, they get worn again, once or twice more. If the chores were outside, they get washed, unless the project didn't get finished then I hang onto the clothes and wear them again the next day to finish the project. My outdoor chore clothes will get hung separate from my office clothes.

I have very few clothes in my "office/work clothes" closet and I keep the door open for air. I have another closet that is used for rarely worn clothes and items only go in there after laundering.

My work clothes are mostly in winter wool skirt, cashmere sweater (with cotton tee under) or silk, cotton, poly blouse and jacket. I almost always wear boots or booties and tights. Skirts get dry cleaned after several wearings, sweater gets washed after 2 wearings, silk gets dry cleaned after 2 wearings, jacket after several wearings gets either washed or dry cleaned depending on construction and fabric. Everything else including lingerie gets washed in warm to hot after every wearing, even if I only wore it for 2 hours.

I remember seeing an episode of Oprah were an expert of "something" said don't dry clean each wear. That the chemicals were very bad for you and that clothes are really not that dirty. Dry cleaners who don't change the fluid often make your clothes dirtier.

Thanks all.

The thing I like best about my current arrangement is that I wear casual clothing and it can get washed all the time! (So that gives you some idea of the rest of the job :(

Moriseaz, I haven't tried dry cleaner sheets, depending upon the next job I may well be back to that grind again and so it us good to know.

Andrew, I've never heard of Tide dry cleaners, they have not have made their way to CA yet...I'm curious about their back to black restore service -have you tried it? Does it work?

I didn’t hang my clothes that need to be folded & always use cold water to wash. I can always zip up Jeans/Hoodies before washing & also rotate them. I frequently polish or clean my shoes. You can also implement all this to maintain your garments.

We recently had a suit washed after my brother's prom. I was not surprised to see LG front load washers and Tide original HE detergent sitting in the back of the store. Not sure what items they wash in the machines, but I am almost sure that the Duet's handwash cycle would be ok for most garments.

My work clothes are not dirty after one day, so I typically wear them twice. The undershirt is supposed to be navy blue. So to prevent the shirt from appearing faded after just a few washes I purchased a polyester Nike shirt that can be washed in hot water whenever I desire with no consequences or deodorant build up. LOL.

Well I don't often dress up or wear casual dressy, generally its cotton capri or cotton slacks and a cute tunic type top for grocery shopping. At home its always stretchy cotton/poly active wear capris and a hospital scrub top. My at home clothes get worn once as does my nighty/PJ's..my going out grocery shopping clothes usually can be worn a second time. Than there's funeral clothing and church clothes..they get the lint roller and hung up to air awhile and worn again.

I suppose I have my in between clothes also LOL.. like tomorrow I have a meeting at the school...I will wear capris..white with huge pink, red, yellow, blue flowers..so I'll wear a yellow silky sleeveless pull over shirt with a very light weight 3/4 length sleeves, white open in the front sweater. Red flats, a gold necklace and a pair of super cute earrings, with a bunch of different colored gems. (I'm laughing as I describe tomorrows outfit complete with accessories) I will probably wash the yellow top as it will be hot tomorrow and I'm sure to sweat. The rest will get aired out and worn again....

Practigal the OP of this thread used to be a active member in the laundry forum. ..boy do I miss her.

Mamap, your outfit sounds FUN!

My mother said I washed my clothes to death. Everything gets washed after one wearing. Every season I go through my closet and give away clothes. Usually it’s stuff in dry cleaner bags that would need dry cleaning if I ever wore it again. Although I am retired, I have kept one navy suit in case I lose it all and need to go on a job interview.

LOL, I hear you Pat about keeping your options open about returning to the job market. I've not retired yet, but at 66 I'm thinking when I turn 70 I will, possibly. I might need to keep a suit too.