Dress shirt care: I've learned that I should occasionally wash my dress shirts.

[ChazzR]

Do I then tell the dry cleaner that I just need them starched? I figure otherwise they just get laundered all over again in the process getting beaten to hell. Thanks as usual for any input.

You start wearing the blue and brown
You're working for the clampdown
So you got someone to boss around
It makes you feel big now

 

[scnupe7]

Originally Posted by ChazzR

Do I then tell the dry cleaner that I just need them starched? I figure otherwise they just get laundered all over again in the process getting beaten to hell. Thanks as usual for any input.


No. I don't use any starch at all. Iv'e heard that starch shortens the life of the shirt.

 

[ChazzR]

I know that the starch weakens the shirts, but I ask for light starch anyway. I'm just wondering whether I should try to avoid having the dry cleaners wash them after I've already done so.

 

[Millerp]

Originally Posted by ChazzR

I know that the starch weakens the shirts, but I ask for light starch anyway. I'm just wondering whether I should try to avoid having the dry cleaners wash them after I've already done so.


First of all, you should NEVER get a cotton shirt "dry cleaned."

If you are asking whether a cleaners/shirt laundry would just spray
a shirt you brought to them with starch and then press it without
first laundering it, I doubt very much if they would do that.

IMO, to bring in a shirt to be "starched and pressed only" is something quite rare.

 

[Mentos]

I'm pretty sure the guy at your dry cleaner would have a meltdown if you asked for press only on a dress shirt. You should fear for your personal safety.

You should accept the shortened longevity of cleaned shirts, get a cleaning woman, or get a good iron and do it yourself.

 

[ChazzR]

Originally Posted by Mentos

I'm pretty sure the guy at your dry cleaner would have a meltdown if you asked for press only on a dress shirt. You should fear for your personal safety.

You should accept the shortened longevity of cleaned shirts, get a cleaning woman, or get a good iron and do it yourself.

The dry cleaner would have to possess some bizarre form of professional integrity to "have a meltdown" if I were willing to pay the same price but just wanted the shirts starched (maybe he doesn't trust me with a washing machine and it's for my own good?). It seems a fairly innocuous question, certainly not one that would produce a rabid reaction.

All the girls are crazy
Acting out the heat
Tie and shirts and cufflinks
Well that's pretty neat

 

[Mentos]

Sorry, I was just being flip. The dry cleaner sure isn't going to turn down your money, so long as he can understand your request. I happen to use a particularly incompetent dry cleaner--the meltdown would be from inability to process, rather than anger.

 

[Tomasso]

Most cleaners will send your shirts out to be laundered at a larger facility that may service dozens or even hundreds of cleaners. These mega-laundries do not offer a press only option. The cleaners that I use will accept my home washed shirts for hand pressing at their location. The price for hand pressing is double that of their standard laundry service (which they send out). I can see no reason why any cleaner would refuse to hand press a shirt(even if it's not their practice) if you offered them enough money.

 

[ChazzR]

Thanks to all. And Mentos, I was just busting your chops, I must be bored here at work, back to the grind. - Chazz

 

[pkincy]

Originally Posted by ChazzR

I know that the starch weakens the shirts, but I ask for light starch anyway. I'm just wondering whether I should try to avoid having the dry cleaners wash them after I've already done so.

I quit using starch years ago. There is always a residue of starch in the system (I believe on the pressing machines) so that no starch is in reality light starch. Ask for it that way and you will be happier and your shirts will be ecstatic.

Perry

 

[Alexander Kabbaz]

Proper Shirt Laundering