Picking up your clothes from the dry cleaners feels almost as good as carrying out new purchase from your favorite boutique…..the cleanliness, the freshness, the credit card, the service, the attention, the hangers, the bag.  It all makes selecting dry cleaning over your new fancy front load washers so much more fun.  And it is less work at first.  You just pitch the dirty garment into the dry cleaning pile.  Poof!  Your work is done!

But, then there’s the drop-off, the pick-up, the bill, the bags, the hangers.  The first three have to happen if you ever want to see your garment again.  The bags & hangers tend to hang around hiding & damaging our prized possessions right before our very eyes.  After a while, your closet starts to look like the dry cleaners with so many garments covered in cheap plastic.

I know, I know…. it’s a lot of work to strip off the plastic bags & switch out the wire hangers.  There’s a reason the dry cleaners gives you that packaging.  It’s cheap.  Plastic is made out of chemicals that your cotton, silk, rayon, wool, cashmere, etc don’t like.  In fact, they just don’t get along.  The plastic suffocates the fabrics causing them to break down over time.  You don’t want your fabrics dying a slow death!

The wire hangers are usually coated in paint.  The paint leaches onto the fabric or creates new shapes along the shoulders & necks.  Who wants any of that?  The only way to combat all of the horrendous atrocities dry cleaner bags & hangers cause is to have a dry cleaning strategy.

Dry Cleaning Strategy

1. The Arrival:  Have a hook where you can hang your freshly arrived dry cleaning

2. The Strip:  Strip off all plastic & tissue.  Stuff all into one dry cleaner bag.

3. The Switch:  Switch the hangers.  NO WIRE HANGERS!   Oh, sorry, my Mommy Dearest side came out.
   

4. The Restoration:  Help your garments become a part of the family again.  Hang them back in their proper place with like items by color.

5. The Return:  Give those bags, hangers, tissue, etc back to your dry cleaner.  They will thank you for your recycling efforts.

Be sure to compete these steps one right after the other to Complete the Cycle.

I’m here to help you by disclosing my knowledge of how to organize & be prepared for any situation.  I will show you tips & tricks through posts on the Styled & Organized Living Facebook page, @StyledOrganized on Twitter & the Styled & Organized Living Pinterest page.  Some posts will be simple tools while others will be ideas to consider.   But all will show you how to gain a little more control over your life through organization because Life is Better Organized!