Tip 16: Avoid dry cleaning

Tip 16: Avoid dry cleaning

One thing that drives me nuts is paying for dry cleaning.  For most of my clothes, the cost of dry cleaning would be almost as much as the cost of the clothing.  When buying clothes, I check the care instructions and avoid buying most things if dry cleaning is required.

For clothes I do own that require dry cleaning, if the item was not expensive, I ignore the instructions and wash it anyway.  This can cause problems over time- I had a pair of dry-clean only pants that I washed for about 20 years.  Eventually all of the wool was gone leaving only the polyester.  The pants were almost transparent and I finally threw them out (after my wife insisted...)  I don't know if the same thing would have happened if I would have dry cleaned them, but can you imagine how much dry cleaning pants for 20 years would have cost?  Probably much more than the cost of a pair of pants!

Dry cleaning is a tough, competitive business and many dry cleaners offer coupons for 20% off, etc.  If you do have dry cleaning, see if you can find a coupon and save as much as you can on your dry cleaning bill.

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