Minimize Dry Cleaning Costs

The Midwest was teased with some warm weather recently. I optimistically thought that winter might be on its way out early this year. I was definitely completely wrong. We’re back to a high of 3 degrees over here. No nice heatwaves in site. Since I apparently won’t be packing away my winter wardrobe anytime soon, I figured I share a bit about how I care for my winter apparel.

Winter wear consists of lots of wool varieties, which is great for warmth, less great for maintenance. I’m 100% for investing in quality fabrics, especially for winter clothes. When I first started accumulating these items I had a bit of a dilemma over how to clean them and how often to clean them. After much trial and error, I’ve come up with this. I steam my clothes (this is the best steamer for the price) after every wear. This takes out wrinkles and minor smells. If the item looks and smells good after steaming, it goes back into the closet after a mist of a fabric spray and a pass of a super sticky lint roller and fabric shaver, if necessary. If the item has a lingering issue such as a stain or smell, it goes in the dry cleaning pile (I’ve been meaning to try the wool wash, silk wash and stain bar, but haven’t found the time). I find that for most items, I can get at least 5 wears out of them before having to dry clean them.

How do you take care of your winter items?