- What is dry cleaning?

Millions of Americans take their most expensive clothing to a dry cleaners on a regular basis, entrusting that company to clean, and refresh their garments without a second thought.

But most of us have little knowledge about that process, beyond the front counter drop-off.

Today on "Fit 2 Stitch," we'll learn all about the technique of dry cleaning, from an expert in the business.

And trust me, this guy knows what he's doing.

(gentle music) - [Announcer] "Fit 2 Stitch" is made possible by, Kai Scissors, (piano music) Bennos Buttons, OC Sewing, Orange County, Vogue Fabrics, Pendleton, Imitation of Life, and Clutch Nails.

(piano music) - As one who sews her own clothes, I certainly want a cleaners to take really good care of my clothing.

And more than once, someone has not.

So we're going to share, I'm going to share my secret, Rodney, with the rest of you.

You can't have Rodney, but you can have, his many locations of cleaners here.

He's gonna help us, kind of, know what to know, as we're giving those clothes across the counter.

- I'll do my best, yes.

- Because I think so many times I have, for years, I haven't even known what to look for.

Until I met you, I really didn't know what should I look for, and what should I, what are signs that I should walk out the door?

(laughs) - Right, right.

- What is dry cleaning?

- Dry cleaning, basically, the simple term is it uses solvent chemicals- - Okay.

- versus water detergent when you use laundry.

- Okay.

- They're basically the same process of cleaning.

- Okay.

- But one use solvent, and the other uses water and detergent.

- Okay, so one, the solvent goes after the oils.

- Yes, solvent is better at getting out the stains, and the grease and the oils from the clothes.

- Which is what most of our stains are.

- Right, most stains are grease and oil-based.

- That makes a lot of sense.

- Yes.

- But you still put it in the big round machines, and it still goes crazy.

- Yes, yes.

- All right, so we're just gonna go through the whole process.

If that's fine.

- Okay, no problem.

- We're gonna be behind your counter.

I'm your counter girl.

- All right, all right.

(laughs) - And I'm gonna go through the clothes.

I'm gonna check them in, 'cause you check everybody's in.

- Right, so the customer brings me their clothes.

- Okay.

- The first thing we want to do, is we want to, what I like to do is I like to count the pieces, the number of clothes.

- Okay.

- So before they leave, I like to... Now, with our normal customers- - Yeah.

- they come in, they drop off a bag, they leave, they trust us.

They don't care about the count.

- Because they've been there before, yeah.

- Newer customers, or customers that haven't been, are still getting to know us, and getting to trust us, we'll count the items.

So I'll count the item for them, and then I'll give them, what's called a quick ticket, that has the number of pieces, their name on it, and then when they will actually pick up the clothing.

- So it just takes a minute (fingers snap) to really... - Yes.

- Very quick.

- It doesn't take very long to do that.

- To do that.

Sometimes the dry cleaners have, you, have a nine o'clock cutoff, and I end up getting there, like at 9:20, and I go, "Please, please, please, get my clothes back for today."

And you say, "No."

Tell me, explain to me, why that no is like, I totally get it, because you've already- - There's a process, right?

So once we get it after nine o'clock, when I pick up the clothes, I'm there at nine on the dot to pick up the clothes.

'Cause I've got to get 'em back to the plant, to where the actual cleaning is done.

- Yeah.

- Once that's, I'm there- - You're military.

- I've gotta- - Military nine o'clock.

- I've gotta- - Yes, I've gotta have it there by 10:00 a.m, so that we can clean the clothes, and get them back to you by 5:00.

- And you don't have 20 minutes to bring something else in.

- No, the only time that we have an exception to that, is if the customer comes to our cleaning, the store where actually clean at, I will then take the clothes, and I'll go back to the lady that does the washing, and I says, "Can we fit this in?"

- Sure, sure.

- Right.

Depending, 'cause she may have already done the load for those dark clothes, or for those light clothes for that day.

And if she has another load to do, then we can fit it in.

That's not a problem.

- So the weird thing is all these years that I've been late to the dry cleaners by 15 minutes, I've always thought it's just no big deal.

But yet hearing why it is a big deal, you've just got more than my clothes.

There's a whole bunch of clothes out there.

- Right, we have lots of customers- - You're trying to get on schedule.

- that we're trying to satisfy.

- Yes.

- Yeah.

And I just really appreciated that, once I got a better picture of it.

So I appreciate you sharing.

- It's hard to say no.

- It is.

- But sometimes I have to for the betterment of everyone.

I have to say, "There's a cutoff time, and we have to get those clothes back to them."

- Sure.

- [Rodney] "Or they're not gonna be happy."

- That's completely respectable.

- Now we're ready to tag the clothes.

As a dry cleaners, we want all the buttons to be unbuttoned.

We want all the zippers to be unzipped.

- Okay.

- Right.

And we check the pockets, so- - [Peggy] Because they clean better when they're open like that?

- Yes, it just helps us, because once they're cleaned, and they come out of the, either the laundry, or the dry cleaning machine- - Okay.

- then we have to press them.

(machine hissing) Well, we can't press them, if you've got the buttons are on it, or the zipper's zipped up.

So we have to have all that done.

We try and make it as easy as possible for the pressers.

(machine hissing) We lay it out and we check for stains.

- Okay.

- Right, front and back.

Then we do, we unbutton, we unzip, and then we check the pockets.

- Okay.

- All right?

And in this one, we find gum.

- Uh-oh!

- This is our nemesis for dry cleaning.

(Peggy laughing) - Right?

This will cause a lot trouble in the dry clean, and the laundry machine.

- So even gum like that, it won't go through the process, and stay like that, it will... - No, in the dry cleaning machine, this will melt, and it will get all over the other clothes.

And then when we pull it out, we've got a big mess.

And now we've got to take that extra time to go in and remove the gum from each item, and then rewash the item.

- So how many, cleaning is based on the price of the chemicals, or the- - Right, dry cleaning is more expensive than laundry, because of the chemicals that are used.

- And then the labor equals the price?

- Correct.

- So when you have more labor... - Correct, right.

- But you can't charge any more, because you've already told the customer price.

It's costing you now.

- Right, yes.

Now I'm having to do a second cycle, which costs more money.

- Sure, so I can see where the check in person- - So it's very important.

Everybody's job is very important.

We always checking for stains, and we're checking for damage, right?

If there's damage, like if there's a tear on the shirt, we'll mark it prior damage, prior to cleaning.

- Oh.

- That way, when the customer comes and pick it up, they won't say that we caused the damage.

It's already been damaged.

And what we'll usually do, is we'll take pictures of it as well.

- Oh, that's pretty protective.

- I like to take pictures of it, just to make sure we cover ourselves.

- Okay.

- All right.

And then we go through that, each time again.

On this particular one, I pulled out a pen.

A pen.

(groans) It's just scary.

(Peggy laughing) Just scary.

- That was good.

Worse than gum.

- Right.

It's worse than gum.

- It's worse than gum.

- Right.

- Probably 'cause it spreads faster?

- Yeah, it gets over... Just imagine, if you put this in a dry cleaning machine and it melts, because that's just plastic in there.

Right.

- Oh, jeez.

- And that melts, now you've got ink over everything.

And my particular dry clean machine, it holds 70 pounds.

- Oh, so... (laughs) - Right?

So that's 70 pounds worth of clothes that could be- - Ink all of them.

- damaged.

That we have to now go through and try to remove the ink, and then rewash them.

- Oh, jeez.

- So, I'm not a happy camper when we find, you know, stuff like that.

- So you really start to recognize that a little mistake like this really catapults itself down the road.

- Yes, yes.

So once we've got everything separated, now we know how to price for each one.

You see, there's a stain here.

- And if I'm a consumer.

Yeah, well, is it helpful for me to tell you?

- Yes, please!

- If you know about a spot- - Yes.

- and do you want to know- - If the customer knows... - to know what it is?

I'm sorry to interrupt you.

- No, that's okay.

- But if the customer knows that they have a stain, please let us know.

- Yeah.

- Right, it makes our job easier.

- [Peggy] Sure.

- [Rodney] So, 'cause now we can mark it, we get a little piece of tape, and we mark it.

And then we put that separate in a stain bag that goes through, and they go through, and they work on each individual item before it's then separated and cleaned.

- [Peggy] She's been there for a what, how many years?

- [Rodney] She's got 30 years experience.

(machine hissing) - [Rodney] And it's gone.

These are specialized chemicals that we order, that help get stains out.

And there's different chemicals for different stains.

(machine hissing) So, if she can't get the stain out, it's not coming out.

- [Peggy] And then you go back to the customer and say, "We can't get it out without ruining the fabric."

- [Rodney] Right, right.

'Cause sometimes the customer wants us to try a little, you know, try harder and we tell them, "Well, we could damage the fabric."

So we'll have them sign a general release and say, "Yeah, we'll continue to work on it, but we could damage the actual clothing itself with the chemicals, and the stain removal stuff that we use."

- Sure, sure.

So once you get them in, you've tagged 'em.

You've pulled out all the gum, and all the pens.

- Yes.

- Is that often, you find stuff like that?

- Not very often.

Mostly you'll find a tissue.

- People are pretty good?

Oh, okay.

- Mostly tissue.

- Tissue doesn't ruin anything?

- No, well, I'll survive with tissue.

(Peggy laughing) I don't want it.

- Okay.

(laughs) - I don't want it in the clothes, in the pants.

But, that's why I put a process in place where we have the front counter ladies take care of it.

They go through, and they check all the pockets.

And then the lady that does the washing, what she does is she goes through, and she checks the pockets as well.

- So you have a double check.

- So we have a double check.

And she'll bring me a little box of mostly just tissues.

(Peggy laughing) And then I'll go have that conversation with my front counter ladies.

- [Peggy] What's the weirdest thing you've ever found?

- Mostly we've found a... Weird, I don't know about weird, But we've found a lot of employee IDs.

- [Peggy] Oh, badges?

- We've found little pocket knives, badges.

We've found, you know, change and coin, like, Indian coins and stuff like that.

- Do you keep that stuff?

You know, I'm kidding.

- What we do is we put it in a little bag, and then we staple it- - And you give it back.

- and then we just give it back to them.

- Sure, sure.

- Right.

We don't give back tissue, though.

- No.

(laughs) - We just throw that away.

- All right, so once you've got it in, you've got it sorted.

Now you go through and you decide whether it's dry clean- - Yes.

- or laundry.

- That's correct.

When we're sorting, and we're sorting the clothes, we go through and we decide whether it can be laundered, or whether it can be dry cleaned.

Now again, a customer could come in and said, "I want everything dry cleaned."

- And you say, "Perfect."

- "Okay, no problem."

- Right, cause it's more expensive.

- Yes.

- Because the chemical.

- And it's just easier for us to tag, 'cause we know we're just going to tag everything's that's gonna be dry cleaned.

- Sure.

- But we separate out, like we separate all the blouses, all the men's shirts, all the pants, we separate those out.

And then we tag each individual item.

- Yeah, 'cause you got... - So if there's 10 shirts, right, there's gonna be 10 tags.

Each shirt is gonna have its own tag.

- Wow.

- That way- - Very labor intensive.

- Yes, it is.

- It is.

- Right, we have to make sure... My worst fear is losing clothes, losing customers' clothes.

- Giving somebody to something that's not theirs.

- Right, I've had that happen, too.

- I'm sure.

(laughs) - And I freaked out.

(Peggy and Rodney laughing) I was like, uh-oh!

- It was not a good day.

- What am I gonna do?

But we figured it out.

(Peggy laughing) - So I make a lot of my clothes, so I don't have tags in them.

'Cause I said, I noticed when I listened to you, you said that you'll read the tag.

- Yes.

- So if you don't have a tag on a garment, I don't have any, you know, fiber content, or washing suggestions.

- Mm-hmm.

- What do you do with that?

- We'll run that through the dry clean, because- - Oh, automatically.

- Automatically.

- [Peggy] Okay, 'cause dry cleaning is... - Dry cleaning is better for cleaning clothes than actual laundry 'cause remember, if you do laundry, the water gets into the fabric, and it swells the fabric.

- I see.

- Right?

And then when it shrinks, when it starts drying, and then it fades the color.

- Every time.

- Every time.

So that's why when you have a red shirt, after a while, if it's been laundered, you start losing the color of the red, right?

- It makes a lot of sense.

- It gets duller, right?

With dry clean, you keep the same color.

And dry clean is great for like silks, and you know, stuff like that.

Blouses, a lot of women's blouses are dry clean.

So this is our dry clean machine.

It still has about 14 minutes left for this particular cycle.

Once it's done, when we open the door, those clothes will be dry, which is why they call it dry cleaning.

But while they're in the machines, they actually do still get wet with chemicals, and the chemicals are then, they evaporate very quickly.

So by the time that the cycle is finished, and we open the door, and we'd take out the clothes, and hang them, the clothes are already dry, and ready for pressing by the team.

- So let's look at some clothes.

- Okay.

- We've got a rack here.

This is a test.

No.

(laughs) - All right.

(laughs) - No, it's really, I just want to kind of see more, why.

You know, if you'd put it to the dry cleaning side, why?

Because I think as a consumer, if I bring my clothes into you, there's probably things you could wash. - [Rodney] Yes.

- But if I don't say anything to you, you're just gonna automatically dry clean them, and it'll cost me a little more, but it's possible they- - Well, not automatically, but most of the time, yes.

- [Peggy] Okay.

- If a customer brings in and says he wants everything dry cleaned, even if it's a laundry.

Most men's button down shirts are laundry shirts.

- Sure.

- Right?

- Cotton, basically.

- [Rodney] Right, a hundred percent cotton.

- Right.

- If they want that to be dry cleaned, we'll be happy to do that for them, right?

It's more expensive, but we'll do it for them.

- But it does preserve the shirt.

- [Rodney] Yes, it does.

- [Peggy] So, if it's an expensive shirt... - A lot of what you said, the handmade shirts.

- Yes.

- You know, stuff like that.

They get those dry cleaned.

- Okay.

- Right?

Because it preserves the shirt better.

- [Peggy] Got it.

All right, so suede jacket.

- Suede jacket, I can tell you right now, suede works best in dry cleaning.

- [Peggy] Okay.

- Laundry, you do not want to get this wet.

- [Peggy] Okay, got it.

(laughs) - You just don't want it, you don't want to make that happen.

- [Peggy] And, you pass that test, okay.

(Peggy and Rodney laughing) - Men's suit, it's better to have it dry cleaned, because again, the material it may have, you know, like here, it says 65% polyester, 35%, whatever that word is, worsted wool.

Oh, wool!

- Wool, yeah.

- So, wool is not good with water.

- [Peggy] Right.

- Right, so we'll dry clean this.

- Now, do you ever dry clean based on construction, or is it only fiber?

- Fiber.

- Because I think that there's kind of a rumor, especially maybe among sewers, that if you have shoulder pads, and certain construction in jackets, it's more delicate.

You should dry clean because of the delicacy, as opposed to wash. And I don't know, they both go in a round machine, right?

And get tossed around.

- Yes, they do.

But you know, let's talk about the shoulders that you mentioned, the padding and the shoulders.

If those were removable, we'll take those out, and again, put them in a small bag, and give them back to the customer.

- I see, okay.

- Right?

But if they're not removable, it's better to have those dry cleaned, because if you wash it, then it could shrink.

- [Peggy] Okay, exactly what you said.

- And then it could get all of that ball on top of the shoulder.

- Sure, sure.

- And you're not gonna fix that.

- Got it, got it, got it.

- All right.

We would consider this a blouse.

- Okay.

- Right?

So 99% of all blouses are dry clean because of the material.

- Women's.

- This feels like cotton.

- [Peggy] Yeah.

- Let's see if there's a tag on it.

- No, I made it, just to give you a little hint.

- [Rodney] Okay, so no tag on it.

(Peggy and Rodney laughing) I would recommend it, the customers may ask as well, "What do you recommend?"

- Yeah.

- And I don't try and gouge them.

"Oh, well you want to do all dry clean."

No, I'll go through each item with them, or I'll ask if there's anything specific that you're talking about.

- [Peggy] But you'll also protect the clothing.

- Yes, I want them to have the clothes back crisp and clean.

- Sure.

- So, and good customer service, that way they'll come back.

- Sure.

- And so, again, this is a- - But you're honest.

Not all dry cleaners on the planet are actually honest.

(Rodney laughing) - I appreciate that.

- We're gonna talk about that in a minute.

We're gonna talk about that in a minute.

- I appreciate that, thank you.

Again, I would look at this and I would, first thing I want to do, I could feel the material, just from the experience and tell it needs dry cleaning.

- But- - Yeah.

- for someone that's not familiar with that, they would want to, first thing they would do is check for tags.

Tags give you a lot of information.

- So bless your heart.

I gave you a whole rack of no tags.

- [Rodney] Okay, no problem.

- Because I had made this stuff.

(laughs) And you passed beautifully.

But here, what I want to talk about.

- Okay.

- I want to talk about chemicals.

- Solvents used.

- Solvents, thank you.

The solvents that you use.

So the solvents have changed over the last... - Yes.

- 15 years, let's say.

- Yeah, about 15, 20 years.

They used to use what's called, a short name for it is perc.

- Okay.

- Right?

That's very, very toxic.

- Very bad.

- Very bad.

Bad for the environment.

- So it came along and they said, "No more."

"No more dry cleaners anywhere can use perc."

- Right, right.

There are some that still use it because of the machine.

Right, they may have a dry clean machine.

- [Peggy] Oh, interesting.

- But the regulation on it, is just, you know, how they dispose of it.

- I see.

- And how it's being used at the cleaners, and how it's handled is very much different than just... Then they've got other chemicals that you can use that are more earth-friendly.

- Can I get those solvents?

Can I use them at home?

Can I?

- No.

- No.

- No.

Now, you've got some homemade dry clean kits out there.

- Right.

- I've used them.

They're not bad, I don't want to downplay it.

But they're decent.

- Okay.

- But they don't compare to what you would get at a cleaners because on top of not only the cleaning, you get the pressing and the- - Sure.

- the crispness of the shirt.

- It just looks so professional.

- Right.

- 'Cause sometimes there's an odor to the clothes that should not be.

The dry cleaning process is actually odor-free.

- It has the solvent that is used, right?

So you've got your dry clean machine, you got the solvents that run through filters.

Okay, this is the back of the dry cleaning machine.

As you can tell, we've got inside of these drums here are filters.

Once the cycle is done, we come back and the filters are cleaned.

And then the fuel, the chemicals, are then filtered through the filtration system, and sent back to the tank to be reused for cleaning.

Once we run low on fuel, or chemicals if you will, I call it fuel, we then order more, and we place the fuel, the chemicals, back into the machine so that we can start a process over again.

If the filters aren't changed out, or you don't change out your chemicals- - Okay.

- on a timely basis, those chemicals they become eroded, if you will.

I don't know the right word there.

But that smell would get into the clothes.

And then you'll be able to smell it.

- Smell it, yeah.

- You can smell it.

- Now, I've gone to cleaners, and I could smell the clothes and it wasn't me, and I couldn't figure out really what it was.

So would that be your sign?

Would you go someplace else?

- I would, yeah.

- Okay.

- I mean, to me, it's just the attention to detail.

Right, if you don't want to pay attention to the detail of keeping your machines up to date and clean, and you know, then- - That's great advice.

- they're not gonna take very good of your clothes, either.

- I just think that's great advice because I think again, you know, we sew our clothes, and we make our clothes, and we put a lot of time and energy.

And usually the fabrics are nice, and we want somebody else to take just as good care, and you'd stop at that front counter and that's all you see for another couple of days.

- Right, yeah, yeah.

- You are a cleaners who are are amazing, but the reason you are, I'm gonna go back because you have your detail.

And where was the first place you got all this detail from?

- That would be the military.

(Peggy and Rodney laughing) Well, I would actually go back a little bit further than, I would say my mom giving me the chore list.

- It starts with the same letter.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - First mom, and then military.

- And then military, yes.

- Is that fair?

Mom and then military.

- Yes, that's true.

(laughs) - [Peggy] Mom prepared you for the military, the military fine-tuned it.

- Yes, that is true.

- So because of that, your attention to detail, or you really became learned that you loved detail.

- Yeah, I like to bring out, what I like to say is I like to bring order to chaos.

- [Peggy] Yeah.

(stapler clicking) (machines hissing) - [Rodney] So after the clothes are clean, and they're ready to be assembled, they come in, they're brought here and are sat here.

And then what she does is she goes, and you see, as she's looking for the numbers on each pair of pants, and she matches that number to the ticket.

And then we do a double check as well.

And of course, once all the tickets are lined up, our clothes are placed back on the ticket itself.

Everything matches up, everything's in poly bag.

The ladies are done, they're done for the day.

A lot of people, friends and family will say, I can walk into a chaotic situation, and be able to bring order to it.

I get satisfaction from it.

- [Peggy] Sure.

- It gives me peace.

- So if you get a chance to learn the personality of the person behind the cleaners, that is helpful.

- [Rodney] Yes, yes.

- But if I don't get that chance, how can I tell from a cleaners, you know, what to look for?

How do I know good from bad?

Like when I'm walking in.

- Just like, I mean, any establishment that you walk in, when you first walk in, you want it to be nice and clean, and you want to have friendly staff.

If you walk into a cleaners, and it looks like it hasn't been cleaned in forever.

- [Peggy] Yeah.

- It probably is telling you that the back has not been cleaned either, where the actual clothes are cleaned.

- Okay.

- And that's not a good sign.

- So red flag number one is the environment you're walking into.

- That's true.

- How clean it is, because that makes sense.

If they're cleaning my clothes or cleaning the floors too, or they're not doing either one.

- Right, right.

- That makes sense.

- Yes.

- All right.

And then, so I want to talk about now, when something goes wrong.

'Cause I think in visiting with you about this, it really helped me with my expectations.

Because you take something to the cleaners, and there are things that just... - It can happen.

- It can happen.

- Yes.

- It has happened.

- Yes, it has happened.

- And so, let's say you, how do you pay a customer, saying that, "I can't fix it."

You just can't fix it.

- Yeah, well, first and foremost, you need to be up front with them, right?

You don't try and give them back their shirt, and hope they don't see it.

- But how do you figure out- - Well when I first bought my store, I had a customer come in, and they were complaining about that we had damaged their item.

Well, that was from, it was a week before.

- [Peggy] And it was the previous.

- It was from the previous owner.

- Yeah.

- But I didn't want to say, "Oh, that's not my problem."

- Yeah.

- You know, that's not good business, right?

- Yeah.

- So I spoke with the customer, I apologize.

You know, I tried to say, "Well, what do you feel the value of your shirt is, in this case?"

And you'll get some doozies out there.

- I'm sure you do.

(laughs) - And then I just have to calmly tell them, I says that, "Your shirt is not worth $200."

(Peggy laughing) Or whatever the price.

- [Peggy] Try go selling it on eBay, and see what you get for it.

- Well, I will say that.

I'll say, "Let's go look it up on Google or eBay, and see what that shirt is worth, you know, used."

I said, "That's the price you pay for brand new."

- Yeah.

- But it's been cleaned, it's been washed, it's been worn.

- Yeah, so tell me one more thing before you go, how did you get this first cleaners?

The first one, I know you have several now, but how'd you get the first one?

- Well, I've always been a clean and organized person.

I get that from my mom.

- Okay.

- Right?

She taught me that a young age, and it was honed, like you said, at the military.

But, I used to work at AT&T.

- [Peggy] Okay.

- And I loved working at At&T, but I always wanted to do my own thing, own my own business.

- [Peggy] Sure.

- So several years ago, I decided, okay, well, how do you do that?

You gotta save money so you can buy, or purchase your business.

And so I started saving money, I cleaned up my credit.

I did all the things that you're supposed to do.

And then I just waited for the right opportunity.

- Oh, that's great.

- Right?

And when that came, I jumped on it, with my wife's permission, of course.

- Uh-huh.

- And I jumped on it and just never looked back.

- Oh, that's awesome.

And you have done an amazing job.

So many people do not know this information that you've shared with us, and everyone should.

So thank you so much.

- I appreciate it.

- For really letting us know what goes on behind that counter.

- Well, thank you, I appreciate you have me here.

- Thank you, Rodney.

- I think most of us have gone to festivals where the costumes are over the top.

Who makes them?

How long does it take?

Next time on "Fit 2 Stitch," we'll share the meticulous art of fabricating those fabulous elaborate costumes.

Join us.

(piano music) - [Announcer] "Fit 2 Stitch" is made possible by, Kai Scissors, (piano music) Bennos Buttons, OC Sewing, Orange County, Vogue Fabrics, Pendleton, Imitation of Life, and Clutch Nails.

(bouncy flute music) To order a four DVD set of "Fit 2 Stitch" series 10, please visit our website at fit2stitch.com.