There are still dozens of professions that require you to wear a suit while you’re on the clock. Suits are not cheap clothing and require a certain amount of upkeep because of the investment they are. If you have taken a suit to your dry-cleaning services, then you know it can get pricey.
Luckily, you don’t have to clean your suits with every wear. Keep reading to get a better idea of all the best tips for caring for and dry cleaning your suits.
When You Should Send Your Suit for Dry Cleaning
How often your suit needs to be dry cleaned depends on the environment you wear it in, what your workday is like, and of course, how many suits you own. Everybody that wears a suit doesn’t have the same workday.
With suits that aren’t worn all that often, you can get away with cleaning the blazer a couple of times a year or so. With the pants or skirts, you will need to clean them a little more often.
With suits worn a bit more often, then you should get them cleaned after about every six wears, and more frequently for the bottom counterpart. With suits that go through heavier wear, you will need to clean them more frequently.
However, there’s no harm in having your suits dry-cleaned regularly, even if you don’t use them that often. Having a clean suit always comes in handy for work emergencies, such as unplanned meetings with clients.
Read further to get more details on the specifics of how frequently to use dry cleaning delivery for your suits.
Storing Your Suit Between Dry Cleanings
If your suit is only for occasional wear, then make sure to store it in a bag that breathes, not plastic or nylon dry cleaning bags. Don’t crowd your suits in the closet; they do best with an inch or two of separation to allow air movement and avoid crushing. You should also always make sure to hang a damp suit in an area with good airflow.
Cleaning a Gently Worn Suit
Let’s say you take your suit out, don’t sweat while wearing it, and get out of your jacket once you are in the office. You only put the jacket back on when meeting with important clients or partners.
The suit is lightly worn and unlikely to have been exposed to smells associated with smoke, pollutants, chemicals, and sweat. If the suit is taken off and hung up when you get home, you can likely wear it several times before you need to take it to a dry-cleaning service.
Cleaning a Moderately Worn Suit
Maybe you have to be a bit more active in your suit. This applies to those who have a bit of a walk from the parking lot to the office or those that do more activity while wearing a suit throughout the day. Perhaps you eat at a restaurant, and your suit is exposed to food smells. You may spend more time outside with your jacket hung up at the office. Maybe you exercise in your slacks but not in the jacket.
In this case, the suit has limited exposure to perspiration, rain, pollutants, and potential stains but is moderately worn. It will likely be a bit wrinkled, losing the crisp lines provided by the professional cleaners you chose after a search for “dry cleaning near me.”
For some preventative care, hang the suit for an hour or so, and then go over it with a lint brush. To freshen it up, you can use a steamer. With this care, you may get about six wears out of the suit before it needs dry cleaning at your local laundry service.
Cleaning a Heavily Worn Suit
Maybe you and your suit travel with your job. You spend a lot of time driving around in hot weather, sleeping in hotels, and eating in a variety of restaurants. You keep your suit fresh by packing all the items to care for it. You hang it, go over it with a lint brush, and have a portable steamer and stain kit along for your travels.
You eat most of the meals in your suit and can only spruce it up between clients. Your steaming will help to keep the odors down. Ironing it will also get your creases back where they belong. But this suit is considered a heavily worn suit and will need to be cleaned after every few wears or after every business trip. You may need to set up a regular schedule with your laundry and dry-cleaning service.
Tips for Keeping Your Suits in Good Shape
The following tips can help you maintain the shape of your suits while caring for the fabric.
- Use wooden hangers to maintain the shape of your suits.
- Build up a suit rotation over some time.
- Store your suits with some breathing room, at least a couple of inches apart.
- If your suit is damp, hang it in a place with good airflow until it dries. Do not put it in the closet right away.
- Steam your suit and avoid using an iron. Steamers can remove wrinkles without ironing.
- Hang your suit properly in the office when you don’t need to wear it.
- Blot spills away instead of rubbing away the excess liquid. If there isn’t anything left when it dries, you are done.
- Don’t attempt DIY stain cleaning. Instead, use a professional drop-off laundry service. Suits are too expensive to risk damaging even more and professionals know the best methods for dry cleaning stains.
Choosing Your Dry Cleaner
When selecting an eco-friendly dry-cleaning service, make sure to not just settle for the least expensive. Search through online reviews, ask friends for referrals, and check the BBB for ratings before you decide on who to take your suits to.
Be sure to read through policies to make sure they align with what you need from a cleaning service. Then, set up your dry cleaning pick up service via the laundry service app and enjoy having clean suits whenever you need them.
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