November 11, 2014 In "Geeky" Stain Tips, Dry Cleaning Tips, Press

Stubborn Stain Tips!

Kare11 - Still

WATCH: Kare11 – Stubborn Stain Tips

 

 

 

 

 

Kelley Nemec from St. Croix Cleaners joined us with the dirt on stains and how to get rid of them. Here are some of her top tips.

Nylon sock: Deodorant’s worst nightmare

Rub the nylon sock lightly over the deodorant marks or foundation to remove the top layer of the stain before it blends into the fabric.

You can still wear the garment for the day, but make sure to clean it soon after, as remnants of the stain may still remain.

Dish soap: Grease’s toughest competitor

Create a solution with the following: 1 pinky’s dip worth of dish soap (the original Dawn works the best!) + 1 to 2 cups water

Flush the stain with this solution (do not just use straight dish soap). Then dab, do not rub, the stain.

Flush with water once more.

If the garment will still not come clean, bring it to the professionals!

Ice cubes: Red wine remover

Treat a red wine stain immediately by placing a paper towel under the garment’s stain Gently dab an ice cube on the top After a few minutes, place a paper towel on top of the stain and pull the stain away!

Vacuum brush: Increases longevity of your garments

Next time you’re vacuuming, take an extra few minutes and vacuum your clothes with a vacuum brush.

Dust finds its way into your closet and settles on your clothes, causing fume fading (color loss) of colored garments and browning of white garments.

By removing this dust, your garments will store and keep their color much longer.

AVOID using stain sticks or DIY stain removing tips found on the Internet. Every stain and fabric is different and some of these “fixes” can actually damage your clothing!

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June 3, 2014 In "Geeky" Stain Tips, Dry Cleaning Tips, Green Cleaning, Specialty Cleaning, Uncategorized, Workplace

How Does Dry Cleaning Work?

As Featured on WCCO’s “Good Question”:

What happens between the time you drop off your most treasured garments at the cleaners and when you pick them up?

John Lauritsen of the WCCO team asked this “Good Question” last week, and we invited him to take a tour with St Croix Cleaners’ Owner, Dave Nemec, of our main facility here in Stillwater, MN.  There’s a little more to dry cleaning than you might think!  Take a look:

Or watch the video here: Check out the video here: CBS Minnesota’s Good Question

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March 31, 2014 In Dry Cleaning Tips, Green Cleaning

It's Earth Month! Let's Conserve Water

This April (usually known as Earth Month since Earth Day falls on the 22nd) we’re excited to share more and more reasons why innovative technologies continue to make dry cleaning a relatively eco-friendly practice!

St Croix Cleaners is one of the largest dry cleaning facilities in the Twin Cities metro, if not Minnesota, and that means that A LOT of water is being used clean and press garments.

water-tower2

At a dry cleaning plant, though typical ‘dry cleaning’ does not use water, many other things do require the use of it.  Water is used for washing clothes in some machines, for attached laundromat’s machines, and it is also used to create the heat and steam so that we’re able to press your garments to make them look their best.

With 20 locations across the metro, we were cleaning and pressing quite a few garments a day – and that meant we were using A LOT of water ever day.  After a bit of research on how we might be able to save some of this water, we invested in a water circulation tower in 2010 that is now on the roof of our facility.

The water conservation tower recycles and purifies the majority of the water we use – saving over 2.5 million gallons of water a year!  That’s enough water to fill over 92 Olympic-sized swimming pools!

Just another reason we love to help you look and feel your very best – every single day.

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March 13, 2014 In Dry Cleaning Tips, Specialty Cleaning

Lost Sweater – Found Thanks to Dry Cleaning!

istockphoto_515023-modern-technology-up-closeWarm

A sweater found in a Minneapolis parking ramp was returned to it’s owner last week – all because of dry cleaning Technology!

That’s right, thanks to significant increases in technology over the past several years, dry cleaning has become an extremely high-tech industry.

Every time your shirt, sweater, pants – you name it – is dropped off with us, it receives a small barcode.  This barcode is usually placed in an out-of-sight location so it is of no inconvenience to you and your garments, but the information it holds is extremely valuable.  Within that tiny barcode holds all kinds of information about that garment, including things like:

  • the type of garment it is (shirt, pants, dress, etc)
  • the fabric, color and brand of the garment
  • who the garment belongs to
  • when the garment was checked in at our stores, where it is within the cleaning process and whether it is ready to be picked up
  • even the amount of times that garment has been to us!

This information allows us to use the utmost care and quality standards in handling and cleaning your garments. And, for one lucky customer, it helped her get her sweater back!  Another customer found a sweater on the ground in a St Paul Community Ed parking lot after a theater performance once night.  She knew we barcoded our items, so looked at the care label – and sure enough – a barcode!  She emailed us with the barcode number, and we were able to locate the customer it belonged to, and to get her sweater back to her!  She had just “written off” the sweater – which was one of her favorites and most expensive and never thought it could be located..!

It’s a great feel-good story for a nice Thursday afternoon, eh?!

sweaters4

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March 3, 2014 In Dry Cleaning Tips, Fashion, Green Cleaning

When is the Best Time to Clean My…?

UGGs?

The spring (March, April)  is usually the best time to clean these after you have trekked through the snow and salt all winter.  It’s important to remove the salt as soon as possible and to place a protective coating on your UGGs before letting them sit all summer.  That way, when the unexpected snow storm comes next October, you can pull out your UGGs and be ready to go!

Rugs?

Late spring, early summer  is best to clean your household rugs.  Just think about all the times you’ve stomped in from outside on that rug, and how much dirt and salt has built up on it. Vacuuming is only able to pick up the top layer – what about the dirt that has worked it’s way inside the rug?  It’s best to plan for annual cleanings – just once per year can help your rugs last three times as long!

Winter Coats?

At least once at the end of the winter.  Remember, you wear your winter coat almost every day in the winter – and you drive, eat, travel and more while wearing it.  Once the snow and ice finally decide to start melting away, and you’re able to switch to a light spring jacket, make sure to bring your coat in to us – that way it’s cleaned and properly stored until next winter!

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November 27, 2013 In Press

Support Children’s Hospitals & Clinics this December!

Childrens-logo-2color-2726-coated[heading type=”1″]For Every Blanket and Comforter Cleaned, St Croix Cleaners will Donate $5 to Children’s Hospitals of MN.[/heading]

‘Tis the Season to stay warm and tidy while supporting a great cause! Throughout the entire month of December, select locations of St Croix and White Way Cleaners have pledged to donate $5 for every comforter and blanket they clean. As families clean up their homes and prepare for the Holiday Season, it’s the perfect time to make sure all blankets and comforters are clean and ready for relatives who plan to stay over for extended periods of time.

All Downtown St Paul and Minneapolis Dry Cleaning locations will be participating in this Charity Fundraiser and look forward to presenting a check to Children’s Hospitals and Clinics in early January 2014. The fundraiser will run from December 1-31st and will donate $5 for any comforter (down or not) or blanket brought in to be cleaned during that time.

“St Croix & White Way Cleaners are very excited to be supporting Children’s Hospitals. It’s great way to support children and their families throughout the Holidays,” Dave Nemec, the Dry Cleaning owner, stated. This is the first partnership between St Croix & White Way Cleaners and Children’s Hospitals & Clinics of MN – and hopefully not the last!

Find a list of participating Dry Cleaning locations here. To donate to the cause without having a blanket or comforter cleaned, visit childrensmn.org.

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November 22, 2013 In Dry Cleaning Tips

How Are Clothes Cleaned?

At St. Croix Cleaners, we use one of three types of cleaning for your garments: dry cleaning, wet cleaning, or laundering.

laundry-rack-great-ideas

[accordion_toggle title=”Dry Cleaning”]Dry cleaning uses solvent to remove soils and stains from fabric in specially designed machines. In fact, the term “dry cleaning” is misleading: it is called dry cleaning because the solvent contains no water and does not penetrate the fibers as water does. The main advantage of dry cleaning is its ability to dissolve greases and oils in a way that water cannot, while protecting delicate fabrics that do not respond well with water. The dry cleaning process begins with the pretreatment of spots and stains using special cleaning agents. The garments are then loaded into a machine resembling an oversized front-loading washer. It produces similar mechanical action to loosen embedded dirt. Throughout the cleaning process, the solvent is filtered or distilled to ensure its clarity. The garments are dried in the same machine and have no residual solvent odor after cleaning. [/accordion_toggle][accordion_toggle title=”Wet Cleaning”]Wet cleaning is the professional process of removing soils from garments and other textile items using water. The American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC) definition for Professional Wet cleaning is: A process for cleaning sensitive textiles (e.g., wool, silk, rayon, linen) in water by professionals, using techniques which minimize the potential for adverse effects. It is followed by appropriate drying and restorative finishing procedures. [/accordion_toggle][accordion_toggle title=”Laundering”]Professional laundering for shirts and other “washable” items is another process we use to keep your garments looking their best. Special detergents, additives, and finishes set commercial laundry apart from home laundering. Collars come cleaner and professional pressing offers a crisper finish. We offer different levels of starch: no starch, light, medium or heavy.[/accordion_toggle]
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September 10, 2013 In Dry Cleaning Tips, Green Cleaning

Dry Cleaning: Then and Now

Believe it or not, people have been entrusting their garments to professional cleaners for millenia! Local garment care businesses have around since at least as early as the Ancient Romans (togas didn’t clean themselves, you know!), and waterless (“dry”) cleaning has been used since the mid-1800’s (did you know that the first dry cleaning patent granted in the U.S. was also the first patent ever to be granted to an African American?). While people have always needed their clothes cleaned, laundry and dry cleaning methods have changed a lot throughout the centuries, with many innovations occurring just in the last decade or so.

Here’s a quick history lesson:

Then:

white_way_early_1900s

Who says you need an internal combustion engine to provide laundry delivery service? The first “laundry wagons” were motored by horses! This photo from the early 1900’s shows the laundry wagon “fleet” of Elk Laundry Company (the original name of White Way Cleaners). As you can see, it was made up of both horse-drawn and motorized vehicles!

Now:

DeliveryVan

St. Croix and White Way Cleaners continue to offer (free) home delivery! Our “wagons” look a little more modern nowadays…

Then:

Pompeii

Evidence of “professional” garment cleaning dates back to the Ancient Romans. Launderers were known as fullers and their workshops were called fullonicas.

Now:

HEN - finished

Our brand new Loring Park location, connected to Treasured Garment Restoration, can serve any of your garment care needs: laundering, dry cleaning, alterations, preservation, and vintage restoration. Or visit one of our other nineteen locations throughout the Twin Cities!

Then:

kerosene

Believe it or not, kerosene and petroleum were used as solvents In the earliest years of dry cleaning. Sure they got out the stains, but think of the smell!

LATER:

Equipment at Nu Life FL 002

Beginning in the 1930’s, dry cleaners cleaned garments using a chemical called perchloroethylene (known as “perc”). Perc is a soil contaminant and carcinogen, and cleans so harshly that it can lead to color loss and other damage. According to the EPA, the majority of drycleaners still use perc as their primary solvent.

Now:

St Croix Cleaners 011

St. Croix/White Way Cleaners is 100% perc-free! We use only non-toxic/earth-friendly solvents like Hydrocarbon, a biodegradable and odorless compound. Not only is this better for the Earth, it’s better for your clothes! Learn more about our earth and fabric-friendly cleaning process here.

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June 20, 2013 In Fashion

June Fashion Trend: The End of Mom Jeans?

Could we be seeing the end of ‘Mom jeans’ and age-appropriate clothing? Is the next trend in-style no matter your age?

http://www.buzzfeed.com/marisakabas/the-end-of-mom-jeans

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