Stain: DIY or Send to Cleaning? When Not to Try Yourself

The care label is the first stop signal

Before you reach for the stain remover, read the care label. If the garment is marked 'dry clean only', with a circle (the cleaning symbol) or a crossed-out wash tub, it cannot take the water and mechanical action that home washing involves. Soaking and rubbing can then shrink it, distort it or make colours bleed – and a stain quickly becomes bigger damage. Respect the label: it tells you what the fabric can actually handle.

Fibres and construction that mean stop

Some fabrics and garment types are so sensitive that home treatment is rarely worth the risk.

• Silk, wool, viscose, acetate and cupro – shrink, water-mark or lose colour easily.
• Acetate is actually dissolved by acetone (nail polish remover) – never use it here.
• Garments with leather or suede detailing, linings, shoulder construction, pleats or trims like beads and sequins.
• High-value pieces: suits, wedding dresses, bunad and heirlooms.

High-risk stain types

Certain stains are known to get worse from a failed home attempt. Meet these on a garment you care about, and the threshold for sending it in is low.

• Oil and grease on silk, ink and ballpoint, hair dye and other oxidative dyes.
• Paint, old dried-in or heat-set stains, and unknown stains.
• Blood and protein on wool and silk.
• Anything you have already treated with the wrong product.

Signs you must stop immediately

Sometimes you notice mid-treatment that it is going the wrong way. Then it is better to stop than to push on.

• The colour bleeds, or a lighter ring forms around where you are treating.
• The fabric turns shiny, fuzzy or lightens where the product has worked.
• You have already used heat (hot wash, tumble dryer, iron) over the stain.
• You have used chlorine bleach on wool, silk or coloured fabric.

How to avoid ruining it for the cleaner while you wait

What you do in the meantime often decides what the cleaner can save. The goal is to keep the stain 'open', not to fix it.

1. Blot up liquid and lift off solids gently – never rub.
2. Keep the garment cool and avoid all heat; heat sets most stains.
3. Keep a water-based stain slightly damp, and leave a grease stain dry.
4. Note what the stain is and how old it is, so the cleaner knows what they are meeting.

Send it in – describe the stain when you order

When the care label, the fabric or the stain type says stop, professional cleaning is the safe route. We clean according to the fabric and care label, and you describe the stain – what it is, how old it is and anything you have tried – when you order. If the garment also needs a small repair, we can handle it in the same round. You order online, and you see the price before you order.

Frequently asked questions