You may wash the majority of your clothes at home, but some clothes take special care. Do you know what happens after you drop your clothes off at the dry cleaners? Here are the basic steps each piece goes through before you pick them up.

1. Tagging and Inspection

The first step is checking your clothes in on the dry cleaning conveyor. Then the staff checks for visible issues or stains before sending them back to be prepped. Noticeable stains are pre-treated before the clothing is loaded into the machine. If you can point out the location of stains and what caused them, that information can help the cleaners get it out of the garment.

2. Machine Cleaning

Dry cleaning uses special solvents instead of water to remove oil-based impurities from the fabric. Some solvents are petroleum based, but some cleaners use greener options. Clothing is usually loaded into a large drum machine for application of the cleaning agent.

3. Spot Cleaning

The cleaning cycle gets most of the stains out of the fabric. More stubborn spots, however, must be cleaned by hand. The technicians inspect each piece and address remaining issues with light steam or other methods, depending on the type of fabric.

4. Pressing

The last step of the dry cleaning service is getting the garment ready to wear. The cleaning process likely left the clothes wrinkled, so they must either be pressed or ironed by hand. Many dry cleaners go the extra mile and make small repairs to the garment such as reattaching buttons or reinforcing seams.

Now you know what happens to your clothes between the time you drop them off at the dry cleaners and the time you pick them up. Special care is taken to make sure each item is cleaned properly so that it can last as long as possible.