Skeptic No More

I think it was Julie who was telling me about the at-home dry cleaning kit "Dryel", and I remember thinking, "Yeah, but what about stains? What about pressing and those beautiful, crisp lines in my husband's slacks when they come back from the cleaners? What about underarm and other nasty odors?"

But my last trip to the cleaners (they are few and far between, mind you, but I DO have to go at least once a month for various clothing items) cost me about $15.00, so I decided to give Dryel a whirl. (You "whirl" it in the dryer. Ha.) I found a starter set at Target on clearance for about $7 and got up the courage a few days ago to try it, considering Jason and I got all dressed up on his birthday (slacks and shirt, blouse and skirt, that sort of thing) and went to dinner at the Pala Casino's Oak Room. Why would that make me want to dry clean at home? It wasn't that I wound up with buffalo meat on my blouse, no...it was that, afterward, we spent 2 or 3 hours hanging out at the casino playing slots with a miniscule sum of money we set aside for entertainment, but I'll get to all that in another post. POINT IS, casinos are notoriously smoke-and-booze-filled, and though we OBVIOUSLY weren't smoking or drinking, the smell permeates EVERYTHING. Needless to say, our nice clothes required laundering, and I wasn't prepared to drop another $15 to clean them.

Enter my Dryel set. All four clothing items - plus another couple small items I had been meaning to take to the cleaners - were stain treated with the included stain treatment, tossed into the dryel bag with a dryel sheet, and were then tossed into the dryer for 30 minutes on medium heat. Ding! Clothes are done!

They smelled great, were stain-free, and after a little bit of ironing on Jay's shirt and slacks and my blouse, everything was right as rain and good as if it had just come back from the dry cleaners. That was great, but I still wasn't completely convinced. What about more serious stains, or stains all over? What about when I didn't feel like ironing?

Today I threw in another load...four items, to be exact, one of which was a pair of Jason's slacks, and one of which was a black dress replete with those little deodorant cat whiskers. I spent an extra few minutes with the stain treatment and VOILA! stain-free! The slacks? No, I didn't bother ironing them, but I took them out of the dryer bag and they were still very slightly damp, so I hung them up to dry and VOILA! they're wrinkle-free and ready to go...even if they aren't quite as crisp as they'd be if I'd ironed them, but they're khakis, people. Who really cares? (Yes, Jason...I know you do. I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you by ironing all your slacks next week, I promise. And you can even use this to hold me to it.)

So TEN items "dry cleaned" in less than a week for $7, AND I have the potential to clean up to six MORE items still sitting in the Dryel box. That, and from now on I only need to buy the refill sheets, which end up even cheaper. Say I only clean 5 items on average; that means I cleaned 15 items for $7 at less than $0.50 an item! AWESOME! And now it's convenient, I don't have to waste gas to-and-from, I don't have to go as long between cleanings, and I can even treat stains I didn't think I could treat before! (I still don't recommend Dryel for stuff like crayons, lipstick, blood, what-have-you, and think those are best left to professionals.)

I am officially a Dryel convert...a skeptic no more. If you do lots of dry cleaning and have access to your own dryer at home, check it out. I can safely say I endorse the product. Now I only wish I was getting PAID to endorse it. Anyway...Have a great day, all!