Most people use "dry cleaning" to mean all professional cleaning. In practice you are choosing between three different processes, and the right one depends less on how dirty an item is than on what it is made of and how it is built.
Dry Cleaning
Dry cleaning uses solvent instead of water. Water makes natural fibres swell and relax, which is what shrinks wool, puckers silk and pulls the structure out of a suit jacket. Solvent lifts oil-based soiling without any of that.
Send anything with structure or a delicate fibre: suits, blazers, wool coats, silk blouses, pleated skirts, lined dresses, cheongsam and beaded evening wear. A circle on the care label means dry clean.
Wash & Iron
This is a proper wash in water, then a professional press. It is the right answer for cotton and linen shirts, everyday dresses, school uniforms and bed linen — items that are washable but that you want returned crisp rather than crumpled.
It is also the honest answer for a lot of what arrives asking for dry cleaning. A cotton work shirt worn to an office in Orchard or Raffles Place does not need solvent; it needs a wash and a good press, and it will last longer for it.
Load Wash (Wash & Fold)
Load wash is charged by weight, not by piece — $8 per kilogram, minimum 5kg. Everything goes in together and comes back washed, dried and folded. For a household's weekly clothing — the kind of pile a family in Sengkang or Jurong East gets through — it is far cheaper than piece pricing.
The trade-off is that we do not track individual items in a load, and some things cannot go in: outerwear, sweaters, evening wear, traditional costumes, ties and caps, stuffed toys, curtains, carpets, table linen, pillows, bolsters, cushions and anything down-filled.
A Simple Test
Ask two questions. Is the fabric happy in water? Does the garment have structure — lining, shoulder padding, pleats, beading — that a wash would flatten? A yes to water and a no to structure means wash and iron, or load wash if you have 5kg of it. Anything else, send it for dry cleaning and let us read the label.
Related Services
Not sure where your item falls? Send us a photo and we will tell you what it needs.