Stedda Dry Cleaning

My mother was ‘thrifty’ and would rarely let my dry clean my clothes, so she made me do this, something I’ve been doing for many years since to freshen woolens and jackets that are not really dirty.

Put them in a dryer with a wet, wrung-out washcloth. But don’t use a hot setting, only warm, and only for 20 minutes. Hang them up immediately so you don’t have any wrinkles!

If they’ve picked up an odour like smoke, dissolve a little baking soda in the water you use to douse the washcloth first. You can put a couple of drops of essential oil directly on the washcloth, too.

And if static is a concern, tear off a sheet of aluminum foil and roll it into a ball. This will reduce any static in the dryer. In fact, I use this instead of fabric softener when I do my laundry. Fabrics are not slowly degraded by the industrial chemicals in fabric softener, and towels have that fresh, air-dried absorbancy while looking fluffy instead of stretch and crispy!