cleaning
Clothing has to be cleaned, i.e. dry cleaned or laundered, when it has become dirty, unhygienic or soiled. Just exactly when a garment is soiled so that it warrants cleaning varies so much that no general rule can be given. However, everyone is brought up with a family tradition which has a rule about cleaning clothing. Immediately a garment or fabric is stained an endeavour should be made, as is customary, to remove the stain and prevent it from permanently staining the article.
The dry cleaner should be informed of the cause of any stains, as this will assist in their removal. The same applies when sending textile articles to the laundry.
Before home laundering, all obvious stains should be removed so that the wash can thoroughly scour out the final traces of the stain. (See Table 40.1 for stains and their removal.)
Soil is the term used to describe dust, grime, mud, perspiration that has accumulated on the garment and requires that it be either dry cleaned or laundered. Soil has been defined as matter in the wrong place. For instance egg on toast is food, egg on shirt front is soil.
There are two types of soil. Water soluble soil will dissolve in cold to warm water, e.g. many sugar-based stains such as from beverages, jams, fresh blood, fresh urine and saliva. Water insoluble soil will not dissolve in water but may be removed with an organic solvent such as white spirit or perchlorethylene esed in dry cleaning. Examples of water insoluble soil are oil, fat, most cosmetic creams, milk products, grime, wax. Sand and earth particles may be shaken out of the fabric by the cleaning process.
In dry cleaning, the solvent dissolves the greasy soils and the very small amount of detergent and water added removes the water soluble soils. The totally insoluble soil particles should shake out of the garment by the agitation given to the garment during dry cleaning.