Reduce #3: dry cleaning

Dry cleaning has very nasty-chemical connotations for me, so I end up wearing my dry clean only clothes rarely and then do not get them to the cleaners very quickly. There are four dry cleaners in my immediate neighborhood, so I am blessed with choices! What is the easy choice? One of the dry cleaners uses the GreenEarth technology which cleans with liquid silicone (D5) instead of the typical Perchloroethylene (Perc).

Because it is a fairly new dry cleaning method, I am not yet convinced GreenEarth is 100% wonderful, but liquid silicone sure seems a lot better than Perc. For one thing, liquid silicone (also called dimethicone, polydimethylsiloxane, cyclosiloxane, and just siloxane) is a major component of things like body lotions and shampoos. In fact, I found it listed as an ingredient in my lotion, shampoo, and sun screen. I'm willing to shampoo with dimethicone every day, and I CERTAINLY would not shampoo with Perc, so my gut says that GreenEarth must be a step up from Perc.

So, I dropped my clothes off and will pick them up tomorrow and see how well they were cleaned. I am initially impressed with the business as well. They use GreenEarth for all their dry cleaning-- you don't have to pay extra for it. The person at the cleaners was nice and even gave me a 50% first-time discount. She also took all my old metal hangers for recycling even though they weren't from her shop (another local shop did this for me last fall, but only reluctantly). The dry cleaners has a website with coupons and info. on other helpful things like free delivery, so the easy choice was to give them a try! (update on quality of cleaning to follow...)