Shane Johnston, Dollar Wise Quality Cleaners

WM: What should I do when I spill red wine on my white shirt?
SJ: If you spill an entire glass of red wine on a white shirt, put it in a plastic bag and bring it to your local dry cleaner as soon as possible! If it’s only a small spot, take some club soda and pour it onto the shirt in the opposite direction of the stain - you never want to push a stain in further.

WM: Are there any stains that can’t be conquered?
SJ: One of the toughest stains is mustard, but it really depends on the strength and integrity of the fabric.

WM: How about perspiration stains?
SJ: It’s actually most deodorants that pull the colour from clothing. We can remove the deodorant, but the alcohol has probably already pulled the colour from the spot.

WM: What’s best – dry cleaning or professionally laundering my business shirts?
SJ: Clothing will last twice as long when it’s dry cleaned. To put that in perspective, a 100 per cent cotton shirt is manufactured to last 20 to 25 washes, and a cotton/poly blend is made to last 40 to 50 – then you’ll start to see fraying on the collars and the cuffs. Laundering is very hard on fabric because it’s expanding and contracting it. In dry cleaning, the fabric doesn’t expand and contract because it doesn’t “know” that it’s wet.