The Handbook - How To Guides
 
 
 
31 Days: Style Tips and Tricks
 
Volume 5
 

All the tips and tricks needed to shape up for 2013. Each day brings new, expert advice on how to look your best and live life to the fullest, while having a little fun doing it.

Clothes
Day
1

Clean Your Shirts

 

Believe it or not, dry cleaning is not the best way to clean your shirts. Yes, you're taking it to professionals, but even the best dry cleaning can lead to your favorite shirt's demise. After all, the process involves an intense chemical bath which can weaken fabric fibers and give white shirts a yellow hue. A better option is to simply machine wash your shirts at home in warm/cold water with a non-bleach detergent like OxiClean and let them air dry. You'll find that the casual shirts like plaids and oxfords won't even need to by ironed. (Dress shirts will likely require a quick pressing.) It's a simpler and more affordable way to keep your clothes clean, which will also prolong the life of your favorite garments.

If you insist on taking your shirts to a cleaner, ask for them to be laundered and hand-pressed with no starch. It may cost a little more, but starch unnaturally stiffens the shirt and shortens its lifespan, while machine-pressing can crack your buttons or flatten your collar. And when you spend your hard-earned dough on clothes you love, don't you want to keep them in the best possible condition for as long as you can?

 

FYI

One shirt that should be dry cleaned? A particularly dark dress shirt.
If laundered, the color will likely fade.

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A Month of Tips