Have you ever wondered what happens at the dry cleaners? Or are you like me and just assumed the people at the dry cleaners were wizards and never questioned their magic? Turns out, dry cleaners aren’t magic and there’s actually a pretty interesting explanation of how they came to be and what they do.
Melissa Pateras is known on Tiktok for her laundry knowledge. If she pops up on your For You Page, you’re officially on Laundrytok. Seriously, her ability to fold laundry is hypnotizing. This time, she created a video explaining what actually takes place at the dry cleaner and the Internet is aghast.
Her friends took wild guesses first
Before Pateras explained what happens in the mysterious world behind the counter of a dry cleaner, she asked a few of her friends what they thought dry cleaning was. Their answers were…interesting to say the least.
One friend surmised, “You put it in a box, right…and then you let some wind, really fast wind, blow around on your clothes and it wipes off all the dirt.” The friend, whose username is @unlearn16, continued with her working hypothesis, saying that the clothes are then blasted with infrared heat to sterilize the garments. While that is certainly an interesting theory, that’s not what happens.
Another friend guessed, “Dry cleaning is when they take all of your dirty clothes into this big dryer with a clean sheet that sticks all of the dirt to it from your dirty clothes.” This friend was also incorrect, and Pateras finally explained why after her friends dug deep into their brains for their best guesses.
The accidental birth of dry cleaning
Turns out dry cleaning, as the popular story goes, was invented by accident when Jean-Baptiste Jolly spilled a kerosene lamp on his tablecloth, which dried cleaner than it was previously, according to Pateras. (Worth noting: the exact details of this legend vary across sources, and an earlier patent for a similar “dry scouring” process was granted to American inventor Thomas L. Jennings back in 1821.)
The laundry guru explained that while it was dangerous, the practice of cleaning things with kerosene continued until a less flammable method was discovered. But even the safer method is still fairly harsh, which is why dry cleaners take buttons off of clothing before running them through, she says.
Why buttons sometimes come off first
This prompted one commenter to ask, “They really take the buttons off of every shirt?” to which Pateras replied that it only occurs if the buttons won’t withstand the chemicals.
If you’ve ever been curious about what happens at the dry cleaner, watch the video below. She takes you through each step.
Of course, some garments will do just fine without dry cleaning; knowing when to consider it is key.
The mystery, finally solved
dry cleaning isn’t magic, it’s just chemistry that happens to work better than plain old water and soap on certain fabrics. What started as a total accident with a spilled kerosene lamp has turned into a whole industry built around keeping delicate clothes looking their best. Next time you drop off a silk blouse or a wool coat, you’ll actually know what’s happening behind that counter.
This article originally appeared three years ago. It has been updated.
