preparing your house for professional cleaners

Whether you're traveling for business or for pleasure, one of the last things to do before you pack your suitcase is pick up your dress clothes at the dry cleaner and run your other items through the washer and drier. There's nothing worse than getting three days into a 10-day trip and realizing your toothpaste leaked on your dress shirt and you managed to spill mustard on your khaki slacks that you planned to wear again. Keeping your clothing clean when you're traveling requires a little extra effort, but it doesn't have to be an ordeal. By being proactive, you can ensure that you arrive home just as tidy as when you left. Here's how to do it.

Book Your Hotels Wisely

Many hotels provide laundry and dry cleaning services for their guests at a fee. Having these perks available can be a lifesaver when you're away from home. When you're researching different hotels online, check to see which facilities provide these services and how much they charge. Spending a little extra money for a hotel can translate into cost and time savings down the road when you aren't scrambling to find a dry cleaner and spending your vacation waiting to pick up your clothing.

Watch How You Eat

To stay clean for the duration of your trip, you might opt for wearing a shirt or pants on a couple occasions. An accident with food can quickly negate this plan, so be careful about your eating habits. If you're the type of person who enjoys snacking on food while driving, try to wear casual clothes that you can afford to get dirty. That way, when a potato chip slips out of your hand, gets pressed against your shirt by the seat belt and makes a grease stain, it won't be the end of the world.

Roll Up Your Sleeves

If you don't have enough room in your suitcase to pack socks, underwear and casual clothing to last the duration of your trip, you can wash these items yourself in your hotel room. While you can always scrub things in the sink or tub, an approach that is growing in popularity is to put the dirty attire in a large zip-top bag specifically designed for this purpose, add water and detergent and then circulate things by hand. Rinse them clean in the shower and hang them to dry. This strategy saves you cleaning costs at the hotel and is quick and easy.

To learn more, contact a dry cleaning company like Chris French Cleaners.