TheCleaners.net

Everybody has one -- a favorite shirt that is just the most comfortable thing around.  You look great in it, you feel great in it, and you want to wear it forever.  There's just one catch: nothing lasts forever.

Believe it or not, there are people who sit around in labs and test garments for how long they'll last.  They clean them over and over again, and then analyze the changes that occur in the fibers.  They test them for how well they hold up, how soon they rip, how much strength the individual fibers have.  (And you thought you had a dull job!)

This week, learn how long Old Faithful may be with you.  And have a laugh learning more about dryer lint and what you can do with it!

See you soon,

Jim Nixon,
The Cleaners

Nothing

Lasts

Forever

Quote of the Week

"When I said, 'I Do'
I didn't mean Laundry."

The Shirt Off Your Back Coupon

You make a great impression in a crisp, pressed shirt.  We do a lot of shirts, and we're expert at it.  You know you don't enjoy washing and ironing them yourself, so bring 'em on!  We'll do a shirt at no charge for each two regular drycleaning items you give us to handle.  (Include the first page of this e-mail with your order.  Offer expires 1/31/04.  Cannot be combined with other offers.)

What's Your Life Expectancy?

No, not your personal life expectancy (a palm reader would have about as good a chance of guessing that as we would) but the life expenctancy of the average dress shirt?  Does it pay to buy a better shirt?  Are there ways to extend a shirt's life?

The common cotton dress shirt is generally expected to last through 35-40 washings.  Of course, they don't fall apart on the hanger after the 41st washing, but the fibers are beginning to reach critical mass for failure after that point.  Better-made shirts, and those of heavier fabric will last longer, of course.

If you've got a mixture of regular broadcloth shirts and Oxfords, it might surprise you to know they don't age the same way.  Broadcloth is a weave using heavier threads in the filling direction(up and down -- warp, side to side -- fill threads.) (Picture your bright white dress shirts.) Oxfords actually have twice as many warp threads as fill threads, and so they start out their lives with more strength from a fiber standpoint.  They have more tensile strength (force required to break several yarns in one fabric direction) and tear strength (force required to break one yarn at a time).  However, since the two warp threads are simply placed side by side and not twisted together, and the filling yard is as thick as the two together, the different weights of the individual threads actually leads to wear and reduction in strength over the life of the shirt.  While Oxfords start out stronger than their broadcloth counterparts, they end up about the same by the 50th washing.

Extending Your Life

It's tempting to think that if a shirt is good for a certain number of washings that if you just wash it less it will last longer.  That's not true.  Stains and the debris of life (dust, dirt, pollen grains, food particles, pet hair) work their way into the fibers.  Many of these tiny things actually have sharp edges to them, and they act like little saws, gradually abrading the individual fibers.  When enough fibers are damaged in one area, any stress on the shirt can result in a tear there.

Detergents and cleaning solutions work by surrounding the oils, particles and other things that are in the fibers and floating them off.  In other words, regular cleaning calls off the army of chainsaws that are working their way through your garments.

Lint Season lasts all year.

When fibers on your garments break off, they become LINT.   You know lint, the stuff on the screen in your dryer that you clean off all the time -- you are cleaning it off, aren't you? (Seriously, it's important to do that, because a build-up of lint can lead to a dryer fire, which will destroy clothing at the least and might burn down your home at the worst.)

It's amazing to see how much lint is generated in a single load of laundry, particularly if it contains loose-weave items like towels or other household textiles.  So, have you ever thought, "There ought to be something to do with all this lint"?  Believe it or not, you aren't alone!

The photo at left above is a lint clay sculpture.  (Really.  We couldn't make this stuff up if we tried.)  Artist Cheryl Capezzuti has been using dryer lint to mold into artistic creations and actually displaying them in galleries, laundromats and homes.  (The image is a link to the National Lint Project, where you can learn more.)

This is one you CAN try at home!

Want to try it yourself?  (OK, admittedly for those who have far too much time on their hands.)  Here's a recipe for the clay.

Dryer Lint Clay
1 1/2 Cup Lint from the dryer (any color)
1 Cup Water
1/2 Cup regular Flour
2 Drops Wintergreen mint flavoring (no idea what that's about, and you can probably substitute your own favorite flavor extract!)
Paint for decorating
Sheets of newspaper

Place the lint in a saucepan and cover it with the water.  When the lint is saturated, add the flour and stir until it is smooth.  Add the drops of wintergreen oil flavoring.  Cook the mixture, stirring constantly until it forms peaks and holds together. (Maybe the wintergreen is to keep this stage from smelling like... well... wet lint!) Pour the mixture onto the newspaper to cool, then shape and model figures, or cover a shape like a balloon with it.  Allow to dry for 3-5 days, then paint as desired.

Other uses of Lint

• Put it outside on bushes and tree branches in spring and summer for birds to use as nesting material.
• Save up a pile and use it as tinder under the kindling in your fireplace.
• Use it as a unique packing substance for packages -- especially when mailing to someone you're not overly fond of!
• Line your trash can with it (i.e. Throw the silly stuff away!)

Those irrepressible Aussies!

Now, knowing there are people right here in the USA who are scooping up dryer lint and turning it into clay and then artwork is unnerving enough.  But, of course, the Australians had to take it a major step further.

A small group of people there did a survey about Belly Button Lint.  The survey involved quite a few people, and had some rather startling results.  You can read all about the survey, its rationale, results and other crazy things associated with it by clicking on the image at right.

By the way, the photo at right above is an electron microscope image of highly magnified belly button lint.  The image was captured at the Electron Microscope Unit at the University of Sydney by Steve Manos.  We have no idea where he captured the belly button lint -- and we really don't want to know!