An early Easter Egg – LR’s Guide to Removing Chocolate Stains!

Easter is here, LaundryRevolutionaries! Chocolate bunnies abound, Easter eggs are all round, and the Lindt chocolate rabbit will be there with bells on.

Chocolate child

She looks cute now, but wait til she’s polished off that basket…

But picture the scene: You’re enjoying a chocolatey feast on Easter Sunday, but you look over at the little ones and – Disaster! In the time it took you to savour a dark chocolate praline, your precious cherubs have smeared chocolate all over their clothes!

So how do you get chocolate stains out of fabric? Never fear – here at LaundryRepublic, we’ve got the skinny (although it might not stay skinny for long…).

To remove chocolate stains:

First, scrape off as much as you can with a spoon or a blunt knife, being careful not to spread it The faster you can get at the stain, the better, as the stain will set quite rapidly.

Rinse the stain from the over side of the fabric with cold running water, to flush out as much chocolate as possible (don’t use hot water, as heat will set the stain).

Chocolate stains

Oh dear…

Resist the temptation to scrub at the stain! Again, this can set it more permanently in the fibres of the stained material. Instead, put a little laundry detergent in a bucket of water, and gently rub the detergent into the affected area. Let it sit for 5 minutes, rub it again, then let it sit for another 15 minutes. If the stain persists, rinse and repeat!

Make sure you’ve fully removed the stain before you put the item in for a warm wash in the machine, and especially before tumble drying or ironing it. If any traces of the stain remain, ironing will set them permanently.

And remember, if your clothes are delicate or dry clean only, send them to us, and our experienced professionals will take care of it for you.

So there it is. All that’s left is to wish all our LaundryRevolutionaries a very Happy Easter!

That chocolate is MINE!

That chocolate is MINE!

Photo credits: USACE, ShellyS, Jonathan Oakley

Guide to Washing Symbols (so you can do your mum’s laundry for a change!)

Gallery

This gallery contains 4 photos.

Mothering Sunday is this weekend, LaundryRevolutionaries! Originally an important event in the Christian calendar, now it’s become a day for honouring our mothers and showing them how much we love them. And if you’re anything like us, your mother may … Continue reading

Holi Moly! Dealing with Paint Stains

White tshirts holi

Get ready to paint the town red, LaundryRevolutionaries!

And also blue, green, yellow and all the other colours of the rainbow, because this week, powdered paint will be flying all over London. Across the capital, events are taking place to celebrate the Hindu festival of Holi, building up to the day of Holi itself on Monday 17th.

holi painting

Originating in Northern India, Holi is traditionally a festival that celebrates the end of Winter and the arrival of Spring.

It’s a festival of love, colour and togetherness, and it’s celebrated by the Play of Colour – a mad free-for-all of paint throwing, water spraying and general festivities!

dad and son holi cropped

Celebrated by rich and poor, young and old, men and women alike, Holi brings everyone together in a celebration of Spring’s return.

Everybody has a riotously good time covering each other head-to-foot in brightly coloured paint – but what do you do when the festivities end and your clothes are completely covered in paint stains?

Luckily, you needn’t worry – here’s LaundryRepublic’s handy guide to removing paint stains from clothing.

Paint stains can be water-based or oil-based. The good news is, Holi usually involves throwing Gulal powder paint and water, which is a little easier to deal with than oil-based paint.

girl tshirt holiThe most important thing is to rinse the stain as quickly as possible. Brush off any dry powder paint before you begin, then flush the stain from the other side of the fabric with a forceful stream of warm water. Next, dissolve a little laundry detergent in some water, and work it into the stain, soaping and rinsing until the stain has gone.

You might need to repeat this a few times – if any patches are particularly resistant, put a little nail-polish on an absorbent cloth and dab on the offending area.

Don’t forget, if the stain has dried into the fabric, or if any of your clothes are delicate or dry-clean only, just send them to LaundryRepublic for a speedy, professional service!

Image credits:

rudresh_callsgreeno777Alam Singh

Our Reading List for World Book Day

In honour of World Book Day, we thought we’d share our top 15 favourite books with our loyal LaundryRevolutionaries! You might sense a common theme…

[WARNING: PAINFUL PUNS AHEAD]

pugwash

  1. Captain Smug-Wash – recommended for anyone experiencing our hassle-free laundry service!
  2. Franken-stain – for laundry so dirty it’s monstrous
  3. Revolutionary Woad – all kinds of dyes have revolutionised laundry. Fear not, ancient Celts – LaundryRepublic can make sure your colours don’t run!
  4. Iron-ing Man – In this classic comic book series, Tony Stark saves the world from creased clothing
  5. scarlet letterThe Scarlet Sweater – Red wine-stains are a nightmare – send them to us for a thorough clean!
  6. The Stitch-Liker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams’ comic tale of interstellar tailors
  7. Ann of Clean Sables – and if you want furs as clean as Ann’s, send them to us for specialist cleaning!
  8. 0 Shades of Grey – LaundryRepublic get your whites dazzling every time!
  9. Jack Bleacher – An action hero who’s not afraid to get down and dirty (and send his clothes to us afterwards)
  10. as i lay dyingAs I Lay Drying – Faulkner’s laundry masterpiece
  11. The Man with the Ironing Task… Alexandre Dumas should have offloaded that chore to LaundryRepublic!
  12. Coathanger Abbey – Austen should have them send their excess hangers to us for recycling!
  13. Wuthering Whites – If your whites are wuthering, send them in for a laundry service!
  14. The Spy Who Came In With Some Bold 
    – some subtle product placement from John le Carré
  15. The Iron, The Stitch and The Wardrobe C.S. Lewis is well known for sneaking subtle messages about laundry into his works

Any other suggestions from our LaundryRevolutionaries??

How to Clean Embellished Clothing

oscars

The 2014 Academy Awards are just four days away! But if this Awards Season has taken its toll on your sequin-adorned, rhinestone-studded, bejewelled and bedazzling party dresses, you’ll need a quick fix if you’re going to have them ready in time your Oscars party.

With a lot of embellished clothing, professional dry cleaning is the first port of call – just send it to LaundryRepublic, and our experienced team will take care of it for you!

But you could always try handwashing at home. Washing embellished clothing at home can seem daunting, particularly if your custom or designer clothing doesn’t come with detailed care labels.

Luckily, we at LaundryRepublic can walk you through how to wash your embellished dresses without losing all the beautiful detailing.

Firstly: make sure you know what you’re dealing with! Identify the material – some fabrics need to be dealt with a little differently. For example, if you’re dealing with a knit rather than woven fabric, make sure you don’t wring, stretch or hang-dry it – you’ll risk losing the shape. If you’re not sure about the material, check the label!

sequins

You’ll also want to check how the embellishments have been attached. Methods can include glue, sewing, rivets or pronged ring settings – often you can tell just by turning the garment inside out to see the stitching, settings or small glue dots that may not be visible on the outside of the garment. If the garment is lined, you can feel the reverse side through the lining with your fingers to determine what application method was used.

If glue has been used, be very careful not to use hot water for washing, as many adhesives can melt. With sewn embellishments, take particular care not to twist or wring the garment, as the tiny threads used to sew beads on could break, which could ruin the design!

The safest way to wash embellished dresses at home, even if they say they’re safe to machine wash, is by hand.

Wash the dress inside out in your kitchen sink, using warm water (remember, not too warm for knits!) and a small amount of mild liquid detergent. Another reason to avoid using hot water is that it can shrink your fabric or soften adhesives, and can ruin the finish on beads.

Rooting for a Brit flick win for 2014!

Rooting for a Brit flick win for 2014!

Don’t soak for more than a few minutes – again, you don’t want to damage the finish on your beads. Gently knead and swirl the garment in the soapy sink water to remove light soiling. For larger garments, you may want to use a bathtub to make rinsing easier!


When your dress is clean, drain the water and press down on the garment with your hands to press most of the water out. There will still be a lot of water in it, but you can cut down the drying time by popping the washed garment into an empty washing machine and use the gentle spin cycle to remove excess water. Don’t do this with velvet, though – it can cause permanent creases in the pile.

Woven fabrics that won’t stretch can then by dried by hanging, somewhere dry or outdoors, away from direct sunlight. For knits and other stretchy materials, lay them out on a flat clean surface, out of direct sun.

If your dress feels a bit stiff after air drying, just put it in a pillowcase and fluff it quickly in the dryer – but make sure you use a low heat, and no more than 5 minutes!

Be very careful when ironing your embellished clothing, and make sure the iron never comes into direct contact with any of your sequins or beads. Professionals use a press cloth to iron embellished clothing, but at home you can just cut a square out of an old t-shirt, and put this between the iron and the clothing. Make sure to select an appropriate heat setting – not too hot for fine silk and polyester. Don’t let the fabric get too hot, or embellishments could soften or crack, and adhesives could melt. If your embellishments are attached with glue, give the garment a couple of minutes to cool after ironing before you move it.

"Thanks to LR's top tips, our pearls have never been pearlier!"

“Thanks to LR’s top tips, our pearls have never been pearlier!”

Now you’re ready to party!

Flickr Photo credits:

nikoretroLiz WestKent CaptureEbbAndFlow

Britons just aren’t great at doing laundry at home

Image

It turns out we Britons just aren’t great at doing our laundry at home.

According to figures published in today’s Metro, Britons ruin more than £2 billion worth of laundry every year. In our lifetime, each of us will ruin £3,969 of clothing!

If you’re like the 600,000 Britons who’ve damaged up to nine garments in a single year, or if you’re among the two-thirds of us who’ve shrunk our clothes in the wash, we’ve got good news – there’s an easier way!

Just get LaundryRepublic in your building, and let us take care of it for you! No more shrinking, no more stretching, no more leaving that one red sock in a bundle of white shirts… We’ll pick your laundry up and bring it back to you beautifully clean – without all the fuss.

Today's talker - METRO LAUNDRY

 

 

Huge discounts on service washes!

wash + dry + fold laundry serviceAt LR we love saving you time, and with up to 40% off service washes until the end of February 2014 there’s no excuse not to try out our brilliant wash + dry + fold laundry service and start getting your free time back today.

Your clothes will come back in a neatly wrapped parcel, lovely and fresh. It’s a like a laundry birthday present!

Use the voucher code SWASH40 when placing your order at LaundryRepublic.com to reduce the price of a standard load (up to 6kg) to £9.99 and the price of a large load (6-12 kg) to £19.99. That’s a reduction of £7.00 and £10.00 respectively!

The offer is valid until February 28th 2014, and as with all service washes you should only include items suitable for normal washing and drying (excludes bulky bedding such as pillows and duvets). If you have any questions, give our friendly team a call!

BBC Radio 1 discusses horrors of serviced laundry in laundrettes

Hello LaundryRevolutionaries!

I wonder if you heard Scott and Chris on Radio 1’s Scott Mills Show recently, having a good old moan about taking laundry to the laundrette for a service wash. The grudging customer service, the shrinking clothes, the difficulty fixing a pick-up time…

If only they had dropped their laundry at a LaundryRepublic locker or concierge, and let us take care of the rest!

Chris, Scott, it’s time you joined the Laundry Revolution already! Customers across London are already reaping the benefits of a hassle-free laundry experience. Just drop your clothes off, any time of the day or night, and we’ll deliver it back to you clean and sparkly (and not two sizes too small!)

Listen to the conversation from 15:22 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03nttx6

Shoe Care Tips

Hello Laundry Revolu-shoe-naries!

Polished shoes

That’s right, today we’re talking all about how to take care of your shoes. With a few crucial bits of equipment and our simple care tips, you can double the lifetime of a good pair of shoes. We might even be able to save your soles…

Firstly, invest in a good shoe tree. Don’t be tempted by the shiny varnished versions. They might look great, but only an unvarnished wood (ideally cedar) will draw out all the moisture from your shoes, helping them contract and dry out to their ideal shape.

No, not that kind of... Oh, never mind

No, not that kind of… Oh, never mind

Try to keep your shoes on the shoe tree for the first couple of hours after you take them off your feet – that’s really all the time your shoes need to return to their natural shape. The best shoe trees have a split toe and a fully shaped heel to ensure a really close fit between shoe and tree – highly recommended.

Using an unvarnished cedar shoe tree can also help prevent smelly shoes, as it absorbs the moisture from the shoe. But if you’re still having odour issues, try replacing the insoles.

If your shoes get really wet, stuff them with newspaper, and avoid the temptation to put them near a direct heat source. Heating too quickly can cause the leather to crack, which can permanently damage your shoes.

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Stainless beetroot set to conquer UK

Say goodbye to stubborn beetroot stains!

Don't follow the crowd, our Yellow Cylindrical friend. Bee-troot to yourself!

Don’t follow the crowd, our Yellow Cylindrical friend. Bee-troot to yourself!

A new, yellow variety of beetroot has arrived in the UK, and may be set to take over, according to the Daily Mail. The Devon-based suppliers of the “Yellow Cylindrical” are claiming that it’s tastier, easier to chop, and most importantly, unlike its infamous red cousin, it doesn’t leave tough stains!

If you fancy growing your own stain-free crop, the seeds (which are imported from Poland) should be planted between March and June, and harvested until December.But if you face a purple disaster in the meantime, just follow our beetroot-beating stain-removal tips, in three easy steps!