Suffering from a severe lack of clothes, last night, I headed to my usual dry cleaner to do a drop off/pick up. When I got the bill, it was over $100!. Granted I had included a table-cloth that had a severe beating at my holiday fete, so that was almost half of it, but STILL that’s a lot of money!
Clearly, this caused me to look more closely at what I was being charged. After checking out the bill, I realized that they had been charging me $5.55 each for several “blouses” that I had in my stash. But, I didn’t have any blouses! I had a bunch of cotton work shirts that I love to wear around on weekend. I usually take them to the dry cleaners because I hate to iron (and I mean HATE it), so when I wash them at home I never get to it and then never wear them. A waste of money, no?
Anyway, I’ve seen said dry cleaner do a wash and iron for men’s shirts for almost half the price, so I asked them why they charged me more. According to the lady at the counter, my ladies shirts are too small for their ironing machine, so they have to hand press it.
I was outraged. There are small men! They get their shirts done at the dry cleaner for half price! Do they think I’m stupid or something? You tell me. What do you think the difference is between this men’s version:
and this?
NOTHING! My dry cleaner ripping me off because I’m a lady (and a lady only wears blouses, obvi). Bunch of sexists. They think I’m too dumb to notice.
Still outraged, I googled discount dry cleaning options in the D.C. area. Of course, there is Zips Dry Cleaners in Van Ness, where every garment is $1.99, but no other dry cleaners list prices online. Zips is great, but it’s a bit far away for me. If I struggle to get to my own neighborhood dry cleaners on a regular basis, it’s going to be even harder for me to get to one that’s 15 minutes away. This means, I’m going to have to shop around.
Does anyone else have a recommendation for a dry cleaners in Georgetown or Dupont that won’t overcharge for my basic wash and iron shirts? One that won’t assume that the lack of a Y chromosome means a lack of intelligence. Please comment and let me know!
The Discountess of Washington 
yep – i encounter the exact same thing… apparently they can stick it on that big form, blow steam up it and smash it if it’s a guys… but for ours the darts and different shapes don’t work. Unfortunately, if you want to keep your clothes in good shape, you might want to stick with it. I never tried zips, but I had a place in Tysons… every time they did shirts, I’d come back with 2 broken buttons.
Sucks… or learn to iron? I know, I hate it too…
Ditto to Nancy.
Brooks brothers makes non-iron shirts that go int he regular laundry. More expensive than Jcrew (not by much) but saves you 6$ a wash.
They have been doing this overcharging for a long time. If you wash your shirts and hang them right after they finish spinning they usually don’t need an ironing.
As someone who LOVES to iron, the best tip I can give you is to invest in a high-quality iron with a solid steam function. It will cost you upfront, but you’ll save tons in the long run if you wash and iron your shirts yourself. Plus, you’ll extend the life of your shirts — dry cleaning breaks down the fibers of clothing.
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