Have You ever wondered?....

How does the cleaner keep my laundry from getting mixed up with everyone else's?

How does the cleaner press my shirt and pants and get them looking so great?!

Our own LaPlace-Cleaners uses state of the art equipment to do both!

Let's take a tour of LaPlace-Cleaners to find out how it's done!



Step 1 ) We deliver our clothes to LaPlace-Cleaners where, since 1963, their family business has been delivering quality service to our local community!

Step 2 ) Our neighbors at LaPlace-Cleaners accept clothing and information, such as name and phone number for entry into their computerized tracking system.

Step 3 ) Each article of clothing is entered into a computerized tracking system and an id tag is placed on each piece of clothing! This id tag has a number which identifies clothing as belonging to a particular customer. Id tags are made so that they can be washed and pressed with our clothing. This way, when our clothes are finished, they can be identified as ours!

Let's take a look at the shirt laundry process!

Step 4 ) The next step is something we're all familiar with! Clothes are separated into white and dark wash loads so that colors won't bleed from dye used in the dark clothes to the white clothing. Clothes are now separated and mixed with others for washing. This is why placing tags on clothes at the front counter is so important!

Step 5 ) Our clothes are washed in wash machines which are similar to those we use at home, except they're front loading industrial strength wash machines that gently roll clothes to clean better than most home agitator models.

LaPlace cleaners uses special laundry soap with enzymes formulated to get out tough dirt and still be gentle on our clothes. This helps our clothes last longer!

Step 6 ) What's this powder in a bucket? Some of our parents could tell us and most of our grandparents are familiar with what starch looks like in a powered form. They used to mix their own starch! These pretty cans of hand held spray starch (picture on right) are a new invention daw'lin!


Step 7) At LaPlace Cleaners the preparation of starch is called "Cooking starch!" Do you know why they call it cooking starch? We'll soon find out! Here we see powered form starch measured into a mixing bucket.


Step 8) Next we add water to the powdered starch and mix the starch with the water. Humm... If we're not using our "lemon fresh" starch spray cans from the grocery store, how will LaPlace-Cleaners get starch on our shirts and pants? Keep reading......

Step 9)  "Cooking Starch" - We cook starch by releasing hot steam into the starch and water mixture. Hot steam will boil and mix the starch and water in just a few quick minutes!

Step 10) Notice in the middle of this picture (on top right side of wash machine) is a small hopper with a lid. Get ready! Here's the secret to how shirts and pants can get so nicely starched through and through!

After the clothes are washed, "Cooked Starch", is poured into the top of the wash machine and our clothes are rinsed in starch!

The amount of starch added to the wash machine depends on how much starch we want in our clothes. LaPlace cleaners offers no starch, light starch, or heavy starch according to your preference. Which is better than spraying starch on top of our clothes from a spray can!

What do you do at home after you wash your clothes? Throw them in the dryer right! Well, not at the cleaners, laundry at LaPlace-Cleaners is pressed while damp to produce that smooth professional finish.
Shirts are pressed using a four to
five step process!

Step 11)  Shirt collars and shirt sleeve cuffs are pressed. Notice the shape of the press used for collars and sleeve cuffs!

Step 12) Arms or sleeves of each shirt are placed on a high temperature press (as you see to the right and left). Once the shirt arms are pulled on the machine, a button is pressed and the arms slide inside the machine. Steam heated metal plates clamp both sides of each arm pressing them in a matter of seconds. Remember that these clothes were rinsed in starch, so the shirt sleeves are starched smooth and dry when they come back out of the press!

Step 13) Now that shirt sleeves, collar, and cuffs are pressed, we need to press the front and back of our shirt. As you might have guessed, we have a press that performs this task as well. A shirt is placed on a padded vertical board as you see on the left. Then a button is pressed and the shirt disappears into the machine in the background. There it is pressed between large hot metal plates. When the press unclamps, the shirt slides out of the machine and is pressed very nicely front and back.

Step 14) Notice the shiny cone in the middle of the left and right pictures. The last step in preparing our shirt is to shape the collar round on a shiny, and hot, cone!

Step 15) Finally! We have a set of nicely washed, starched, and pressed shirts! Notice on the white shirt (left) a small orange/pink tag near the bottom. This tag was attached to our shirt in front of the store to keep track of which customer the shirt belongs to! Also, notice that the finished shirts hang from a steel bar which is attached to rollers that ride on another steel bar attached to the ceiling. This allows easily moving the finished shirts around the shop.

If any of the finished shirts have a slight wrinkle left in them, then they are touched up with a hand iron to make them perfect. The hand iron (picture above right), has flexible steam hoses going to it to provide steam and heat.

Step 16) Laundered Pants are pressed damp just like laundered shirts to get a professional finish.  Laundered pants are also starched to customers preference.
Step 17) Stains! Don't stand in front of the steam gun on the left! Various cleaning agents can be used to remove stains along with steam from a steam gun. In the picture on the right hardened red Jell-O is removed in a few quick seconds with a couple blasts of steam. Compressed air is blown from the same tool (gun) afterward to whisk away the moisture!  We will cover stains and spotting in greater detail in our next article!

Step 18) SOMETHING EXTRA! If a button pops off (or cracks) on our pants or shirt, LaPlace-Cleaners always replaces them (at no extra cost).

Step 19) Who's who? Time to match these clothes together for each customer. Tags on the clothes allow each customer's clothes to be grouped together.

If we worked one day matching all these clothes and we probably would never complain again about trying to match our socks at home!

Step 20) After our clothes are matched together, they are wrapped in a plastic bag to keep them fresh and clean. Even tweety bird (on right) gets the royal treatment!

Step 21) Computerized bar codes are used to save the location where each customers clothes are stored on racks at LaPlace-Cleaners.


Step 22) Time to pick up our clothes! Good afternoon Sir/Mame, we'll have your clothes in a jiffy! A couple key strokes at our computer terminal pops up location "950" on the clothes rack. Notice the foot operated push button on the floor (picture left) at LaPlace-Cleaners! A simple press of the button and around the clothes swirl until "950" swings by and our customer's clothes are taken off the rack and handed to them in no time at all!

LaPlace-Cleaners and employees Thank you! for sharing with us how clothes are washed and pressed.

Thank you for solving the mystery of how you keep track of each customers clothing!

LaPlace-Cleaners has two store locations for customer's convenience, one on main street in LaPlace, just off Airline Hwy, and the other is on the corner of Heritage Shopping Center by St. Charles Catholic High School! LaPlace-Cleaners provides same day service at no extra charge! Same day service is possible because LaPlace-Cleaners applies over 34 years experience by employing our neighbors right here in St. John Parish, and by cleaning and processing our clothing here in LaPlace!

Click [Here] for more information about LaPlace's family owned and operated LaPlace-Cleaners!