handing over folded laundry

Keeping Your Entertaining Linens Clean

Posted on October 14, 2022 by Steven Toltz

It’s the beginning of winter in Colorado, and that can only mean one thing. The holiday season is here! With all the festivities, family dinners, and big get-togethers back on the table, your entertaining linens and decorative napkins are likely going to see a lot more use than usual. Try as you might to keep them looking pristine from Thanksgiving to Hanukkah or Christmas and on to New Year’s Eve, odds are good that one of your many family members or friends might drip a bit of gravy or leave a ring of red wine on the fabric. Just how in the world can you keep these entertaining linens clean? 

Read more: Dependable Cleaners Saves You Time for the Holidays

Here’s our handy guide to keeping your entertainment and decorative linens clean this holiday season. 

How to Clean Your Table Runners

Table runners are often family heirlooms, whether they’re hand-made from lace, gathered, shining chiffon, or just filled with the sentimental value of having seen year after year of joyous family celebrations. Even though they’re full of meaning, table runners often see the brunt of food and drink-related spills, which means they’re likely to be stained. 

While you can certainly attempt to get rid of these stains in the moment, our team recommends bringing your table runners in to be washed or dry cleaned by a trusted laundry professional. The last thing you want over the holidays is for a beloved family heirloom to be ruined. Our team at Dependable Cleaners will take care of whatever stains your table runners may bear. 

Read more: When Should I Try to Treat a Stain?

How to Clean Your Decorative Napkins

Cloth napkins, much like table runners, see a lot of the action during big family meals like Thanksgiving. Unlike table runners, however, even decorative cloth napkins are often made out of highly washable fabrics like linen or cotton. The best way to keep your cloth napkins clean is to gather them after a meal, and run a load of laundry according to the symbols on their care tag. 

If you’re not sure whether your cloth napkins can handle machine washing, or if your cloth napkins are beaded or otherwise delicate, you may want to bring your stack of cloth decorative napkins in to be handled by a professional laundry service. Better safe than sorry! 

How to Clean Your Embellished Placemats

Festive placemats, chargers, and other fabric table settings can also be quite heavily adorned and embellished. For instance, your fabric chargers might be intricately beaded, embroidered with fine threading, or otherwise delicate. For these, you’ll want to use your judgment to spot clean with gentle cleaners like seltzer water or cool flat water. If the spill or the stain is larger or more serious than can be handled through spot cleaning alone, you’ll also want to bring these decorative fabric placemats to a professional laundry service, too.  

Here at Dependable Cleaners, there’s nothing we’re more thankful for than your continued patronage. That’s why we make it our business to help you keep your most valued and designer fabrics of all kinds clean and looking perfect all year round. Drop by one of our convenient 20+ locations today and let our expert laundry professionals take care of life’s most serious stains.