OK, I'm a merchandising/textiles major, and I'm here to tell you that just because an article of clothing has "dry clean" on the tag does not necessarily mean you have to haul it to the cleaner's all the time. Many "dry clean" items can actually be hand-washed, which saves you a bundle of dosh AND the trouble of taking it somewhere else. Obviously, you do want to dry clean if it's, say, a formal dress or something, but many times you can just hand-wash in COLD water and lay the item flat to dry. Do not put it in the dryer, whatever you do! The reason a lot of tags say "dry clean only" is because otherwise, many people would just throw the item in the washing machine and then stick it in the dryer, which might damage the fabric or trimmings--in order to avoid having to take a loss on "defective" items, they just put "dry clean" because it's the safest option.
