Saree Care Guide: How to Wash, Clean, Press and Store Every Kind of Saree

Written by the ClanClean team, September 2026. Prices quoted are for our Laxmi Nagar outlet in East Delhi, after the standard 20% discount; Malviya Nagar and Sarvapriya Vihar publish their own lists. Prices may vary — please confirm the current rate with the outlet before booking.

First, know what your saree is made of

The care depends entirely on the fabric, and saree names do not always say. A Kanjeevaram, Banarasi, Paithani, Baluchari or Mysore silk is pure silk, usually with zari; a Chanderi or Maheshwari is a silk-cotton blend; a tant, Bengal cotton, khadi or handloom cotton is pure cotton; a georgette, chiffon, crepe or satin saree is most often synthetic, sometimes silk; and anything with heavy embroidery, sequins, stones or a lace border is an embellished saree whatever the base fabric. If the label is gone, hold the pallu to the light: silk has a soft glow and feels warm in the hand, cotton is matt and cool, and synthetic is uniformly smooth and slightly slippery.

Why silk sarees are dry cleaned, not washed

Silk is a protein fibre, like hair. Wet, it loses up to a fifth of its strength, so a wash that a cotton saree would shrug off pulls the weave out of true. Its dyes are mostly acid dyes that sit lightly on the fibre, which is why a red Banarasi turns the water pink and the cream border blush. Zari is a fine thread wrapped in metal, real or imitation; water and detergent tarnish it, and rubbing lifts the wrap. Dry cleaning uses a liquid solvent with no water, so the fibre never swells, the dye never moves and the zari keeps its shine. At our counters the saree is spotted by hand first for anything water-based — food, chai, sweat at the blouse line — then cleaned, then hand pressed on the right side with a cloth in between, then folded with the pallu on top. Our dry clean vs wash guide explains the process in more detail.

Washing a cotton saree at home, properly

1. The first wash: soak in cold water with a tablespoon of rock salt for 15 minutes, on its own. Handloom colours bleed the first two or three times; salt slows it and keeping the saree alone stops it staining anything else.
2. Every wash after that: cold water, a mild liquid detergent, no bar soap and no bleach. Swirl, do not scrub. Attend to the blouse line and the hem, which take the most dirt.
3. Rinse until the water runs clear, then lift the saree out in a bundle. Never twist or wring six metres of wet cotton; it sets creases that an iron cannot remove and stretches the weave.
4. Dry in the shade, spread over a line or two lines so the weight is shared, pallu away from the sun. Direct Delhi sun fades a cotton saree in a season.
5. Starch if you want the crisp fall: a thin rice starch or a bought spray, applied while damp, then pressed. Do not starch a saree that is going into storage; starch attracts silverfish.

Or send them with the weekly wash: wash and fold at ₹70 per kg is about two cotton sarees to the kilo, and premium laundry at ₹175 per kg washes them alone with softener and a steam-iron finish.

Pressing a saree

Silk is ironed inside out on a low setting with a thin cotton cloth between the iron and the fabric, never with steam on the zari, which spots it. Cotton is pressed damp on a hotter setting. The pallu and the border are pressed first, then the body in long strokes along the length, never across it. A saree that has been folded for months needs the fold lines pressed out before it is draped, or they show as stripes in every photograph. Steam pressing a saree is ₹60 at Laxmi Nagar and comes back in 24 hours; it is what most of our customers send the day before a function.

Stains on a saree: what to do and what not to do

The rule for any silk or embellished saree is blot, do nothing else, and send it within a day or two saying what the stain is. Water on silk leaves a ring larger than the stain; household remedies strip the dye. For cotton, the first-aid steps in our stain removal guide apply: cold water from the back, liquid detergent, no heat until the mark is gone. The stains we see most on sarees are chai and food at the pallu, turmeric from the kitchen, sweat and deodorant at the blouse line, mehendi from a wedding, and the grey line where a hem has swept a floor. Turmeric on silk and mehendi on anything are the two we cannot promise to remove; everything else usually comes out if it arrives fresh and untreated.

Storing sarees so they last

Most of the sarees that reach us damaged were damaged in the cupboard. The zari on a Kanjeevaram cracks along the fold lines if it sits on the same fold for years; a silk saree left in a plastic cover in a Delhi monsoon comes out with mildew spots; a cotton saree stored starched is eaten from the inside by silverfish.

• Clean before storing. Sweat, perfume and food set invisibly over months and attract insects. Clean after every occasion, not before the next one.
• Wrap silk and zari sarees in muslin or unbleached cotton, never plastic. The cloth lets the fabric breathe and keeps dust off. A clean old cotton saree or pillow cover works.
• Refold every three months along different lines, so no crease sets and no zari cracks. Fold zari sarees with the zari inside, pallu on top.
• Keep silk out of direct light and away from wood that has not been lined; both discolour it. Line wooden shelves with paper or cloth.
• Naphthalene balls or camphor go in a cloth pouch in a corner of the shelf, never touching the saree; direct contact stains silk. Dried neem leaves in a pouch do the same job more gently.
• Heavy sarees lie flat on the shelf, lightest on top. Hanging a silk or an embellished saree for months stretches the weave under its own weight.
• Air the cupboard once a month, especially between July and September. A saree that smells musty should come to us before the smell becomes a stain.

Wedding and bridal sarees

A wedding saree collects more in one day than most sarees do in a decade: haldi, food, sweat, perfume, mehendi from every hand that touched it, and a hem that has crossed a lawn. It should come to us within a few days, before anything sets, with a note of what happened where. Heavily worked bridal pieces are priced on inspection, because the embroidery, lining and stain treatment decide the work; a plain silk saree is ₹230 and a lehenga ₹1,000 at Laxmi Nagar. It comes back cleaned, hand pressed and folded with tissue, ready for the muslin wrap and the shelf described above. Do not seal it in the box it came in; the box is for the shop, not the cupboard. Lehengas, dupattas and the rest of the wedding wardrobe are covered in our lehenga and wedding outfit care guide.

What saree care costs

Bridal and heavily worked pieces are priced on inspection. Express service is available at about twice the standard rate, confirmed before we take the garment. Full lists on the dry cleaning and price list pages.

A saree calendar for Delhi

Before the wedding season (September and October)

Take every silk saree off the shelf, check the fold lines and the zari, press out the creases and send anything with a stain or a musty smell now, while the counters are quiet. Refold the rest along new lines.

After every function

Air the saree overnight on a broad hanger, away from sun. Then send it, with the blouse, within a few days. Perfume and sweat do not show, but they set.

Before the monsoon (June)

Move silk to the driest shelf, check the muslin wraps, replace the neem or camphor pouches, and do not leave a plastic cover on anything. Cotton sarees can stay in rotation; wash and dry them fully the same day.

Winter

Heavier silks and Tussar come out; press before draping, never store with the woollen shawl that went over them, and keep sarees and pashminas in separate wraps so a moth in one does not find the other.

Saree care: your questions answered

Send the sarees, keep the Sunday

Free doorstep pickup across East and South Delhi. Tell the rider which pieces are silk, which are cotton and where the stains are, and our front desk sorts the rest — dry clean, press or wash. Free pickup and delivery on orders over ₹500, and 20% off every order.

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• Dry cleaning
• Steam ironing
• Laundry by kg
• Stain removal guide
• Dry clean vs wash guide
• All guides