It's a good thing that Inuvik is one of those relaxed places where people don't dress up for work. In fact, I don't think I've seen a suit since I moved up here 7 months ago. Why is that a good thing? Because there is no dry cleaning facility in town.
I heard that there USED to be a dry cleaners in Inuvik, but that is now the stuff of legend (like the stories about the "good old days" when there used to be about 9 places to eat or share an after-work beverage, instead of the 3 or 4 places we have now).
Even though office attire is casual here (some colleagues wear shorts and flip-flops to work . . . I don't think I will ever get to that stage, because I was indoctrinated for too many years in what appropriate work-wear entails) occasionally one does need to clean an article of clothing that says "dry clean only".
Case in point, my favorite Ann Taylor skirt. I'd worn it a few times over the summer but eventually I needed to clean it and couldn't get another wear out of it. My dilemma was whether to risk washing it (but still be able to wear it if I didn't ruin it), or wait until I got somewhere with a dry cleaners and pay a lot of money to get it cleaned (but rarely get to wear it).
After checking the label...
...and seeing that it didn't have any fibers in it that were liable to shrink, I took a deep breath and put it in the washing machine and let it air dry.
Success! It still fits!
Success! It still fits!
Another aspect of doing laundry in Inuvik relates to the color of the water (see this post). You don't want to wash your whites when the tap water is running with a brown or yellow hue. That's a fast way to muddy your whites. Wait until the water has settled, then keep your clothes sparkling.
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