Valarie Phillips sorts through clothing to be dry cleaned at Woodard-Ficetti Cleaners on J Street in Sacramento. She checks each garment, cleans the material under the arms and then handles any special spot-cleaning and scrubbing as dictated by a ticket attached to the clothing. Phillips, a Louisiana native, has worked at the cleaners for 22 years. She starts her day at 7 a.m., and begins with the dry cleaning, which is her preferred duty.
“I’m in my own little world” she says, of being tucked away in the back of the large warehouse. Phillips also helps in the front, where she sometimes interacts with customers who have been bringing their clothes to the business for three decades.
D.R. Woodard had the building constructed in 1936 and eventually merged with the Ficetti cleaners down the street; the parents of current owner Pete Andreotti bought the cleaners in 1981. “We’ve kept that old family feel,” says Manager Pam Andreotti (ex-sister-in-law to Pete) who has worked here for 35 years.
Valarie Phillips steams a garment at Woodard-Ficetti Cleaners in Sacramento. Next she will press it. The long-time employee isn’t a fan of pressing because of the slow, repetitive motions: “It’s tedious and I’m standing still too long in one place.”
Phillips is also responsible for the especially tedious work of cleaning and pressing the wedding dresses for Woodard-Ficetti. Phillips spends about 30 minutes on the cleaning and an hour pressing a wedding gown, she says.
She uses a stain remover to pre-spot stains, such as dirt on the bottom from the dress dragging on the ground, and “sometimes it’s wine — lots of wine.” she says, with a chuckle, before the gown goes into the dry cleaner. Wedding gowns are hung up to air dry for a day and then they are pressed. Phillips estimates they get about five gowns a week.