Dry Cleaning Operator CV Examples & Writing Guide
A dry cleaning operator CV gets read when it says which machines and solvents you have run, how many pieces a day you cleaned or pressed, what stains you can remove on the spotting board, and how low your redo and claim rates were. Owners hire on throughput and damaged garments, in that order.
Dry cleaning operator CV example (machine operator and spotter)
This sample is for a plant operator with about six years who runs the cleaning machine, works the spotting board and covers pressing when the plant is short. The name and businesses are invented. If you mainly press or mainly work the counter, keep the layout and change what you put first.
Tomas Herrera
Dry Cleaning Machine Operator and Spotter
Leicester · 07700 900185 · tomas.herrera.dc@email.com
Summary
Dry cleaning operator with 6 years in production plants running hydrocarbon and professional wet cleaning systems. Cleans and spots 500 to 700 pieces a day, handles silk, wool, leather trim, beading and wedding dresses, and keeps redos under 2%. Trained on solvent handling and machine maintenance, including filter changes and still cleaning.
Experience
Plant Operator and Spotter · Independent dry cleaning plant with 4 receiving shops (about 3,000 pieces a week)
May 2022–Present
- Runs a 27 kg hydrocarbon machine and a wet cleaning system, sorting and cleaning 500 to 700 pieces a day by fabric, colour and soil level.
- Works the spotting board on every flagged garment: protein, tannin, oil and paint stains, using dry-side and wet-side agents and steam gun; removes about 90% of flagged stains on the first pass.
- Cut the redo rate from 4.5% to 1.8% over a year by re-sorting incoming work by soil level and changing filters on schedule instead of on complaint.
- Handles specialist work: 60+ wedding dresses a year, leather-trim jackets, beaded eveningwear and household items, with 2 customer claims in three years.
- Performs daily machine checks, weekly filter changes, still cleaning and lint trap service, and logs every solvent addition and waste collection for the plant's environmental permit records.
- Trains new pressers and assemblers on tagging, sorting and inspection; 5 people brought up to speed since 2023.
Presser and Finisher · High-volume shirt laundry and dry cleaner
Mar 2020–Apr 2022
- Pressed 30 to 36 shirts an hour on a double-buck shirt unit across 9-hour shifts, roughly 250 to 300 shirts a day at full volume (shirt work dropped sharply during the lockdowns).
- Finished trousers, jackets, skirts and dresses on utility press, form finisher and puff iron, averaging 180 pieces a day on dry clean work.
- Inspected every garment before bagging and pulled about 15 pieces a week back for rewash or re-press before they reached the customer.
- Kept a personal damage record of zero scorches or press marks in two years by checking care labels and testing heat on hidden seams.
Counter Clerk and Assembler · Local dry cleaners
Jun 2019–Feb 2020
- Tagged, marked and sorted 400+ incoming pieces a day and assembled finished orders on the conveyor with under 1 misroute a week.
- Handled customer drop-off, collection and payment, wrote up stain and repair notes, and explained realistic outcomes on old or set stains.
Education
A-levels (2) and GCSEs including English and Maths
Sixth form college, Leicester, 2019
Stain removal and spotting workshop (industry training course)
Textile care trade body training day, 2023
Certifications
- COSHH and solvent handling training, employer-provided, annual
- Counterbalance forklift certificate (deliveries), accredited training, 2023
- Full UK driving licence (category B)
Skills
What a dry cleaning owner or manager looks for first
Dry cleaning plants run on thin margins and the two things that destroy them are slow production and ruined garments. Everything on your CV should speak to one of those.
- Speed with numbers. Pieces a day, shirts an hour, orders assembled per shift. An owner is doing arithmetic while reading.
- Damage record. Redo rate, claim rate, lost items, scorches. If yours is good, write it. It is the single most persuasive line on a dry cleaner's CV.
- What machines and solvents you know. Hydrocarbon, GreenEarth silicone, professional wet cleaning, perchloroethylene (perc). Also the finishing equipment by name.
- Whether you can spot. A cleaner who can work the spotting board is worth far more than one who only loads the machine, because stain removal is what customers pay for.
“Tell me your redo rate and how many pieces you turn in a day, and I know almost everything I need. Most CVs I get for this trade just say "operated dry cleaning equipment". That could be someone who presses shirts badly or someone who can save a beaded gown. Those are not the same hire.”
Machines, solvents and spotting: how to describe what you can do
This is the section that separates a real operator from someone who once worked in a cleaners. Be exact about the equipment and honest about the chemistry you know.
- Cleaning systems: name the solvent type you have run and the machine size in kilograms. Hydrocarbon (such as DF-2000), silicone-based systems, professional wet cleaning, and perchloroethylene. Perc is still used in the UK, but it is a hazardous substance controlled under COSHH, and dry cleaners using solvents usually need an environmental permit from the local council, so say which system you actually used and do not overstate perc experience.
- Machine care: filter changes, button trap and lint trap cleaning, still cleaning and distillation, solvent level checks, cool-down and drying cycles, leak checks and the daily log a council inspector may ask to see.
- Spotting board work: dry-side and wet-side agents, steam gun, air, vacuum, flushing, brushing and tamping, plus how you test on a hidden area first.
- Stain groups you can handle: protein (blood, egg, dairy), tannin (coffee, wine, tea), oil and grease, ink and paint, cosmetics, perspiration and yellowing, rust and dye transfer.
- Finishing: shirt unit, double-buck press, utility press, topper or form finisher, tensioning finisher, puff iron, hand iron and steam table.
- Specialist work: wedding dresses and preservation boxing, leather and suede handling and outsourcing, household items such as curtains, duvets and rugs, and alterations if you do them.
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Dry cleaner personal statement examples
Dry cleaning operator with 7 years in production plants. Runs a 27 kg hydrocarbon machine and a wet cleaning system at 550 to 700 pieces a day, works the spotting board on all flagged garments, and holds redos under 2%. Handles wedding dresses, leather trim and beading. Trained in solvent handling and machine maintenance.
Presser with 5 years in high-volume shirt and dry clean finishing. Averages 32 shirts an hour on a double-buck unit and 180 dry clean pieces a day on utility press and form finisher. Reads care labels before every job and has had no scorch or press-mark claims in four years.
Dry cleaning employee with 4 years split between counter and plant. Tags and marks 400 pieces a day, assembles and bags orders on the conveyor, and covers pressing and machine loading when needed. Fluent in English and Polish, and used to explaining honestly what will and will not come out.
Dry cleaning operator with 9 years, three of them running a 6-person production floor. Schedules staff, orders supplies, keeps solvent and waste logs for the council's environmental permit inspections, and cut plant redos from 5% to 2% while raising output by about 400 pieces a week.
Reliable worker seeking a plant position with a dry cleaner. 2 years in a commercial laundry sorting, folding and loading 18 kg washers on 10-hour shifts with full attendance. Comfortable on your feet all day in heat, careful with instructions, and quick with a hand iron. Available for early starts.
Dry cleaner job description bullets, rewritten
| Generic duty | Rewritten with plant numbers |
|---|---|
| Operated dry cleaning machines. | Loaded and ran a 27 kg hydrocarbon machine 8 to 10 cycles a shift, sorting 500 to 700 pieces a day by fabric, colour and soil level. |
| Removed stains from garments. | Worked the spotting board on every flagged garment using dry-side and wet-side agents, steam and vacuum, clearing about 90% of stains on the first pass. |
| Pressed and finished clothing. | Pressed 30 to 36 shirts an hour on a double-buck unit and finished 180 dry clean pieces a day on utility press and form finisher. |
| Inspected garments for quality. | Inspected every piece before bagging and pulled about 15 a week for rewash or re-press, which kept customer complaints under 3 a month across 3,000 pieces. |
| Maintained equipment. | Changed filters weekly, cleaned the still and button trap on schedule, and logged solvent additions and waste collections for the plant's environmental permit file. |
| Provided customer service. | Wrote up stain and damage notes at drop-off for 120+ customers a day and set honest expectations on set-in and heat-fixed stains, which cut disputes at collection. |
| Assembled completed orders. | Assembled and bagged finished orders on the conveyor rail, averaging under one misroute a week on 3,000 pieces. |
Dry cleaning CV with no experience
Plants train people. What they cannot train is turning up at 6 am and staying careful when the room is hot and the rail is full. Build the page around that and around anything you have done with fabric, heat or machines.
- Lead with attendance and shift reality: early starts, standing all day, heat and humidity, Saturdays.
- List any related handwork: sewing, alterations, tailoring, upholstery, laundry, housekeeping, hotel linen, kitchen work.
- Say whether you can drive, since many dry cleaners run collection and delivery rounds and a driving licence widens the job.
- Mention languages. Counter and plant work in many UK cities is easier to staff with bilingual employees.
- If you have used an industrial washer, steam press or hand iron anywhere, say so and give the volume.
Processed hotel linen for a 180-room property: loaded 27 kg washers and dryers, folded and stacked around 900 pieces a shift, and kept the linen room stocked for housekeeping by 10 am daily.
Did alterations from home for 3 years: hems, taking in seams, zip and button replacement on about 15 garments a week, working from customers' fittings.
Format and length
- One page, plain layout, no graphics. Most plant owners read it on paper in a hot back room.
- Put piece counts in the summary. That is the number an owner is looking for.
- List your availability plainly: early mornings, Saturdays, six-day weeks in the busy season.
- No photo and no date of birth on a UK CV. UK adverts often say dry cleaning assistant, presser or dry cleaning operative, so use the advert's title in your headline.
- If you speak another language, put it near the top. It matters at the counter and on the production floor.
Frequently asked questions
How do I write a dry cleaner CV?
Open with your years, the machines and solvents you have run, your piece counts and your redo or claim rate. Then give each job 3 to 5 bullets with a number in every one: pieces a day, shirts an hour, orders assembled, stains cleared. Add a skills list covering spotting, finishing equipment and machine maintenance. One page.
What skills should be on a dry cleaning operator CV?
Machine operation by solvent type and machine size, sorting, spotting board work with the stain groups you can handle, finishing on shirt unit, utility press and form finisher, care label reading, specialist garments such as wedding dresses and leather, and machine maintenance including filter changes and still cleaning.
What is a dry cleaner's job description for a CV?
Receiving, tagging and sorting garments, treating stains on the spotting board, running the cleaning machine, pressing and finishing, inspecting before bagging, assembling orders, and keeping the machine and solvent records in order. Turn each of those into a line with your own volume attached.
Do I need a certificate to work in a dry cleaners?
No licence is needed to work on the floor. Employers must train you in safe solvent handling under COSHH, and dry cleaners that use solvents usually operate under an environmental permit from the local council, with its own record keeping. Trade bodies offer voluntary training that is worth naming if you hold it. Ask the employer if you are unsure what their permit requires.
How do I get a dry cleaning job with no experience?
Apply for assembler, bagger or presser and say plainly that you can start early, stand all day and work in heat. Put any laundry, housekeeping, sewing or kitchen work at the top with volumes and attendance. A driving licence helps because many dry cleaners run collection and delivery rounds.
What numbers should a presser or operator include?
Shirts pressed per hour, pieces cleaned or finished per day, orders assembled per shift, redo or rewash percentage, customer claims per year, and misroutes on the conveyor. Use figures you can back up if an owner asks during a trial shift.
Ready to write yours?
The builder suggests a summary from your own experience, then checks it against the job posting.
How this page was made: a first draft was written with AI assistance from cvplex's example library, then edited and fact-checked by the cvplex Careers Team. Examples are fictional composites; numbers are illustrative. Report an error via the editorial policy page.