Zach Pozniak never planned to follow his father into the dry cleaning business. “It's a very taxing job, and customers can be really difficult," he says. But, after a stressful few years in construction, Pozniak was ready for a career change. Together with his father, Pozniak now co-owns the New York outpost of luxury dry cleaning company Jeeves. A self-described “laundry nerd,” he also educates consumers about how to best look after their clothes on Instagram, where @jeeves_ny has 630,000 followers. “I think we’re one of the best in the world at caring for clothes,” he says, but there are some stains even Jeeves can’t take care of.

Elle Hunt: How does dry cleaning actually work?

Zach Pozniak: Simply put, dry cleaning is like a huge, super-fancy, front-loading combination washer-dryer that uses a liquid solvent, rather than water, to clean your clothes. That’s why it’s so good at removing oily stains, like makeup, wax and grease; and terrible with water-based stains, especially sweat and body odor. You still need water to remove those.

EH: What do people get wrong about the job?