Empty troublesome valance and take to the cleaners (7)
I believe the answer is:
trounce
'empty troublesome valance and' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'take to the cleaners' is the wordplay.
'take' becomes 'r' (abbreviation for 'recipe', Latin for 'take').
'to' says to put letters next to each other (I've seen this in other clues).
'the' becomes 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects).
'cleaners' becomes 'ounce' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'r' put after 't' is 'tr'.
'tr'+'ounce'='TROUNCE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for trounce that I've seen before include "Roundly defeat" , "Thump" , "Defeat decisively" , "Clobber" , "Beat severely" .)