Laundry Symbols

Do you always look at it encoded? Well you have to. There’s way too much information to decode the laundry. You get used to it. I don’t even see the symbols. All I see is wash cold, air dry, tumble low.

As I age there are certain “adult” things that I have a sudden drive or interest in addressing as some sort of weird follow up wave of additional maturity. An example I find funny is that I got a new car recently that slide the seat back when you open the door to make getting in and out easier. That’s hardly a new feature, my parent’s cars have had it for ages. I used to not get the point, it seemed needless. Now for whatever reason I really appreciate it.

Another mundane example is that I started doing laundry more correctly about 2 years ago. I say more correctly because I don’t separate things by color, only by which settings to use on the machine. The more recent change was as I replaced my socks with merino wool ones I really didn’t like how they came out of the dryer. It was almost zero effort to air dry socks, so I started doing that.

Over time that turned into more and more air drying. I try to avoid buying clothes that require special care, but I’ve relaxed on that some and found others just hold up better. Clothes are expensive, a small step to last longer makes sense. Plus, my partner isn’t as choosy on materials.

All this meant I was checking to see what I’m supposed to do. But often there were no instructions. Or there were, but the tags on my partner’s clothes were in Chinese. All that was available to me were the strange symbols I’ve ignored my whole life.

The Symbols

*large gasp* The words on this paper have meaning and when are placed in a certain order convey information - TheOdd1sOut

If you learn just a couple symbols, it takes all the guess work out of things:

You hopefully noticed their watermark, but credit to the original authors. Additionally, this alternate website has them divided by category with more explanation.

Standards

Standards matter and make the world a better place. There are often standards floating around in areas you haven’t even considered. Did you know that in the US there is a different number of elevator dings that communicates if the elevator is going up or down? Almost every car (except that one of course) has the same stalks for turn signals.

Turns out, laundry is standardized too. I was just too distracted by my own dislike of it to pay attention and be curious about the symbols I’ve seen all my life that could have been making it easier this whole time.

Where else am I asleep asleep at the wheel from disinterest?

Quick Tips

I despise laundry entirely. Whenever I’ve lived with a partner I’ve always traded it for other chores. But even I found these were worthwhile:

• Don’t use fabric softener
• Don’t use dry sheets, they have fabric softener!
  • I felt personally scammed after learning that, I used them to help with static
  • Use wool dryer balls instead, they’re awesome
• Always use tap cold water
  • If you live in a cold climate and your machine doesn’t have the ability to slowly release the detergent, I’ve found it won’t always mix well. In that case I use tap cold in summer and “cold” in winter.
  • Use warm if something is truly soiled, but you’re better off soaking that immediately in a sink with a bit of detergent.
  • Oxy-clean is good to have on hand for this too.
  • If you have a big enough house to do a load of whites, bleach crystals are nice. Less messy and you very infrequently need it anyway.
• If you have a bathtub that’s infrequently used, it’s an excellent place for a simple drying rack.
• If it’s not garbage clothing or brand new, you don’t need to separate colors.
• You don’t need that much detergent. Seriously. This applies to your dishwasher too by the. way. If using the cup from the bottle, fill it up to the 1-2 based on load size.
• Group by category, use the washer’s corresponding mode if it has it (except change temp to cold):
  • Towels - Dry with towel mode (high)
  • Bedding - Dry with mode (medium-high; high usually)
  • Clothes - Always dry on low. Drying is what destroys clothing. Low and slow is better.
  • Delicates if needed - Unless you have a ton of these, consider just air drying.
• Empty the lint trap at least weekly. It does cause fires on occasion, but it severely harms drying performance when it’s full too.
• Use laundry bags! They make such a difference:
  • They can protect delicates enough to keep mixed in often.
  • You can group annoying to dig out items that should stay together like socks.
  • You can easily grab things that need to not go in dryer, or go in on different settings. Saves time, effort, and most importantly prevents missing an item and ruining it.
• Try not to wash waterproof clothing, just rinse it in the shower or throw it in a bucket of water to rinse sweat out.
• NEVER wash ski gloves, it ruins the insulation. Put them in the freezer 1-3 nights to cleanse out smell it works great. If you gloves are super wet you may need to do 2 cycles of it to get the water out sooner.
• Managing volume:
  • Own fewer clothes. If you didn’t use it in a year, you don’t need it
  • Have bins for summer vs winter and swap every ~6 months
  • Re-wear lightly used items as gym wear, things you slept in or used at night for example
  • Don’t let it pile up
  • Get fewer, nicer hangers if you, like me, find the futility of the process exasperating.