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[Mrs Bonk]

Last evening I had the pleasure of going to one of 'our' pub quizzes where know-alls sit discussing possible answers to obscure questions. I had the unbelievable good fortune of being asked to identify a circle with a red X on an item of clothing. As a long standing member of alt.home.cleaning I was able to provide the answer immediately for my little group of contestants, it was of course " Do not dry clean " Surprisingly I was the only person in my local pub to get the correct answer. Does anyone look at the labels and sort before doing their weekly wash or is it a question of putting it all in together and hoping for the best?

[Nan]

Good for you :-)

I always buy easy-to-care-for fabrics when I clothes shop. I steer clear of anything that needs to be dry-cleaned, or would require the effort of special care.

When I sort laundry, I sort according to color for the most part. Darks with darks, lights with lights, reds/pinks/oranges together. My dh's work clothes get one load, as I wash those separately from our clothing. He gets quite dirty at his job. Towels and bedding get mixed together if one or the other isn't a big enough load.

Nan

[0tterbot]

well i'm sure we know what that says about _them_!

no. i look at the labels before i buy something & decide on the spot - if it's handwash only, i think twice anyway. everything else is standard stuff which i sort by colour, not any other factor (i have machine washables & handwashables, & that's it.)

anyone familiar with labels, (well, certainly in australia), will know labels lie - they're not worth the "information" they provide except in terms of fabric content. they say ridiculous things such as dryclean only for a cotton tshirt, or not to be tumble-dried for a well-constructed 100% cotton item, things like that. most of it's just pointless to "follow" accurately, so i don't bother - i know they don't mean it ;-). kylie

[julisue]

Growing up, my mom would always wash "dry clean only" with the regular wash. It came out a bit wrinkly at times but a bit of warm iron didn't hurt anything. Then again, we didn't have a lot of dry clean only clothes. I hear too many accidents happening at the dry cleaners to want to take my precious and expen$ive hard-to-find clothes there. I have a pair of really nice dry clean only white pants with a stain. I simply washed it out with soap and water, and put a warm iron on it. Looks the same before the stain. :)

[Mrs Bonk]

sometimes one has no choice, work uniform, school uniform, Brownie and Bob a Jobbers, Bridesmaids dresses and so forth. Given a choice I would pick a machine washable item but it is not always possible to do so.

This may well be the case but some items are extremely expensive and can be ruined by incorrect washing which also voids any guarantee. No good taking an item back to the store if it's out of shape and streaked if the temperature wasn't correct. I rarely take back items anyway but did once and came away quite red faced after being told in no uncertain terms that I had used the wrong wash.

[Mrs Bonk]

Personally I wouldn't touch underwear that had a dry clean label as I like to soak my smalls for a while before hand washing but each to their own.

[Dee Randall]

I sort into two different loads that are bleach loads: Underwear separate from kitchen towels. Dee