From the article: 10 Laundry Disasters and How To Help Clothes Recover
We all do laundry. And subsequently, most of us have had a laundry disaster happen on our watch. Whether it's a red sock in a load of whites, or a sweater shrunken down to the size of a doll, laundry disasters happen to us all. Share your worst laundry mistakes. Share Your Story
worst laundry disaster!
- My worst laundry disaster took place at the laundromat. I filled up the washers I needed ahead of time while I finished sorting the loads I had: hot with bleach for whites, cold for darks, warm for linens, etc. Made the mistake of taking my colored clothes and loading them into the hot bleach water I had prepared for whites. Needless to say, all of my work clothes and other colors were ruined. Thank goodness for having a washing machine at home!
- —Guest dragonstar
tissues?
- I was amused by one of the disasters in Sarah's column...washed tissues. That has never been a problem for me. My husband and I have always used handkerchiefs. I had used them all my life. I got my husband on them when we were first married. They are extremely conomical. Better yet, they are good for the environment. My husband is still using some I got him when we got married, 29 years ago. If I miss them while sorting the laundry the only problem I have is if they were in the darks. If I might have been washing a new item that bled, the only problem would be that a hankie might be tinted some. This has rarely happened. If you have a tissue problem do yourself a favor, go for handkerchiefs. The rest of you just go green on disposable paper items. The only disposable paper item we use is toilet paper. With that we use recycled paper t.p. No one should use virgin paper for something that can't be recycled and will only be used once.
- —livengreen
hunting for trouble
- Hunting disaster. A camo outfit that is specially treated to be without scent was washed and to add insult to injury it had camo face paint in the pocket.
- —Guest leah
Disasters in the wash or was it?
- When I was first married I washed a white sweater that was my husband's. It was given to him by a former girlfried. Oh my, I shrunk It to a mere form of it's former self. Naughty me.
- —Guest Judy
laundry disasters
- My daughter is a hairdresser and she has to wear all black to work. Being frugal I wash her blacks once a week in a big load of only black. Forgot to check the pocket for tissues one day, didn't I. Believe me I will never do it again. You wouldn't think one tissue would go so far!
- —stormy4
Green Goo
- Sadly, my worst laundry disaster happend not too long ago. My husband, who is in chiropractic school, had just bought 6 new dress shirts to wear for student clinic. Being the starving students that we are, these fancy new dress shirts were a pretty big deal to us. So, in order to show my respect to the "Lord of the Shirts", I decided to wash them, and ONLY them, together in a single load of laundry. Unbeknownst to me, the "Lord of the Shirts" had just bought a new pack of Spearamint gum and forgot to take it out of his front shirt pocket before throwing it in the laundry basket. When I pulled the shirts out of the wash and they smelled like spearamint, I quickly realized what had happend. I spent the next 2 hours picking sticky green goo out of each dress shirt with tweezers and duct tape.
- —Guest Sticky
Nano's iPod Nano
- I always try to be meticulous about checking pockets before I wash clothes. My kids leave crayons in their pants all the time, and my wife inexplicably leaves trash (yes trash) in hers. It only takes 5 seconds to check all the pockets and make sure nothing is in them that will ruin the load. Then, one day I wore cargos and checked my pockets, but forgot that I had put my iPod Nano in the leg pocket. I didn't realize this until I heard banging coming from the dryer. My clothes were fine, but my iPod is gonzo. :( That was like a year-and-a-half ago and I haven't been able to buy another one. BTW, Nano is a hispanic nickname, so it's like NON-oh, not NAN-oh. Spread the word :)
- —Guest Nano
Crayons
- My "little helper" threw some crayons in the dryer when I wasn't looking. It took multiple washings and tons of stain remover and still some of the clothes were ruined.
- —Guest Dee
