What Do Those Laundry Symbols Actually Mean?

We’ve all seen those symbols on the tags of our clothes. However, not many people know what they actually mean.

Let’s start with the wash symbol. The ‘Normal Wash’ icon is a bucket with a scalloped line across the top indicating water. Washing symbol with a dot tells you the temperature at which you should set your washer at.

If you see a symbol with one dot in the ‘Normal Wash’ icon with a line underneath it means Permanent Press which means “fabrics have been treated with chemicals to ensure they resist wrinkles and retain their original shape” (OMO). Basically it means you can’t iron the clothing item.

If you see the ‘Normal Wash’ icon with an ‘X’ across it, it means you shouldn’t wash it and instead take it to get dry cleaned. If you see a ‘Normal Wash’ icon with a hand, that means to hand wash (Tide).

Moving onto the Drying Symbols. The typical drying symbol is a square. An outline of a circle inside the square means drying machine instructions.One dot inside the symbol means low temperature, two dots is medium, and three dots is high. If the circle is filled that means the clothing item shouldn’t have any heat.

“The basic bleach symbol is a triangle and bleach symbol with an ‘X’ means do not use any kind of bleach on the clothing item” (Glasser, 2019). The dry clean symbol is an outline of a circle and if there’s an ‘X’ on it, it’s indicating do not dry clean.

The typical iron symbol is an outline of an iron. An iron symbol with one dot means “iron at a low setting only (less than 110 C or 230 F)” (Glasser, 2019). Two is medium temperature and three dots is high.

By understanding the symbols and what they mean, it can help preserve your clothing items in their nice quality and last you longer. It is important to know the basic symbols just so you don’t accidentally bleach something that isn’t meant to be bleached or wash something that needed dry cleaned.

Check out the YouTube video below to learn more!

#KentInfoGr #WordsByMD

Resources:

1. Reading clothing labels: let’s learn laundry symbols. (2019, July 22). Retrieved from https://www.polti-usa.com/news/reading-clothing-labels-know-symbols/.
2. Washing Symbols and Labels on Clothes Explained. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.ariel.co.uk/en-gb/how-to-wash/how-to-do-laundry/fabric-care-labels.
3. How to Read Laundry Symbols: Laundry Tips. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://tide.com/en-us/how-to-wash-clothes/how-to-do-laundry/how-to-read-laundry-symbols.
4. What do the Washing Symbols on Clothing Labels Mean? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.omo.com/za/laundry/laundry-tips/fabrics/wash-care-symbols.html.
5. Real Simple Editors February 04, & Editors, R. S. (2019, February 4). How to Read Laundry Symbols. Retrieved from https://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/cleaning/laundry/laundry-tag-symbols
6. Confused by all those little symbols on the tags inside your clothes? Not anymore! (2019, March 7). Retrieved from https://www.pgeveryday.com/home/cleaning/how-to-read-a-laundry-tag.
7. AntonsCleaners. (24 Sept. 2010) How to Read Clothing Care Labels. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/J9w17vyypT0