Remove child! Don’t slap pandas! When it comes to care tags, clothing companies have started to get creative in order to grab our attention. And they have to, because to most of us, the symbols on the tags of shirts, skirts or dresses might as well be Egyptian hieroglyphs. We are here to shed some light on the cryptic side of your beloved fashion items. After all, we want our threads to “spark joy” for as long as possible.
A simple guide on how to become a laundry day champion
Sign language
The symbols on the tags are divided into the five basic treatments for garment: Washing, Drying, Ironing, Bleaching and Professional cleaning. Whilst a washing tub, tumble dryer or an iron can easily be understood, things get more cryptic as soon as dots or bars are added to these symbols. Here’s an explanation:
Washing
The washing tub symbol may be accompanied by the maximum wash temperature or various numbers of dots, for example one dot for cold wash (30° C) and four dots for up to 60° C. Also, there are good reasons to believe in the hand wash symbol – shrinking an expensive wool pullover to size 0 is only fun if you’re an actual size 0.
Drying
If the tumble drying symbol contains one dot, lower temperatures are recommended. Two dots stand for normal temperatures. A crossed out dryer calls for the drying rack.
Ironing
The same goes for the ironing symbol. One for low, two for medium and three dots for higher heat settings.
Bleaching
There are chlorine (CL) and non-chlorine agents for bleaching. The latter is marked with two oblique lines within the triangle.
Professional cleaning
When it comes to dry cleaning there are two solvents available – your professional cleaner will know whether to use hydrocarbon (F), or tetrachloroethylene (P). A bar under the circle means gentle cleaning, two bars very gentle cleaning. Wet cleaning is indicated with the letter W.
You can obtain detailed information on care symbols from the International Association for Textile Care Labelling .
No instructions? Take it easy
Whether you find labels itchy or irritating, or just don’t feel like telling the whole world what size or brand you wear, sometimes removing the label is inevitable. In case you forgot to take a mental note (or photo) of the fabric care or laundering instructions beforehand, Home Connect has the perfect solution for you: the all-knowing Easy Start Assistant finds the right program for you in just a few simple steps (provided you own a compatible Home Connect appliance).
The little helper can be used to select the ideal wash and dryer program for your laundry in case you forgot or don’t know how to handle it. It analyzes key factors such as color, fabric and level of soiling to determine the ideal treatment of your clothes. And of course, you can start your appliance directly via the Home Connect app or Amazon Echo.
Curious to give it a try? Click on your washing machine or a demo washing machine and you will find Easy Start in the Advanced Section below the Quick Actions.
