Have you ever noticed the different kinds of mysterious symbols on the back of the tags of our clothes? Most of us usually ignore them. But, besides being artistic pictograms these care labels are actually guides that teach us about the recommended methods of cleaning, washing and ironing are for each clothing item that we have.
What?!? Our clothes have personal specific demands? Yes. But we love them so much!
The good news is that we never have to remember by heart how to take good care of our clothes – if we just take a look at the back of our tags.
To ease into this new-found treasure of clothes-care education, let’s take a look at some of the most commonly found washing symbols and what they mean.
Wash
Different types of clothes can require a different wash setting and it might be difficult to remember the right instructions for each one of them. Luckily, we can count the dots in the wash symbol that indicate which temperature of water would be best to select. One dot stands for cold wash (30°C), two dots means warm (40°C) and three or more means hot (50°C–95°C).
Permanent Press
The permanent-press symbol might be found on some of your more elegant items and has one line beneath the regular ‘wash’ symbol. It indicates that the fabric should be cleaned and pressed with professional care to keep it wrinkle free and in original shape and texture. But what it really means is that you should never try to iron this fabric at home. So, a dry-cleaning service would be the best way to go.
Gentle Cycle
The gentle cycle symbol has two lines beneath the regular ‘wash’ symbol. It indicates that the fabric in hand is delicate and must be washed in the gentlest setting that your washer can wash.
Bleach
Sometimes, bleach can be helpful in making our whites whiter. However, bleach can be tricky and quite dangerous to any colorful item that we might own. To make sure that we know which items are bleach-tolerant, all we need to do is look at the bleach symbol.
An empty triangle means that bleaching is allowed. A black or clear triangle with an X over it, means that bleach should never be used on the item.
Professional Care
Similar to “Permanent Press”, this circular symbol indicates that your fabric needs professional care and must be dry cleaned instead of machine or hand washed. The further indication of letters A, P or F refer to the kinds of solvents used for cleaning the item.
Dry
The dry indication points at the best way to dry each type of fabric. Just like with the wash symbol, the dots inside of the circle demonstrate which temperature level to use when drying the item. If the dry symbol features a big X over it, it means that drying in the dryer might damage the item and it would be better to air-dry or dry-clean in certain cases instead.
Iron
The ironing symbol shows us the maximum setting on your iron. The recommended temperature level of the iron is indicated by the dots on the symbol and just like other symbols, a big X over it simply means ‘Do Not Iron’.
Know any cool washing symbols that everyone ignores?
Let us know in the comments below!
Fabulous photo by : Taiga