God I hate laundry! Help?

[cleanup]

Who hates laundry more than I? No one. The laundry gods hate me. Everything shrinks, or frays, or comes out with tiny odd-coloured lintballs over it. I usually blame it on my residence's God-awful industrial washers and dryers that are poorly maintained.

But I bought this nice V-neck sweater from R.W. & Co. the other day. I didn't realize that it was 8% wool and 4% cashmere. The care labels APPEAR to say handwash/dry-clean but I'm not sure because the supposedly handwash label isn't the standard one... it's a sort of hand shape with what appears to be six fingers sitting sideways in a washing basket, not the standard one of an actual five-fingered hand dipping into a washing basket.

It also says I have to dry it flat. Or dryclean.

But it's only 8% wool and 4% cashmere. Are these really necessary precautions? I sort of WANT it to shrink a tiny bit but it's ony 32% cotton and I'm afraid that the presence of wool and cashmere will end up having it being warped out of shape by improper care.

Will machine-washing tumble-drying clothing with a low concentration of delicate fabrics really screw them over?

Yeah. Laundry. Teehee.

TIA.

[edit] grrrr apparently the collared shirt i bought also has to be line-dried. bullshat! ><

 

[Keebler]

Who hates laundry more than I? No one. The laundry gods hate me. Everything shrinks, or frays, or comes out with tiny odd-coloured lintballs over it. I usually blame it on my residence's God-awful industrial washers and dryers that are poorly maintained.

But I bought this nice V-neck sweater from R.W. & Co. the other day. I didn't realize that it was 8% wool and 4% cashmere. The care labels APPEAR to say handwash/dry-clean but I'm not sure because the supposedly handwash label isn't the standard one... it's a sort of hand shape with what appears to be six fingers sitting sideways in a washing basket, not the standard one of an actual five-fingered hand dipping into a washing basket.

It also says I have to dry it flat. Or dryclean.

But it's only 8% wool and 4% cashmere. Are these really necessary precautions? I sort of WANT it to shrink a tiny bit but it's ony 32% cotton and I'm afraid that the presence of wool and cashmere will end up having it being warped out of shape by improper care.

Will machine-washing tumble-drying clothing with a low concentration of delicate fabrics really screw them over?

Yeah. Laundry. Teehee.

TIA.

[edit] grrrr apparently the collared shirt i bought also has to be line-dried. bullshat! ><

ya, laundry can suck, but if you organize it right, you can fold while you watch tv or a movie. as for the poor quality of the machines, just always take the time to clean the lint basket on the dryer.

as for the washing directions, listen to them. it's for a reason and materials can be sensitive...especially on crappy machines.

wash everything on cold and dry on medium to low. if some clothes are half dry, can you hang them in your room to finish them off? that should help the shrinkage.

spoken from a stay at home dad who does a ton of laundry,
Keebler

 

[themadchemist]

I don't screw around. If I'm not sure, I just get it dry-cleaned.

 

[tMac85]

dont risk it. being that there is any cashmere in their at all, im sure you paid more than the average sweater.

wash it by hand in the sink. Its a sweater. unless you have a huge glop of BBQ sauce on it , a VERY little bit of detergent and some cool water in your sink will wash it up nice. then lay it flat on a hard counter or table and let it dry.

good as new!

hope this helps.
-t

 

[todd2000]

Yeah I say just hand wash it. I have a few shirts that I wash by hand just because they are yellow, red, and white, which doesn't really work with any of my other clothes. I just wash everything on cold, and dry on Low. Less shrinkage, and things will probably last longer.

O.T. - DO NOT HANG JEANS UP TO DRY! Unless you want to turn them into a weapon, that you could knock someone out with

 

[cleanup]

I'm fine with most laundry. I hate doing it, but I get by. I dry very small loads because the dryers are so bad (which ends up costing me a fortune), but it does look like with this sweater I'm gonna have to either handwash or dryclean it. The shirt is 100% cotton so I'm going to go ahead and ignore the line-dry instruction. I have other fine cotton shirts that don't get ruined. They wear out faster, but oh well.

Thanks for the help guys. The sweater wasn't all that expensive, got it on sale, so I guess if I just don't wear it too often and keep it clean, drycleaning isn't that bad of an option. Or I can just throw it in with my girlfriends delicates!

 

[r.j.s]

I don't mind washing the laundry so much, and I'll even throw it in the dryer from time to time, what I really hate is folding all those clothes, esp. the baby clothes - there are just so many of them, you never make any progress.