When buying new clothes, how often do you check the washing label for care instructions? In our current fast fashion era, most garments can be washed at 30 to 40 degrees. But what you might not have realised is there is an abundance of guidance on how to properly care for your clothes, including which chemicals to use or avoid.
Understanding what your clothes are attempting to tell you is essential for keeping them looking and feeling as good as possible – you definitely don’t want to find you’ve selected the incorrect setting and your beloved wool jumper is now misshapen. One of the simplest things to do is organise your washing by colours and care symbols to guarantee each item gets the proper treatment.
One style-conscious person went on social media to express their bewilderment regarding the washing guidelines on trousers they’d just bought in Japan. The care label displayed the typical symbol for washing at 40 degrees, a square containing a circle with a cross through the centre showing they cannot be put in the tumble drier, an iron symbol, and an F within a circle.
However, the symbol that left most people baffled was a triangle containing two straight lines inside, reports the Mirror. One Reddit user shed some light on the matter, clarifying: “These are clothing care symbols.
“Forty in a tub of water means wash at or below 40 degrees, the triangle means NO bleach allowed, crossed-out circle in a square means do not tumble dry. The other square means it’s safe to dry on a washing line, the iron with two dots means iron on medium temperature, and an F in a circle means petroleum solvent only for dry cleaning.”
The mystery surrounding laundry symbols, particularly triangles, is gradually being unravelled. Ariel’s guidance states that “If you see an empty triangle, that means you can safely use bleach on your piece of clothing when necessary. Diagonal lines inside the triangle refer to the use of non-chlorine bleach, however in the case when the triangle is crossed out by two lines, you shouldn’t use bleach at all.”
The revelation left many Reddit users astounded, sparking a wave of shared tales of laundry disasters and appreciation for the newfound understanding. One user remarked: “They should teach you stuff like this in school. I’ve definitely ruined clothes before.”
While another discovered something entirely new, commenting: “I didn’t know about the triangle! I thought it had something to do with the clothes hanger.”
