Wednesdays are my laundry days, so pretty stressful. I spent most of the time checking my clothes for laundry labels and that takes up quite some time. That alone is time-consuming enough, but I’ll always make a last-minute discovery of an extra pile of clothes on my desk chair from the night before.
Some *pfff and sighs later I have finally calmed myself down to pick it up when I realise it’s going to be another hour captured at home on a sunny Wednesday. I have to admit I am enslaved by my washing machine; when it beeps I come running, if not it keeps making funny noises all day. Besides an unhealthy relationship with my washing machine and laundry habits that I could fill a diary with, I have the talent to ruin the pieces I love the most. But I guess I’m not the only one here right? Remember last week when I was talking about my favourite slogan jumper by Zoe Karssen? I killed my Rebel it-piece, precisely my washing machine did, after wearing it for almost two years. Shattered.
A Laundry Disaster
After two glasses of wine to calm myself down and going over it again and again, I figured out why I failed. I broke the biggest laundry rule ever by not reading the laundry label. I bet you’ve done it at least once: assuming washing degrees? Well, until that faux pax, I was never wrong.
This makes me recall my time I spent at the Pure dorms at Finsbury Park during my first three months in London. The laundry room was always busy on Sundays – basically when students realised they had nothing to wear besides underwear – and always a mess. I’ve seen things that would make enough material for a new Netflix series, like people flooding the laundry room because of putting in a whole bottle of detergent and boys deciding surprisingly to follow the purple underwear trend because the girl who washed before left her pink wig in the machine – Yes there was a girl in my dorm who wore a different wig each day. Shit happened, I can tell.
Those are exceptions but many people are simply confused by the laundry labels, those tiny little hieroglyphics that are more cryptic than understandable. This is actually a big dilemma in the UK. Based on a survey conducted by Data Label, 56% of the people find labels complicated. Many, including me, barely know about clothing care labels and in my case, it leads to a damaged designer jumper as a result.
The bad news: If you recently damaged your Supreme shirt, because you didn’t read the laundry labels and were hoping for a wonder solution in this post: I’m sorry I feel you mate, but it’s time to, as Gwyneth would say, ‘consciously uncouple’ yourself from the piece. The good news: You don’t need to read a book about it, nor do you have to call mum for advice. This little cheat sheet got you sorted for your future laundry days.
Indeed, a laundry day can quickly turn into mission impossible: when the start button’s on there’s almost no chance to stop the process. Ever tried to open it again? No chance. Mixed colours, white and dark fabrics, earphones in the jeans pockets – I’ve had them all, but sometimes there’s no other way than to admit that you lost against the washing machine.
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Photography all by Lucy Alice B. Make sure to follow her on Instagram and Facebook.
