Washing (& Drying) Disasters: Stuff Left in Pockets!

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daveamkrayoguy

daveamkrayoguy

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Other than my wife's usual candy wrappers, coins & dollar bills, the notable stuff floating in my recent wash load had been the small bands I use for pony-tails (yeah, MINE!) floating around in my wash tub!

It was yesterday & right when we were on our way to somewhere we had to be at, that I happened to open the lid to see going after them w/ a kitchen strainer brought back those hand-held toys of mini-sports games or putting rings around the nose of a dolphin...!

Anyone here w/ similar experiences?

-- Dave
 
My wife is notorious for leaving pocket packs of tissue in her pockets.  Nothing like finding shredded tissue all over a load of freshly washed clothes.  That really pisses me off! 
 
I frequently wash

either my wallet or my calendar book and notepad.

Wallet usually isn't a disaster, but very few of my calendars survive.

SO FAR, I have not yet washed my cell phone, though it could happen.

Lawrence/Maytagbear
 
Once I opened the washer

and saw my debit card sitting atop some clothing.  For the life of me I could not understand why my debit card would be in the washer until I later discovered my wallet, some change, my car keys - with door fob - and my cell phone also in the washer.  What a mess!  I once left a Sharpie marking pen from work in the pocket of a pair of khaki pants.  That was a mess!  I was able to salvage three pair of newly 'striped' khaki pants by cutting them off for shorts - but totally lost two nice polo shirts because of that incident.  Thank God it was a small load! 

 

Show us a picture of your ponytail.  I always wanted to grow one but each time I tried I chickened out.  I'm planning on retiring from my current job soon and I've told my wife I'm gonna cover my bald top with a bandana (aka:  do-rag here in the south) and grow me a long awaited ponytail! 
 
 

 

I'm usually pretty good about checking every pocket before starting a load of laundry.   However there have been times I open the dryer, take the clothes out and find one of my chapsticks laying in the dryer.    I pull the cap off and of course all melted, uggh!   Otherwise I've found the occational rubberband or what's left of a receipt.

 

Oh, after opening up one dryer I brought home, I found, below the lint trap and down inside the dryer, an ATM card, tweezers, a handfull of change, paperclips, a ball point pen, part of a childs toy and even an earring.  

 

Kevin
 
I occasionally hear a clunking in the machine and find a disposable cigarette lighter tumbling around. They always work afterwards which is kinda neat.

Thankfully, with most modern front load machines, kleenex left in a pocket isn't normally a disaster. They tend to be in the bottom of a pocket, ball up when they get wet and just stay there. In the 25 years I've been using front load machines I've never had one shred and deposit itself over a load of wash in the same manner as they can do in a top load machine.
 
I washed my cellphone about a month ago. It didn't survive.....

 

It seems I find the most interesting stuff in Maytag dryers. I don't know what it is, but I open the blower housing on an '08 series or newer, and you just don't know what will turn up. Coins, paper money, pens, pencils, always something.....
 
Worst Thing You Can Leave In Your Pockets...

And if it should go through to the dryer...GUM (the stick kind and a pack of it at that)! I ruined a fairly good pair of pants and shirt I used for job interviews that way. I always double check the pockets now before I wash.

And PaulG...BOOO on your comment! ;)
 
I washed my favorite bluetooth ear bud last year. It was out of production, and the replacements have never lived up to its performance.

Normally I put the earbuds in my shirt pocket when I'm done with a call. That time I checked the shirts before loading them but didn't feel the earbud in the pocket.
 
The worst for me was when i opened the dryer after it was finished and there sitting on top of the clothes was a butane lighter. Still worked but was surprised that it had not exploded. Another time I opened the washer after the cycle and there was a dead mouse in the bottom of the tub. ugh. Disposed of him then ran the cycle over.
Jon
 
I've washed one little SD/USB memory stick adapter and card probably 4-5 times already, and every time I wipe it down, let it dry overnight and it still works perfectly. Remarkable.

I'm really bad about leaving paper in my pockets (napkins & receipts mostly) which drives my wife nuts when she has to fish the shreds out of the dryer lint filter.

Worst thing I've washed in recent memory is a gel ink pen, which happened to click open during the wash. I didn't check all pockets enough before I threw the load in and ended up totally ruining one of my wife's nice scrub tops and t-shirts with big gobs of sticky black gel ink. Only using every single solvent in the house (practically) and re-washing several times rescued some slacks of mine and a few other things. Fortunately the visibile ink in the tub came out immediately with an alcohol wipe and no more has shown up on anything...
 
The worst I usually encounter these days is the occasional kleenex left in a pocket, and since we have a front loader it comes out intact, which is nice.

Years ago when my son was a lad, one never knew what to expect. If I missed checking his pockets, it could be disaterous. The biggest messes were crayons and bubble gun that made it all the way to the dryer.
 
Memories of Stuff Washed & Dried, which we'd Never Inten

Yeh, I forgot about KLEENEX--trust me, my wife left THAT in her pocket many a time & enough that it's a wonder I'd forget to mention!

What isn't spread all over in messy clumps all over our laundry in the washer, I definitely see dusted over everything in the dryer!

I think there had to be something else significantly left in a pocket (hers, of course) but I somehow can't think of what it is; it must not have caused much damage to anything, or gotten badly damaged, itself...

Ponytail Pic: I took at least one or tried to w/ my camera phone, and even have it on my Facebook profile Online, but I will see if I can get it taken someday (& hopefully get it to grow longer--it still remains at "Racoon Lodge" length, right now!)

-- Dave
 
A whole package of bubblegum got washed and dried .It was all over the inside of the dryer and melted into good white cotton pants and dress Izod white knit shirts.Freezing and scrapping did not budge the gum.Cleaned the gum out of the dryer with WD40. So sprayed all the clothes with WD40 waited about twenty minutes and washed them over. The clothes came out good as new and no gum anywhere .
 
a kleenex, ha, try a whole toilet roll

i allways check pockets before putting in the wash, but back about 4 years or so ago, i had a nose bleeed, and i had got a brand new toilet roll out of the cupboard, to soak up the blood, i must have left the remaining toilet roll on the bed, (nearly full) i sorted out the washing and piled the load of darks on my bed, took the load downstairs and shoved it straight into the washer, closed the door, and started the wash on a fast wash 60'c reduced to 30'c, (about 51 mins long), next door neighbours had come round to look at the new kitchen we had just installed, and i was in the kitchen, i could see the load going round, and the load was coverd in white stuff, i paused the machine, after the neghbours went i opened up to find one very soggy toilet roll, and the entire load coverd in toilet tissue, after the wash and several rinses later the load was fine.

my cousin borrowed my pokemon tradeing card game on Game Boy, and the cartridge went through the washer, the picture had faded but not rubbed out, and the game still worked perfectly

a 16 year old girl i knew, who did all the familys washing at home and seperated the loads out properly (lights, darks, underwear, jeans, whites, towels) had washed her sony ericson w580i and that worked perfectly after, i dropped my sony ericson w580i on the ground 4 times by accedent and the screen had lines of dead pixels on it after 4 months. :l
 

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