In the beginning, there's mommy and daddy. They take good care of you, and they wash your clothes thoroughly. Every day, your clothes appear magically in your room, clean as a whistle, and smelling like fresh Spring flowers. But then, you move out. And you realize that your pile of dirty clothes doesn't self-wash magically like you once thought it did. That's when the laundry problems start.
Doing the laundry is a constant struggle to some people, a frustrating process in which you're forced to learn from your own hilarious mistakes. But to be fair, these people did decide to assume their faults and post funny pictures of their wrecked laundry on the Internet. Today's list is dedicated to them. And even though some of these fails are too much, we're pretty sure most of you will find them very relatable. No, washing clothes is not rocket science. But judging by the laundry disasters on our list, it could well be.
Dirty Money
It took Canada until 2010 to finally announce they would change from paper-based money to washable plastic-made cash. The modernization was welcome, especially considering many Canadian bucks got wholly ruined whenever they were put into the washing machine.
If we had a dollar for every dollar that was washed into extinction, we'd probably be rich! Fortunately, this kind of scenario is a thing of the past, and you can now wash your germ-filled Canadian bucks anytime you want. Just make sure the water's not too warm because even plastic money is susceptible to high temperatures.
Another TP Crisis
In 2020, the entire world realized the hard way that toilet paper is a must-have. But once in a while, our ever-handy TP rolls make a mess instead of helping us clean one. That's what happened to this sad collection of seemingly ruined clothes.
What's in the origin of this groovy new clothing pattern, you wonder? It turns out there were some toilet paper rolls on top of the washing machine, and that they accidentally fell inside. We bet the owner of these clothes isn't a bit happy about it, but we have to admit those white lines make for a sick design innovation!
Bad Beginner's Luck
The caption says it all. Your very first time doing the laundry can go terribly wrong, but we've never imagined it could look so much like Hell on Earth. If you think the worst thing that can happen during a washing session is to get your clothes ruined, we hope this dismal picture proves it's not!
To be fair, this was probably a case of bad beginner's luck, since some washing machines are known to catch fire. Due to the combination of elements like lots of friction, electrical components, and high temperatures, washing machines can be fairly considered a bonafide fire hazard.
Coast Guard? Make It Non-Waterproof
Let's get to the point: all government-issued documents should be as resistant as possible. After all, a ruined document ends up becoming a hassle to the State and the document's owner, further burdening all of the involved. But if there's one official document that should definitely be waterproof, that's this merchant mariner credential!
Since working at the Coast Guard involves spending most of your days on top of a boat, it would only make sense that your professional I.D. was 100% resistant to water. But somehow, that's a "brilliant" idea nobody thought of having.
Some "Handy" Leather Tips
With great fabric come great responsibilities. And if you happen to own a pair of leather gloves like the person in the picture, you should probably learn more about it before simply throwing them in the washing machine because the result can be utterly hilarious.
Putting leather clothes in the washing machine is considered forbidden, even though some items can be washed there if the machine is set to delicate wash and only cold water is used. But to keep it safe and prevent your leather clothes from shrinking into minion-sized items, just use a soft cloth with warm water and dish soap.
Ignoring the Label
Who's got time to read the label of a dress, amirite? Labels tend to be ignored, but they play an important role in helping you take care of your favorite clothes. For instance: when a fringe-covered dress says "dry clean only," that means you should probably not put it in the washing machine.
This fragile dress was not used to the high temperatures and agitation of a normal washing cycle, and the experience proved to be too intense for the poor thing. Now, this once-majestic dress is going to spend the final days of its short life in the nearest garbage. Sad.
It's All About Stability
Here's an all too familiar sight to everybody who owns a washing machine. Somehow, the thing moved from one place to the other as if it was alive, and you have no idea why. As it turns out, it has all to do with... stability!
The main reasons for your washing machine to move are uneven loads of clothes or uneven floors. These cause excessive vibration levels that end up making your machine move from one side of the room to the other. It looks haunted, but rest assured: it's nothing sheer physics cannot explain.
A Stretch At Best
A Baltimore mom decided to ask her children for help in a couple of household chores. Their task was very simple: just collect the washed clothes and hang them on the backyard's clothesline. But what happened when the children realized the clothesline was too short for the entire load?
Well, they decided to put their young brain to use and come up with this clever solution. We've got to praise their creativity, but we're pretty sure those white shirts on the top are getting irreparably stretched out. That's just the wrong way of hanging clothes to dry!
Wool Likes It Cool
We get it. Reading the label can be frustrating, time-consuming, and utterly boring. So, we've come up with a catchy slogan: wool likes it cool! If you remember these words, you'll probably never do what this man has done, and you'll keep your 100% wool-made sweaters away from all sorts of hot-washing mechanisms.
Yes, wool hates high temperatures. Putting your brand-new wool sweater in the washing machine without adjusting the parameters will always end up in disaster. This wool sweater used to fit this man just right now, and now it looks like something he just stole from his mom's wardrobe.
From Hipster to Tiny Hipster
The hipster style has been one of the staples of the last decade. It introduced us to modern-day classics such as the hipster Fedora hat, the hipster man bun, and, last but not least, the hipster beanie. But what happens when you recklessly throw your beloved beanie into the washing machine?
Depending on the material your beanie is made of, the consequences can be disastrous. This girl doesn't seem to be extremely bothered about it, though. If there's anything more hipster than wearing a hipster beanie, that's using a tiny hipster beanie! Wes Anderson would be proud.
Laundry Disaster? Give It To Doggo
The old doggo in the picture has always been a faithful and friendly companion. He loves his owner, but he's not a big fan of wearing his old, laundry-shrunken shirts. Judging by the look on his face, he's more of a t-shirt-wearing kind of dog.
Clothes for dogs are getting more popular than ever, and we're looking at an interesting business plan here. Buy all the shrunken clothes you can get for little to no money and sell them for a profit as high-quality canine attire. We can smell a million dollars already.
No Chicken Was Harmed in the Making of This Picture
Washing your pillow sounds like the best idea ever. Your pillow needs to be super clean because it's the place where you lay your head every night, and nobody wants it to be dirty or smelly! So, what better way to get rid of those drool stains than the ever-reliable washing machine?
But wait! Before going ahead and putting your precious pillow in the machine, just make sure you read the label very, very carefully! Otherwise, the result can look something like this. If we didn't know better, we'd think there was a whole family of chickens living in there.
Lost & Found
Every other day, a piece of underwear (normally socks) gets lost in our washing machines. Busy as we are, we continue with our normal lives, ignoring the seemingly magical disappearance. But in this household, a quest for the truth led to a surprising discovery.
They decided to open their washing machine's pump compartment, and this is what they found: a collection of lost socks, panties, and even a credit card! Ironically, though, they will have to wash all of these socks once again. And where will they put it? That's right, in the washing machine!
Straight Out of the Laundry Pile
We all know that Mondays are hard. And this woman's clearly having a tough start to the week. Half asleep, she decided to get some much-needed caffeine at the nearest Starbucks. She passed by the pile of clothes in the laundry and picked up a purple jacket from the top. But sadly, she never checked the back.
Depending on the fabric, some recently-washed clothes will stick to other clothes. And if you're unlucky enough, you will end up going out with a jacket that's way more revealing than you thought. A stuck sock would be funny, but panties? That's just embarrassing!
Don't Wash Your Anti-Stress Pillow
This hilarious laundry fail was captured in Russia, the land of vodka and criminally low temperatures. A man decided it was okay to put his anti-stress pillow in the machine, even though it was mostly made of tiny polyester balls. The result is this eye-rolling mess that's bad enough to ruin anyone's day.
For an anti-stress pillow, this non-washable pillow is causing a lot of stress! That machine looks like it's a second anti-stress pillow away from blowing up and making an even bigger mess. We guess it's time to go to the store and get a new one.
Bye Bye Turtleneck
When moisture, heat, and mechanical agitation combine, they give way to a phenomenon that's known as consolidation shrinkage. Or, as we'd put it, disastrous laundry fails that end up turning your favorite clothes into tiny, shrunk versions of their former selves.
That's exactly what happened to this once-usable turtleneck shirt, which is now not even big enough to dress a turtle with. Trying to put this on right now would constitute a choking hazard, so it's better to just throw it in the trash. Doing the laundry can truly be a desperate, slow-learning process.
Contagious Pink
No matter what people say, pink is a very special color, especially when it comes to laundry. It has so much personality it likes to impose itself on everything around, turning every white piece of clothing into a pink one. We've seen it in movies and TV shows, but when it happens to us, it's got to be painful.
Remember: always separate your white clothes from the darker, strong-colored ones. Otherwise... you'll see pink! And unless you're living in a real-sized Barbie house, you really don't want your wardrobe to look like a monochromatic pink mess.
Potty Training Gone Wrong
Your kid is growing up, and he's now old enough to switch the baby diapers for the potty training pull-ups. But as a parent, that doesn't mean your hard work is over. For one, that pull-up will need some cleaning, and getting it into the washing machine can be a very bad idea!
How bad, you wonder? Well, just take a look at this picture. If you thought toilet paper was the worst thing you could put inside your washing machine, we hope this changes your mind. We predict it will take at least a couple of hours to get this machine clean and running again.
An Obvious But Important Lesson
Sadly, washing machines were baptized with an all too general name. They should be called 'clothes washing machines,' just to make sure disasters like this never happen again. A man got home from work to find his washing machine looking like this. But unless there's some major manufacturing defect involved, this can only result from a high level of negligence.
We guess that this man tried to save some time by washing a couple of dusty objects in the machine, alongside his clothes. By the look of it, he was probably trying to take the rust out of an old set of hammers.
Sweater Recycling
When you're in love, size doesn't matter. But having a petite girlfriend can come in handy, especially if you want to save some money on new clothes. This man was super proud of his yellow sweater, but he decided to put it in the washing machine before reading the label.
The result was a shrunken sweater that dropped a good three or two sizes, at least. So, what to do? You could throw the sweater away, or... you could give it to your petite girlfriend! The latter proved to be a perfect fit, in a clear case of sweater recycling gone right.
Someone's Not Happy...
Guess who's also been recycling shrunken clothes? Alex Tumay, a successful DJ and recording engineer who has worked with artists like Kanye West, Childish Gambino, and Travis Scott. But in Tumay's case, shrunken clothes don't go to the girlfriend; they end up making his dog feel quite miserable.
Looking "legit" dead in a couple of pictures, Tumay's cute furry friend seems to be unsure of how he's supposed to move around while dressed with one of his owner's former sweaters. Cheer up, doggo: you just need to listen to some of your owner's best tunes to get through the day!
The Sinking of a Smartphone
Cellphones used to be these objects we carried around to phone people on the go. They're such an essential part of who we are they almost feel like an unnatural extension of our bodies and minds. Considering that, this picture has got to be panic-inducing, especially if you imagine that's YOUR phone going awry in the washing machine!
Looking directly at your smartphone while it's drowning in a pool of soap and dirty clothes is a little bit like watching the Titanic go. You feel sad and desperate, but you know there's nothing you can do other than watching silently while it sinks.
Poor Unicorn, Poorer Parent
Stuffed animals are an essential part of most happy childhoods. Kids commonly give a name to their favorite stuffed toy and treat it almost as a pet or as a special friend. But that, of course, only makes it look at this dreadful image even harder.
What we see here is more than a completely ruined stuffed unicorn. This really means that a poor parent will now be forced to have a very hard talk with a child about what it means to be alive... and what it means to disappear forever. Unicorns aren't real, but messing up with a child's favorite stuffed toy? That's as real as parenting's going to get!
Can You Untie This Knot?
You're having a tough and stressful day already. But things are about to get worse. You get home and open the lid of your washing machine, only to realize that your clothes have blended into some sort of indiscernible knot.
The sheer complexity of this knot would make every boy scout in the world proud! But it's got to be frustrating to be forced to spend your free time working around it as if it was some sort of fun puzzle. Nevermind the newspaper crosswords and forget all about Sudoku: this is the real head twister out there.
A Pretzel's Worst Nightmare
If there's one thing you never want to find in your washing machine, that's food. But somehow, a whole bag of pretzels found its way to this washing machine without anybody even noticing. The result is as gross as you'd expect.
Not only a perfectly good bag of pretzels got irreversibly ruined, but an entire load of clothes is now covered in disgusting, half-melted pretzel sticks. But since we're natural optimists, we have to look at the bright side here: out of all the snacks out there, salty pretzels are probably one of the cleanest.
Solving The Liquid-Powder Debate
Consumer options are a free market's trademark, but deciding whether to go with a liquid-based or powder-based washing machine detergent can be a headache. Liquid makes for cleaner clothes and less washing machine issues, but the powder is perfect for getting rid of truly nasty stains, like mud.
Deciding between the two can be difficult, but we hope this picture will help you. Because when you go liquid, the result can be pretty frustrating. Unlike powder, the liquid can leak out of your old washing machine to make for hard-to-clean messes like this one.
Blurred Identity
Documents lost in the washing machine make for a classic situation we've all experienced. But it's not every day your work ID comes out of the machine looking like an expressionist masterpiece. This work of art could be in a modern art gallery! After all, it's an exemplary representation of lost-identity that would make every fine arts student out there proud.
Naturally, we're exaggerating: it's just a cheap, wrecked working ID. But out of all the things that come out of our washing machines, this is probably the artsiest of them all.
That's Why You Always Check the Pockets
Lots of things end up going to the washing machine just because people don't check the pockets. And out of all of these things, a Crayola wax crayon is probably the worst. But why, you wonder? Well, we think this picture speaks louder than words...
This person's child used to own a nice pair of jeans. Not any longer. The kid made the poor decision to keep a wax crayon in his pocket, and the parents were too busy to check all of the pockets before loading the clothes into the washing machine. The result is this red-tainted mess; good luck washing that wax stain off!
A Work of Magic
We've mentioned before that doing the laundry isn't anything like rocket science. But is it possible that the process is a bit more like ancient magic? Due to some sort of unknown alchemy, only one of these six identical socks ended up getting shrunk in the wash—the reason why is tough to grasp.
Was it a defect in the fabric? Did the sock fell into a hole? By now, we have to admit our ignorance and call it bad luck. Not everything can be explained, not even in the seemingly simple world of laundry.
Small Pen, Big Big Problem
We keep pens in our pockets all the time, and we sometimes forget about it. It's no big deal, right? Well, think again! This pen-disaster is another reason for you to check every pocket before putting a new load of clothes inside the machine.
Washing machines may look like sturdy, heavy-vibrating engineering feats. But in the end, they're as fragile as porcelain. And sometimes, all it takes is a little pen to make for a big problem. Now, this person will either waste a couple of hours removing those stains or spend a couple of hundred dollars buying a new washing machine.
A Moment of Horror
Deciding to wash all of your dirty plastic gloves in one single load can have an unpredictably scary result. This picture makes it look like this washing machine is hunted, and we can feel a below-par horror flick plot developing here.
But while we continue to wait for the movie adaptation, we have this picture to remind us of just how scary doing the laundry can get. We're pretty sure that, for at least a short moment, the person who first saw this thought these gloves were coming to get him.
Call the Cops!
It can happen to us all: for some silly reason, we lock ourselves outside of our own house, and we're either forced to climb through the window like an amateur robber or to call the cops/firefighter department, who will probably not be very happy to assist us.
But what can you do when you're locked outside of your own washing machine? This man found himself stuck when he realized the plastic latch on his machine's door was gone for good. Now, what can he do? Call the cops? Break-in with a crowbar? Or buy himself a new bunch of clothes? There's really not an easy solution to the problem.
Just Take It to eBay
Remember when people used to sell slices of pizza with patterns that looked like Jesus on eBay? This has got to be the washing machine equivalent! But this time, it wasn't the Messiah showing up suddenly. Instead, it was the outlines of a little dog.
This powerful image resulted from trying to wash a leather wallet in the machine, which is not advisable. But to be fair, we think this wallet is far from ruined. On the contrary, it has a lot more personality now, and we bet they could get some good money for it on eBay. "Miraculous dog wallet" is our item title suggestion!
Twists and Turns
If there's something this picture teaches us, it is that the world of washing machines is all about the twists and turns. A comforter got stuck in the washing machine's door latch, and not even a series of violent 380º whirls was enough to get it out of there.
This comforter is pretty useless now since it probably got wrinkled past the point of going back in the bed. But we guess the lesson here is: pay attention to the washing machine's door latch and make sure none of your favorite clothes get stuck in there.
Leave It to The Felines
By now, we've seen some dogs reacting quite poorly to their owner's shrunken clothes. Probably because wearing shrunken clothes like a boss is more of a cat's job. Yes, we know most felines hate wearing human clothes, but this cute kitty is striking an Insta-worthy pose without even blinking.
Dogs are amazing companions that have a natural ability to love us no matter what. But when it comes to looking cool on the Internet, there's nothing quite like a stylish cat. Next time you're deciding whether you should give your shrunken clothes to Snoopy or Garfield, just play safe and go with the feline.