Doing laundry at home or sending it out: a month’s costs
Machine, water, power, detergent and your own time, priced for a family of four in an Andheri flat, and compared with our rates.
Dry clean or wash? Reading a care label properly
The small symbols inside a garment tell you how it can be cleaned. What each one means, and when we ignore the label with your permission.
Almost every garment has a care label, and almost nobody reads it. Learning the five main symbols takes five minutes and can save a favourite shirt.
The tub means washing. A number inside it is the highest water temperature in degrees Celsius, and dots mean the same thing, from one dot for cool to four for hot. A hand in the tub means hand wash only, and a cross through the tub means do not wash in water at all. The triangle means bleach: an empty triangle allows any bleach, two diagonal lines inside means only non-chlorine bleach, and a cross means none.
The square is drying. A circle inside the square means tumble dry, with dots for heat; a cross through it means air dry only. The iron shows ironing heat, again with dots: one for synthetics, two for silk and wool, three for cotton and linen. The plain circle is professional cleaning. A letter P or F inside means dry cleaning is fine, and a W means professional wet cleaning.
Makers are cautious, and many garments marked dry clean only can be washed gently in cold water. We do this sometimes, with your permission, for linen kurtas or cotton suits whose lining would suffer in solvent. But we always follow the label for silk, wool, structured jackets and anything with embroidery or glued trims. If a garment has no label, tell us what it is made of, and we will test a hidden seam first.
