When I found I was
pregnant with my first born I was very eager to start buying little
baby clothes ready for my little bundle of love. After my first scan
at 12 weeks Lee and I bought our little unborn baby’s first ever
outfit. Then once we reached the halfway mark and had the 20 week
scan where we were reassured that all was okay with baby we slowly
started buying clothes ready for his arrival.
During the last few
weeks of pregnancy I went into full on nesting mode. The house was
cleaned from top to bottom in a whirlwind, spring cleaning blitz. The
nursery was re-decorated with a jungle theme and furniture assembled
all ready and perfect for baby. The tiny baby clothes were washed,
dried, ironed and folded neatly into the baby’s wardrobe and
drawers.
I fondly remember
sitting at home with my big bump proudly on display as I sat ironing
and gently folding my unborn baby’s clothes. Thoughts of soon
having my baby in my arms wearing the gorgeous little baby clothes I
was lovingly looking after filled my head.
As caring for my baby
and his little baby clothes meant so much to me I took great care on
making sure to wash them correctly. I used non-bio sensitive washing liquid to be kind to his newborn skin and I double checked the
clothing care labels to make sure I was washing everything correctly
so nothing got damaged or shrunk!
Thankfully I did not
come across any tricky unknown care labels and all of the clothing
was washed without any issues. Whilst I have not personally had any
problems with clothing care labels then or at any other time (thanks
to my mum for diligently teaching me about what the symbols mean when
I was taught how to use the washing machine to do my own laundry
chores) over half of people find clothing care labels confusing.
A recent survey by Data Label, an online label company, looked at whether people find care
symbols on clothing labels difficult to understand. Surveying 500
people from the UK they asked “Do you find the symbols on clothing
care labels to be confusing?”
The findings revealed
that 56% of the people surveyed do not always understand the symbols
on clothing care labels.
Speaking of the results,
Philip Carlyn at Data Label said -
“I wasn’t surprised
to see that other people are as confused as we are by clothing care
labels. Who hasn’t put an item of clothing to wash, only to find
out when unloading the machine that the colour has run or that it’s
half the size it used to be?”
As many clothes get
damaged due to incorrect washing which can stem from confusion
surrounding the care label advice, Philip Carlyn believes that labels
should be made simpler -
“If only the symbols
on clothing were more similar to the instruction they were trying to
advise or if it simply stated in words any specific care advice, many
items of clothing might be safer!”
With there being a
minimum 22 basic care symbols connected to washing, hand washing,
ironing, tumble drying and dry cleaning an item of clothing it no
surprise that many people get confused.
If you are one of the group
of people who find clothing care labels a minefield take a look at
this informative clothing care labels article where the results of
the survey are discussed in more detail. The article also provides
helpful advice from Data Label who are shining a light on what a few
of the clothing care symbols actually mean to help people wash
correctly for clean, undamaged clothing results!
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