Have you ever wondered what those icons on the tags of your clothing mean? I have created this handy laundry symbols printable that you can hang in your laundry room to help to decipher those strange hieroglyphs. I like to keep my laundry room organized, so I thought this would be a great addition!
Free Laundry Symbols Printable for Your Laundry Room
The symbols found on the tags of your clothing may seem indecipherable, but once you understand what the elements mean they are incredibly useful when washing your clothes. Hang this printable chart in your laundry room to help you understand the best way to launder your family’s clothes.
Related: Looking for ways to clean on a budget? Check out these dollar store cleaning hacks!
Would you rather buy one? You can find all sorts of laundry symbol art on Etsy here!
You will need:
- printer
- high-quality printer paper
- Washing Instruction Symbols printable
- frame or clipboard (optional)
What do the laundry symbols mean?
There is a method to the madness of washing instruction icons. The icon that looks like a tub filled with water stands for the washing machine. The square icon stands for the dryer. Triangles indicate bleaching instructions; circles indicate dry cleaning instructions. Finally, the iron icon is pretty self-explanatory.
Next, dots within these icons indicate temperature. If an icon has only one dot, that indicates that you should use a low temperature. The more dots are present, the higher the temperature you should use. Two examples: One dot within an iron icon means you should iron that article of clothing with a low heat iron. Three dots within a square means you should dry the piece with high heat. Make sense?
Lines underneath an icon indicate special circumstances for how to deal with that piece of clothing. You may need to use the permanent press or delicate cycles on your machine. Finally, a big X through an icon is the universal symbol for DO NOT!
When you know these basics, you can combine the icons to create a wide array of washing instructions all on one small tag!
So that you don’t have to memorize every washing symbol imaginable, I have made up this handy laundry symbols chart. The chart lists many common washing instruction icons, so you can refer to it as you are working on your laundry. I suggest framing the printable or clipping it to a clipboard, so it is easily accessible near your washer and dryer.
Want more free printables? Get started with our printable organization and decluttering checklist to tidy up around the home. And with summer fast approaching, grab our printable summer bucket list for the kids (or you) to keep track of the things you’d like to do this summer!
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Laurel says
Thank you for the printable symbols!
Barbara says
Forget kids! I am going to do all of the candle crafts! These are beautiful. I’m printing the laundry list for my nephew to take to college. Am going add a note about how special he is and will laminate it. THANK YOU!!!!!
Claudia says
Please be aware that the “free” printable version blacks out 90% of the symbols, so printing that version is not useful.
Patti Van Wey says
Tried to print Laundry Symbols
and most of the symbols were blacked out.
How do I get it to print with all symbols?
Barb Richards says
Thanks so much for offering this great printable! Very much appreciated, Barb from New Zealand
Gerrie Grotaers says
Hi, could you please tell me how I can download the free PDF for the laundry chart. I can’t seem to find it. Thanks. Love your ideas
Ashley says
If you look under the list of what you will need: the bullets that says “washing instructions symbols” in purple, is a link. If you click it it’ll take you to a printable pdf .
Joan McQuown says
The letter P is at the end of the care symbols. Don’t know what it means.
Amanda Formaro says
Hi Joan! The letter P = For clothes that are dry clean only, the circle has a letter ‘P’ inside it.