Guess What Went Through The Washing Machine?

Over time I have thrown a lot of stuff in the washer. When I was a smoker I inadvertently washed packs of cigarettes more than once. Nowadays it’s mostly little pieces of paper, the flotsam and jetsam of modern life. Not this time.

Helaine knew something was up when she unloaded the washer dryer&#185 and money started flying out. It wasn’t long before my soggy wallet emerged with a little laundry detergent caked inside.

Here’s what I learned. Most of what’s in my wallet is impervious to water!

Credit cards, insurance cards, my drivers license and the like are all plastic. I’m not sure about the magnetic stripes, but they shouldn’t be affected… should they?

Paper money isn’t actually paper, it’s linen. No problem there. Helaine and I are now money launderers!

My Social Security card and amateur radio license are paper. The Social Security card looks a little worse for wear, but it’s still got the signature of the 13 year old Geoff intact! The story’s the same for the much more recent ham radio ticket.

I would have expected the results to be much worse. It always was with smokes.

&#185 – I thought the wallet only survived the washer, but Helaine has corrected me. My wallet and its contents got the full laundry experience.

15 thoughts on “Guess What Went Through The Washing Machine?”

  1. I did that once, with my husband’s wallet. He had some business cards in there, white. Now pink. Don’t know what turned them pink, either in the wallet or out, but pink they are nonetheless. Laying paper (ok, linen) money out on the dresser to dry out was fun, too.

  2. Please be careful about carrying your Social Security card, Geoff! “They” say you shouldn’t carry it around–easier for the Bad Guys to steal your identity.

  3. I’ve done that and the money was wrinkled. I took a hand towel, put it over the money and ironed it – could not have wrinkled money! 🙂

  4. Geoff,
    I agree with Sandra. Don’t carry your Social Security card. I’ve had my identity hijacked twice. Trust me, you don’t want that headache. Keep it where you can look at that signature and smile, but not in your wallet.
    Mary

  5. One time when I ran a daycare, several parents paid me in cash. I put it in the pocket of my jeans. That night forgot to empty the pockets. Yup, $20 bills hung on an inside clothes line to dry. Gave a new meaning to “money laundering”.

  6. I washed my daughter’s jeans with her iPod Nano in a pocket. It had been a gift from her sister in Colorado and was engraved by Apple. I was horrified! I immediately took out my rice and buried the nano in it. It started coming back slowly. Took about a month but it survived! Thankfully, as I read later, the real kiss of death would have been trying to turn it on right away. Luckily, I had read somewhere about the rice and just buried it in the box and put it on the dining room table so no one would try to cook any rice!

  7. I stopped carrying my social security card because of what people say about identity theft several years ago. I now do not know where the card is…so I need a trip to the SSA office!!

  8. I’m a serial “leave stuff in the pants pocket” person. I’ve had tons of stuff end up in the was from a cheap LG cell phone (died), to USB drives (all survived), and even my wallet.

    If I do the laundry I always try to see what I left in the pockets, but my wife doesn’t always check the pockets. So occasionally something goes in the wash. It’s always something small and minor though. Thankfully I havent fried an iphone or anything expensive.

  9. I’ve always told my hubby that when he leaves money in his pockets and i find it in the laundry, it’s my tip for doing his laundry. I hope Helaine got a good tip that day! 😀

  10. A while back, I had to do the wash at the laundrymat. I loaded the clothes into the dryer and went to a nearby store. When I got back about 15 minutes later, there was a $50 and a couple of $20’s flying around against the glass door. That pretty much taught my boyfriend to empty his pockets.

  11. I totally understand this, I recently laundered a small notebook with important information in it. 🙂 Good for me, the notebook was torn apart, but the pages were still legible. Miss you at Foxx on Fox.

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