Laundry Bags

I used to use laundry bags in college so I could throw my handwash only shirts into the washing machine. I know, who takes handwash only clothes to college? I never had any issue with the strategy, though. If you have a laundry sink, handwashing is definitely the safest way to go but the laundry bags are a great alternative.

I had three bathrooms in my Las Vegas apartment so I designated one sink to handwashing laundry. My current apartment is teeny and only has one bathroom, which means back to the laundry bags I went. I bought this Real Simple set at Bed Bath and Beyond with store credit (yes, I still have some left from my wedding).

I really liked the rounded zipper pull and how the bags were double lined. Both seemed like they would protect my clothes really well. An added feature was that there is a set of snaps to hold the zippers closed while in the wash. My previous wash bags didn't have this feature.

I used my wash bags yesterday. I put my silk nightgown in one (previously handwashed) and a cotton top along with a pair of J's dress socks. Random, but efficient. However, the nightgown bag opened during the wash cycle and my nightgown fell out! I have never had this happen to me in all my years of wash bags, so it is surprising that it happened to the one bag with snaps to hold the zipper closed. Apparently those snaps are not enough? The other bag stayed closed so maybe it was a fluke. The snaps did not come undone, so next time I will just loop the snap fabric around itself to make the whole thing tighter and more secure. Hopefully that will work.

Moral of the story: wash bags are great for handwashing items when you don't have a beautiful laundry set up like we see on Pinterest. But they apparently can open up on you, so take extra precautions to protect your favorite delicates.

P.S. the nightgown was not damaged and we aren't making any money off this post in any way. I just wanted to share my wash bag experience.