# Worst thing you've accidentally put in the washing machine **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 24, 2008, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-thing-youve-accidentally-put-in-the-washing-machine/474276 "2008-11-24T17:29:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Driver8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@Driver8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Driver8)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-thing-youve-accidentally-put-in-the-washing-machine/474276/41 "2008-11-25T03:05:29Z")
My worst thing is not the cell phone I managed to wash one day. It is the replacement phone I managed to wash just a few months later. :smack: Not technically what the thread is asking for, but when we moved to Sacramento two months ago we stayed in an extended stay hotel. After I put my clothes in the dryer and go upstairs to work I get a call from the front desk: “Uh, did you have your clothes in the top front dryer?” “Yeah, why?” “Uh … um … maybe you should just come downstairs.” I get to the laundry room, at about the same time as two fire trucks, to discover the dryer had set some of my clothes on fire. Some poor old lady had the privilege of pulling my still on fire underwear from the dryer. Unfortunately even the unburnt items were permanently ruined by the smoke, but the hotel’s insurance was pretty good about reimbursing us. I hope they comped the lady, I think she saved their hotel! ---
**Author:** ![Nutty\_Bunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d07c76/32.png) [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-thing-youve-accidentally-put-in-the-washing-machine/474276/42 "2008-11-25T03:10:23Z")
I’ve washed about 3 lipsticks in my time, but a dirty diaper is the worst thing to accidentally wash. You know the first few months of a baby’s life, when you’re sleep-deprived and mostly on auto-pilot? Instead of tossing the dirty diaper in the trash and the dirty clothes in the laundry? I did the opposite. What a fraking mess that was. It took 3 washes to get the diaper innards out of the laundry. ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-thing-youve-accidentally-put-in-the-washing-machine/474276/43 "2008-11-25T04:13:39Z")
The worst thing would probably be a tube of Chapstick. Washed and dried. Ruined a bunch of clothes. I’ve washed flash drives and flash-based MP3 players several times. Always let them dry for a couple days before trying them, never had a problem. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-thing-youve-accidentally-put-in-the-washing-machine/474276/44 "2008-11-25T05:07:10Z")
> [@Foxy40](#): > > Crayons but what was worse was I didn’t notice them until they went through the dryer. > > What a mess. Me, too. I don’t think a trip through the washer would hurt them, but the dryer is the killer. And I did it to a fairly new dryer with a white interior, so the mess _really_ showed up well. :smack: When I moved out of the house about a year ago, there were still red and blue streaks on the inside of the dryer. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-thing-youve-accidentally-put-in-the-washing-machine/474276/45 "2008-11-25T05:54:31Z")
My last deployment in Afghanistan, I stopped by the laundry contractor on base weekly and picked up one or two gallon sized plastic bags of … bright shiny 5.56mm ball and tracer rounds that were scavenged from the commercial dryers. We had no functioned rounds (not enough heat or primer impact - lots of cloth padding) but the contractor could always tell from the sound when he had bunch of them. Never got anything larger than .50 cal and only two of those. How did they have bullets in the pockets? The troops were always “clearing” the weapons at various entry points. Patrols or convoys were “locked and loaded” - magazines inserted and round chambered. Clearing involved removing the magazine, manually retracting the bolt which would unchamber any round, and dry firing into a sand filled barrel. The round ejected would absentmindedly be put in a pocket somewhere and forgotten about. Guys are not all that great about checking pockets before laundry. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/57b2e6/32.png) [@Quasimodal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodal)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-thing-youve-accidentally-put-in-the-washing-machine/474276/46 "2008-11-25T05:54:55Z")
Cell phone ---
**Author:** ![Sleel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/73ab20/32.png) [@Sleel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleel)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-thing-youve-accidentally-put-in-the-washing-machine/474276/47 "2008-11-25T08:03:26Z")
> [@Crocodiles\_And\_Boulevards](#): > > A cat. > > My mom was drying clothes when I was a kid and had stopped to take a phone call. She’d left the drying machine’s door open and the warm, mostly dry shirts must have seemed like a cozy place to the family cat (his name was Mozart). When she came back to the laundry room, she didn’t think to check inside the machine and just closed the door and turned it on. > > A few minutes later she heard a rhythmic “thump, thump, thump” coming from the laundry room and went to check. She’s a real animal lover, too. We’ve always had cats, horses, dogs, turtles, you name it. She can’t even talk about it without getting choked up, and that had to have been over 10 years ago. My sister did that too when she was about thirteen. Really sucked for her. She felt horribly guilty about it. ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-thing-youve-accidentally-put-in-the-washing-machine/474276/48 "2008-11-25T08:22:01Z")
I’ll be another one to chime in about a cell phone. I washed it then called about getting a replacement under my cell phone insurance. Fifty bucks… down the drain. They sent me an envelope to return it in. By the time the envelope came the phone had miraculously dried out and worked!!! Though it did have a bit of discoloration on the screen… but whatever. The phone was canceled, though, and I had to send it back. At least I was able to get my phone numbers off the thing… I put two bad puns in there. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-thing-youve-accidentally-put-in-the-washing-machine/474276/49 "2008-11-25T15:14:45Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > The item was a package of frozen ground beef, which they wanted to thaw (this was before the age of microwave ovens). The dryer would do that, right? Like that commercial they’re playing-- “Turkey’s defrosted!” ---
**Author:** ![EpicNonsense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c37758/32.png) [@EpicNonsense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EpicNonsense)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-thing-youve-accidentally-put-in-the-washing-machine/474276/50 "2008-11-25T15:18:36Z")
Cigarettes, pens, paper, wallets… they all make for a nice mess. Have never put anything valuable inside of the washing machine. Yet. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-thing-youve-accidentally-put-in-the-washing-machine/474276/51 "2008-11-25T15:26:35Z")
A pack of smokes missing one single cigarette will make more mess than you can comprehend. And tobacco and little paper bits need to be shaken off the clothing and towels and sheets outside, so then your neighbors know you’re a goof too. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-thing-youve-accidentally-put-in-the-washing-machine/474276/52 "2008-11-25T16:57:51Z")
A chain saw chain. :eek: Mr. S had changed the chain on his chainsaw and stuffed the old one in the pocket of his heavy denim work coat. I did not know that when I washed it, and I can be forgetful about checking pockets. ---
**Author:** ![ItsInTheCards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bb73d2/32.png) [@ItsInTheCards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ItsInTheCards)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-thing-youve-accidentally-put-in-the-washing-machine/474276/53 "2008-11-25T17:32:04Z")
All attributable to my 13 yr old son. He has tried to teach two cell phones to swim. (by leaving them in his pockets.) and his ipod. The ipod however survived. I am hoping that he now has learned that cell phones do not swim. (His last one he tried to teach to swim in the ocean. I said something to him to the effect of “I thought you learned that cell phones don’t swim” and his response was “Yeah, mom but it was salt water. I thought it would do better in salt water!” Damn sarcastic little shit. ---
**Author:** ![catflea12](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f6c823/32.png) [@catflea12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catflea12)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-thing-youve-accidentally-put-in-the-washing-machine/474276/54 "2008-11-25T17:56:05Z")
I ran a mouse through the washing machine once. Found it before it hit the dryer, though ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-thing-youve-accidentally-put-in-the-washing-machine/474276/55 "2008-11-26T08:39:58Z")
Heh heh heh. I plead the fifth. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-thing-youve-accidentally-put-in-the-washing-machine/474276/56 "2008-11-26T09:05:06Z")
An antique pocket watch. The repair was … expensive ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-thing-youve-accidentally-put-in-the-washing-machine/474276/57 "2008-11-26T09:36:06Z")
A guy’s phone number that I was actually going to call back. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-thing-youve-accidentally-put-in-the-washing-machine/474276/58 "2008-11-26T09:48:18Z")
A virtually irreplaceable copy (at the time) of _Roderick at Random_ by John Sladek - the sequel to Roderick. I think we’ve tracked down another copy in the last 5 years or so, but this happened 15 or 20 years ago. I had read it before it was laundered into lint, but my husband had just finished _Roderick_ and couldn’t wait to read the next book. Amazingly, he did NOT kill me. I don’t think I’d have up much of a fuss if he had. That would have been justifiable homicide. ---
**Author:** ![CrowJane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a183cd/32.png) [@CrowJane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrowJane)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-thing-youve-accidentally-put-in-the-washing-machine/474276/59 "2008-11-26T13:12:21Z")
My husband’s watch. Tissues. £20 note. Asthma inhaler. Wooden train. Oh, and a small Lego spaceman that got lodged in the machine’s filter, causing it to leak all over the floor. ---
**Author:** ![Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b3f665/32.png) [@Sophistry\_and\_Illusion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sophistry_and_Illusion)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-thing-youve-accidentally-put-in-the-washing-machine/474276/60 "2008-11-26T13:41:29Z")
Not me, but our maid washed an antique silk kimono I brought my wife back from Japan when I was a poor graduate student. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-thing-youve-accidentally-put-in-the-washing-machine/474276.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-thing-youve-accidentally-put-in-the-washing-machine/474276.md?page=4)