This is a guide. Sections marked Our advice are guidance from our editors; every fact is cited and linked to its source. Informational, not legal or financial advice.

Part of our guide: Liftoff: A guide for families and young adults.

The tag sewn into a shirt is not a suggestion from a marketing team. It is required by a federal rule, and its short phrases have exact meanings. Here is how to read one, so your first load of laundry on your own goes better than the one in our comedy sketch.

Why the tag is there

The Federal Trade Commission's Care Labeling Rule requires manufacturers and importers of clothing to give "regular care instructions at the time such products are sold" (16 CFR 423.3). A care label is defined as a permanent label that "will not become separated from the product and will remain legible during the useful life of the product" (16 CFR 423.1(a)). The rule makes it an unfair or deceptive practice for a maker to sell clothing without care instructions, or without a warning when part of the normal cleaning process would harm the item "or others being cleaned with it" (16 CFR 423.5(a)). Makers must also have "a reasonable basis" for the instructions, such as test results or industry expertise (16 CFR 423.6(c)).

That last part matters to you. If a label says "wash with like colors," the maker is telling you that the shirt can bleed onto other clothes.

Washing: what the words mean

The label must say whether to wash by hand or by machine, and give a water temperature such as cold, warm or hot. If hot water up to 145 degrees F would not harm the item, the label does not have to list a temperature at all. A label that says only "Machine wash" means hot, warm or cold water can be used (16 CFR 423.6(b)(1)(i)).

The rule's glossary puts numbers on those words for machine washing (Appendix A to Part 423):

  • Hot: initial water temperature of 112 to 145 degrees F.
  • Warm: 87 to 111 degrees F.
  • Cold: up to 86 degrees F.
  • Delicate or gentle cycle: slow agitation and reduced time.
  • With like colors: with colors of similar hue and intensity.
  • Wash inside out: turn the item inside out to protect the face of the fabric.

Drying: the step that shrinks things

The label must say whether to dry by machine or another way. If machine drying is allowed, it must give a temperature unless a high setting is safe. "Tumble dry" alone means a high, medium or low setting can be used (16 CFR 423.6(b)(1)(ii)). In the glossary, "Dry flat" means lay the item out horizontally to dry, "Line dry" means hang it damp from a line or bar, and "Remove promptly" means take it out as soon as it is dry to prevent wrinkling (Appendix A).

Bleach and ironing

If every common bleach is safe, the label does not need to mention bleach. If all bleaches would harm the item, it must say "No bleach" or "Do not bleach." If chlorine bleach would cause harm but non-chlorine bleach would not, it must say "Only non-chlorine bleach, when needed" (16 CFR 423.6(b)(1)(iv)). Ironing only has to appear when the item regularly needs it or when ironing would cause harm. In the glossary, "Cool iron" means the lowest temperature setting and "Warm iron" means a medium setting (Appendix A).

What silence on a tag means

A missing instruction often tells you something too. The rule says warnings are not needed for a method that is simply an alternative to the one on the label. Its own example is that a tag reading "Dry flat" does not also need to say "Do not tumble dry" (16 CFR 423.6(b)(1)(v)). So read the instruction as the safe method, not as one option among many.

Some clothes have no permanent label at all. A fully reversible item with no pockets is exempt, and so is an item that can safely be washed hot, dried high, ironed hot, bleached with any bleach and dry-cleaned with any solvent. In that case the tag or package must say "wash or dry clean, any normal method" (16 CFR 423.8). Labels may also use the ASTM care symbols instead of words (16 CFR 423.8(g)).

Our advice

  • Sort by the tag, not just by color. Make a pile for anything that says "with like colors," "separately" or "cold," and wash that pile cold.
  • When in doubt, go cooler. Cold water and a low dryer setting are the gentlest choices on the label scale above.
  • Treat "Dry flat" and "Line dry" as rules. Those items are the ones most likely to come out of a hot dryer smaller.
  • Photograph the tag on anything new and pricey. Then you still have the instructions if the label gets cut out.

Sources: Federal Trade Commission, Care Labeling Rule, 16 CFR Part 423 (Electronic Code of Federal Regulations), sections 423.1, 423.3, 423.5, 423.6 and 423.8 and Appendix A.

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