There are two types of people in the world: those who pay close attention to care labels when doing laundry, and those who simply chuck it all in.

If you’re one of the former, I have four words for you: “Print this” and “You’re welcome”.

The care label on your garments — i.e. that one you usually snip off the minute you take it home — is actually a pretty handy guide to help keep your clothes looking their best.

But that’s only if you understand what all those random symbols mean.

Fun fact: each one of those primitive little pictures relates to a part of the washing and drying process. These are the most common ones you’ll come across on Aussie wash tags.

WASHING

Anything with a tub in the symbol is related to washing (shocking, I know). It’s more about how you should wash the garment though, giving a little more detail in terms of which setting you should use on your machine, or what temperature is best.

If the garment is machine washable, you may also see dots or numbers inside the bucket symbol with a recommended max temperature.

As a general rule:

• One dot or 30C means wash on cold water setting

• Two dots or 40C means wash on warm water setting

• Four dots or 60C means wash on hot water setting

DRYING

Depending on the material — which you should also be able to see on your garment label — the drying instructions are supposed to help prevent your clothes from shrinking or becoming misshapen post-wash.

But hey, if it was a dirt-cheap tee that you could pretty much see through when you bought it — no amount of air-drying can help you my friend.

There are a few variations of this symbol that crop up from time to time. For instance, if you see two bars below the dryer symbol, use your dryer on the “Delicate” setting.

In terms of air drying, these are usually indicated by a series of squares and lines.

IRONING

Hands up if you’ve ruined more than one piece of clothing because of the damn iron?

I think everyone can relate. Turns out, it may have been avoided if we actually read that pesky insert tag because it comes with ironing instructions too.

DRY CLEANING

Some garments have a better chance of making it out alive if they’re in professional hands. The symbols that indicate plebs like us should step away and let the experts take over usually look like these below. The different letters are actually meant to help the dry cleaner know which process and solvent to use.