Cleaning Kleenex
I always go through my pockets before I put my clothes in the washer. But it’s inevitable that every now and then I’ll miss something, and that something has traditionally been a Kleenex.
It used to be that, when that happened, I’d open the washer and the clothes would be covered with fine, shredded particles of white stuff, almost as small as lint. Everywhere. Sometimes the dryer would get a lot of it but not all, and usually that meant I had to wash the clothing all over again. Sometimes even that wasn’t enough.
But the last few times the dread Kleenex-in-the-wash has happened, I’ve noticed something new: the Kleenex doesn’t shred. The only sign that there was a Kleenex in there at all is that, after the clothes have been dried in the dryer, when I sort them out I discover a lovely, intact, completely clean Kleenex or two among them, looking for all the world as though it just came out of the box.
This is one of the most startling advances of modern technology ever, and as far as I know it has gone almost unremarked on by anyone till now.
[NOTE: Here are instructions on how to deal with Kleenex in the laundry if you have the old-fashioned type problem.]
My wife noticed the same thing. My son habitually carries a lot of tissues jammed in his pockets and we don’t always find them all.
We got a new dryer last year. I had just assumed, after she made the remark that it was the new dryer. But maybe not.
Either way, science is awesome.
I am positively maniacal acout checking pockets for the dreaded stray kleenex, for just the reasons you list. So it has been quite a while since I’ve missed one, therefor I’ve had no occasion to notice the improvement you speak of. It is good news indeed. May I ask, is it all ‘kleenex’ or do you use only a specific brand? I prefer Puffs myself, but Kleenex will do. But never store brand or generic! Having lived in Europe for many years I am a real snob about tissue and TP. I want only the softest, fluffiest to be found and don’t mind paying to have them. 🙂 And I never travel these days without my own roll. But washable Kleenex….now that is news!
LOLOL.
…this was the only thing I’ve read so far this weekend that was optimistically hopeful.
…and indeed, downright helpful.
Thanks Neo.
…and yeah, I think I’m turning off the Internet for the rest of the weekend …I need a break from the end of the world for a day or three.
Having experienced the dreaded, shredded Kleenex in my wash several times, I have also become “positively maniacal” about preventing this, double- and triple-checking each pocket before tossing the item in the washer. But it still happens sometimes!??
My current theory is that the same gremlin who adds or removes single socks (so that they don’t pair up) occasionally tosses in a Kleenex, just to further mess with your head.
This is truly a major advance in facial tissue technology. Which of the 117 types of tissues is able to withstand the rigors of both the washer and dryer?
Or it just might be that your current washing machine is not as good at getting things clean as they were several years back. Thanks to “green” advances, the new machines don’t get clothes as clean as they used to.
Finally, a company that doesn’t sell itself for a technology it promises but doesn’t deliver? A company which just does a good, without extra cost, government intrusion, or busted promises? Really? Perhaps America has a chance if this sort of innovation is true, and continues.
This is why we who live away from civilization and must rely on a septic system have a sign posted in the bathroom that cautions guests not to flush kleenex down the toilet. It does not disintegrate and therefore plugs up the drain field piping. It never was good for the system and is worse now.
Man and Kleenex control sewer system and dryer!
While the gov’t studies many arcane and irrelevant issues (oink oink), capitalism quietly solves the issues.
Good question to ask:
How many cases of AIDS might not have happened if AIDS happened just among women?
Kleenex doesn’t clean perverted gay sex.
(Oh, but you’re such a bully.)
Have we seen who the real bullies are? Of course there were some horrific examples, but now that we have some history on equal power, are we so sure that queers are positive to society? Maybe they’re not? Maybe society learned that and banned them for good reason. Maybe it wasn’t merely Leviticus, but Democritus, which made the ban.
Time to rethink queer freedom. Time to have a frank discussion and look, scientifically, at the results.
Having done laundry for many years, I always check the wife’s pants before they go in. Did the same for the daughter. Wife doesn’t. So far, have only found fragments in the washer and on the clothes.
Got troll?
What in the he** is he talking about????
Sharpie, I think your pharmacy is calling. Pick up your meds.
FogCity and Jim Nicholas:
Check out the PureWash system.
No detergents (septic friendly) and the very latest in technology for clean clothes.
I’ve heard nothing but raves about it.
Does anybody but me have problems commenting here from the Chrome browser?
This is the only site/blog that that occurs for me both on my tablet (chrome) and laptop.
No matter how I clean my pockets when done my washer looks like a wreck between Walmart and Auto Zone tractor trailer trucks.
Does this mean kleenex are now reusable?
Neo – maybe your snot has mutated into some kind of binding polymer that keeps the fibers from breaking down.. You should try experimenting with it and see if it can plug up gutters and such, then you market it as Neoseal. It would be a good product for the shopping channel.
I have had something for years that was sort of like a washable Kleenex. It’s caller a handkerchief. Never disintegrates in the washer, never falls apart under the latest onslaught from my nares.
Ed, your comments show up fine.
Unfortunately, so did Sharpie’s.
Better approach: adopt the personal rule of never putting spent and soiled tissue in your pocket. Instead dispose of them immediately after use. Teach your loved ones the same habit, and be a nazi about the subject. Zero tolerance. Life will improve in at least 2 ways: No more laundry mishaps. No more being a roving pathogen output machine either.
I see the result of the Left rationing care so that the medical supplies for the Ruling Class can become sustainable, has had an early effect on one person so far.
Those medicines are expensive, rare, and only for the Ruling Class in the end.
G Jourbet: what makes you assume the Kleenex in my pockets is “spent and soiled”? I have allergies quite often, and sometimes colds, and when suffering from either I often carry around a spare tissue or two in a pocket. A clean one. The tissues may be somewhat balled up from their sojourn, but they’re not necessarily used at all.
Okay, I take it back.
For the truly obsessed there is a discussion of the Silk vs. Kleenex question in the James Bond book You Only Live Twice.
Just read this entire string of posts, hoping someone would identify the brand of tissue that stays intact – which I believe is the Kleenex brand. I have noticed this phenomenon (intact tissue after having gone through a wash cycle), but only periodically… which is about how often I may have purchased name brand tissues (Kleenex or Puffs). But I’ve never been quite sure which was the amazing wonder brand. However, after the last tissue obliteration disaster, I have sworn that if I can make that determination (which brand stays intact), it will become the ONLY brand EVER in my house – regardless of cost difference! Note: I also check pockets meticulously, but I live with/care for my elderly mom with dementia (standard protocol to stockpile tissues in pockets) and they get missed from time to time. Heavy sigh.