Life lesson #3:
Always check your pockets before doing laundry.
I’ve ruined many or lost many possessions over the years through my failure to follow this life lesson: watches, earrings, hair pins, checks, money, etc…. BUT, this weekend this life lesson was solidified.
On Saturday, Craig and I went to an off-roading event called “Mog Fest”. It was fun, but a LOT of dust was involved. We came home covered in a fine mist of it. Craig walked in the door and threw off his clothes to take a shower. Afterward he threw all of his clothes into the washing machine….along with his iPhone 4 that had been in the jeans pocket (It’s probably my fault seeing as how I’m always encouraging him to clean up after himself). It went through an entire wash cycle, so while it’s probably very clean now, it’s probably texted its last text, played its last game, made its last call….you get the idea. Sad day. It’s been sitting in rice since it happened, so maybe a miracle will happen and it will magically turn on. Fingers crossed!
BUT….moral of the story: Check your pockets!
What random items have you lost in the wash?
Have any of you experienced the cell phone in the wash scenario?
What did you do?
Hope you have a great Monday!
xo
{Lauren}
Ohman! I’ve heard people say that putting it in a ziplock baggy with dry rice in the bottom does miracles. May be worth a try!
🙂 I hope you had insurance for it…
Good advise, I’m terrible at checking pockets myself
It’s not your fault he should know where his phone is ha! Men just dont seem to put too much importance of things like that.
The worst I’ve done is leave notes in my pocket. Usually important ones too that are then useless after a wash!
I have washed anything from money to keys, but have yet to wash a cell phone!
Oh, I wish my husband would learn this one! Sucks about the iPhone. My husband always leaves items like screws/nails, weedwhacker strings, etc, in his pockets, and he’s actually broken our dryer! A bunch of stuff got caught in our vent. Maybe one day he’ll learn.
Oh no! I do hope that it can still be fixed or something. I have learned that same lesson too, but it was not too painful because I just managed to shred into pieces my hubby’s precious address book. We lost those contacts forever but I have learned my lesson well.
Honestly I can say I am SO GLAD YOU MADE THIS POST. So far I have washed my boyfriend’s phone, keyless entry clicker & bluetooth headset… he leaves stuff in his pockets and I always forget to check them. I feel so awful about it… i’m glad someone else can share in my pain.. although I am sorry about his phone, that sucks. 🙁
hello Lauren! 🙂 woahh thats really crappy for the iphone to be in wash… and so sorry i cant offer any better advice then what ive heard to leave it in Rice and it will fully dry up then u can try to switch it on as ive heard that that’s possible… no this has not happened to me …. hmmm and so far no random items have been lost of mine in the wash… yes dear check the pockets! 🙂
Cheers! xxx
Awww no! I hope it magically works! What does the rice do?
I did a load of laundry the other day, and when I went to switch it into the dryer, there were these strange, very wet, very small pieces of brown paper-y stuff EVERYWHERE and on EVERYTHING. I was totally confused as to what they might have been until I dug a little deeper into the washer, and found half of a cardboard box of Shout Color Catchers, along with about 6 color catchers that I had not put in with my clothes. Apparently, the box had fallen in the washer without my knowledge, and I had washed the entire box with my laundry. What a mess to clean up!
Moral of the story: Don’t just check your pockets. Check you washer too.
This is a life lesson I DEFINATELY need to learn…I leave money in my pockets all the time, and I actually broke the washing machine when a hair grip in my pocket got lodged in the thingymabob!
Gutted about the iPhone though, I’d be devastated 🙁
AWWW NOOOOO. I’m so sorry, I’m sure you felt so bad when it happened 🙁 I can’t even imagine having to tell Craig about it! How did he react?
I ruined a couple of things in the washer before, but the worst was to leave a PEN in one of the pockets. Our clothes were covered in random streaks of blue ink…it was awful, and there was nothing we could do about it.
Definitely a lesson learned!
I can’t even count how many tubes of lip gloss have met their match in my washing machine.
i have to have chapstick all the time.usually it’s in my purse, but every once in awhile it goes in a pocket. I have lost 4 chapsticks to the wash!! When i find it in there (after it’s been washed) it LOOKS fine on the outside, but when i take off the cap, it’s GONE! The chapstick has dissolved! SO WIERD.
But at least that is cheap! it’s just annoying! YIKES about the iphone!!!!
The worst I’ve washed is the hubby’s wallet. Otherwise I can’t think of anything too bad that I’ve washed…
Oh no. Hope the rice works. Let us know!
I ALWAYS leave things in my pockets. 🙁 GREAT post!
My husband called me at work in a panic once because he washed a load of WHITES (of course) and there was a pen in there as well. Little ink spots on everything!
Sorry to hear about Craig’S iphone. I hope and pray that it miraculously comes back to life so that it can do its jobs.Your Dad is the same, he forgets to clear out his pockets, and I sometimes forget to check,OOPS. My most favorite thing that I love to find in his pockets is money-ones,fives,tens,twenties,etc.-finders keepers!I really don’t mind laying these items out to dry. 🙂
So I’ve never had a cellphone in the wash experience (fingers crossed it’ll never happen), but my dad has both went swimming with his and dropped it in the bathtub while washing my dog. Rice saved his…so here’s hoping it’ll save your husbands.
uh-oh. what’s with the phone in the rice thing? i keep hearing about it. maybe i just like the fact that i have an excuse to get a new phone so i don’t bother exploring the rice option. fortunately, i have never left my phone in my pocket and put it to wash – i’ve left a pack of gum though – oh, no bueno, chica. happy monday!
So sorry to hear about the death of his cell phone. I washed my husband’s very expensive ear buds and he wouldn’t talk to me for a few days. But he left them in his sweatshirt and it was hanging there, dripping in sweat, after a workout at the gym… I had to wash it! That’s how I learned my “check pockets before doing laundry” lesson. Tough and expensive to learn.
Oh no! But it’s not your fault at all! He should know where his phone is! My mom always told me to check the pockets before laundry so I haven’t lost something in the wash..yet
xoxo
because my husband throws his jeans on the floor and i’ve been in a hurry trying to get the laundry done and i wasn’t in the habit to check pockets then, i’ve ruined 3 phones in the last year.
You would have thought that we’d learn our lesson the first time… but no.. we’re hard learners.
This made me laugh…
As not even last week I put a load in of clothes, not really looking just chucked them all in. When I go to change them over, low and behold little tiny silicone gooey ball’s are everywhere. I MEAN EVERYWHERE…. A diaper got put in the wash that was in the back pocket of a pair of my pant’s…Awesome…
I always end up washing my chapstick. This is definitely a good lesson.
Oh no! I hope his phone is fine.
Chapstick… its not a loss so much as a huge grease mess on everything in the load.
oh nooooo!!! I will definitely have to tell Matt about the rice thing. This is the first time I’ve heard of that and he’s ALWAYS spilling stuff on his phone – just last night even!
I always find bobby pins in the dryer, and of course, I when I find them I just set them on top of the dryer instead of putting them away. Then, when I’m flipping out because I don’t have any bobby pins, I have to go all the way down to the laundry room and pick up my pile of squeeky clean pins. : )
Ugh, and Denise, YES, chapstick is the WORST!
Make sure its instant rice and stick the bowl in the fridge sealed up tight…. Fiance works for a phone company and has recovered many a phone 🙂 GOOD LUCK!
Oh nooooos!!! That’s the worst — sorry about your phone!!! Never heard of the rice trick.. hope it works for you!
Oh noes! I hope the phone gets saved. That bites.
P.S.) I know it’s a small consolation, but I have a little giveaway happening on zee blog if you’d like to enter.
Oh no! That is terrible! I have actually never put anything important through the laundry, but I hardly ever use my pockets except for bobby pins…
So sad! I’ve learned this lesson many times, but luckily, only pens were involved. Here’s hoping the phone springs back to life.
MAJOR BUMMER!!! As an iPhone 3GS user, I totally feel Craig’s pain. My father-in-law went swimming with his iPhone in his pocket, and it never recovered. Here’s my advice about how to fix Craig’s phone. First, try the rice, as that is less risky than my solution. But if after a few days of trying the rice, you need to try something else, and you have nothing else to loose,, here’s something else you can try. Thus was a trick we used in Chem class in college. When measuring very precise quantities of powered substance, we would put them in an oven overnight on low heat to remove any excess moisture. One time I accidentally dunked my phone, and it stopped working and I could see moisture in the display. So I put my oven on low and put my phone in there for a few hours. Good news, the moisture cdried up, and my phone worked again. Bad news, I had a small rubber menu button on the phone that slightly melted, so I used too ugh of a temperature (u thnk I used 170 degree). So if you’re going to try this method, I would suggest t something where you can precisely control the heat to about 120 a 130 degrees, like an electronic warming drawer. Good luck!
ugh Lauren I’m sorry!! I’ve dropped a phone in a toilet before and that was also a sad story. In regards to the wash I’ve definitely left jewelry in my pockets that I’ve lost. And sometimes money will get all wet discolored 🙁 I hope it turns back on!!
This is a hillarious post that hits home for me too!!
I had left an open pack of Tridents in my jeans and I guess due to the heat of the water the gums had dissolved and to this day there is still gew in my pocket….. impossible to take it all out !!!
Good luck with the phone
xoxo
Chiara
http://www.joiedevivre-chiara.blogspot.com
I can’t say that I’ve ever put my phone in the wash but I was caught in what is by Kentucky standards a monsoon with my iPhone in my back pocket. By the time I could make it from the football field to my car I quite literally looked like I had been swimming in my clothes. And in some places the water had been deep to swim in. Thankfully, I bought my phone from Best Buy and also purchased their insurance. They sent my phone off and got me a replacement in 2 weeks when they found out it was impossible to fix. I really hope his pops right back on!
THE WORST! A phone! A good phone! And a tres expensive phone:(
Ooh, major bummer! Hopefully the iPhone is more durable than we’d assume.
That literally is the worst. Hopefully the rice will help. Did you try taking it a part a little so that it could dry better? I drenched my phone to where it was dripping and the rice healed it…but that was no washing machine cycle. That sucks SO bad! I broke my husband’s pocket knife that way, but that wasn’t nearly as important. I tell him to check his pockets because I check mine every day before I take them off.
One (very, very dumb) night when I was in college, I bent over the flush the toilet & my Razr & keys fell into the toilet… while I was flushing. They were good & covered in pee, so my next thought was, “OH NO! I have to get the pee off!” What did I do? I put both in the sink and washed them with soap. (I’m sure you can tell I was 100% sober, right?) Of course my phone didn’t work, so I took it home, took it apart, and laid it in front of the fan all night. I knew I couldn’t tell my parents how I had broken my phone and I needed a new one, so I prayed for the best and sure enough, when I put it back together it worked fine! Of course the Razr isn’t quite an iPhone, haha… good luck!