You know those hieroglyphic-like laundry symbols on clothing labels? They relay important cleaning information. Here's what they mean and how to use them. The post A Guide to Laundry Symbols: Find ...

The tags on our clothing contain very handy washing instructions, though some have know idea what many of these mean. Here's a breakdown of each symbol.

Dry cleaning symbols. A circle symbol relates to dry cleaning. Some clothes won't fare well under the rigours of your washing machine and can only be dry cleaned. And while we said you can take some ...

While some clothing labels provide written-out instructions like “dry clean only,” others only come with a bunch of symbols that look like some sort of secret code.

WHAT IT MEANS: Dry-clean. WHAT IT REALLY MEANS: Always take delicate fabrics like silk to a dry cleaner. You can hand-wash some stuff yourself, but it’s risky.

Care labels with ironing instructions contain an iron symbol with dots for the temperature setting. No dots indicates the clothing is safe to iron at any temperature.

Of the symbols, “hand wash only ... Dry clean with any solvent except trichloroethylene. 18) Dry clean with petroleum solvents only. 19) Do not dry clean. 20) Dry clean only.