![\"Checking](\"https:\/\/wavemaxlaundry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/clean-laundromat-daily.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/figure>\nWhy checking pockets comes before anything else<\/h2>\n
A washing machine is a sealed drum with water in it, and anything that goes in comes back out either in the laundry or in the machine.<\/p>\n
There is no filter that catches a pen. There is no stage of the cycle that separates a coin from a shirt.<\/p>\n
So the only point at which a load can be made safe is before the door closes.<\/p>\n
Checking pockets takes about a minute for a normal basket and it is the highest value minute in the whole trip.<\/p>\n
It also matters more in a large drum than a small one, because a bigger load gives one loose object more fabric to reach.<\/p>\n
The habit matters more than the technique. People who check every time barely notice they are doing it, and people who check whenever they happen to remember are the ones who eventually lose a load.<\/p>\n
What a pen actually does<\/h2>\n
A ballpoint pen that goes through a wash is the classic disaster and the mechanism is worth understanding.<\/p>\n
Ballpoint ink is an oil based paste. It does not dissolve in water and it does not rinse away.<\/p>\n
The wash spreads it. Warm water thins the paste, the tumbling distributes it, and what started as one pen becomes marks on everything in the drum.<\/p>\n
The dryer then sets it. Heat drives oily ink deep into fibre and turns a difficult mark into a permanent one.<\/p>\n
If a pen has already been through a cycle, keep the load wet and out of the dryer while you work on the marks with a solvent such as isopropyl alcohol.<\/p>\n
Gel and rollerball inks behave a little better because they are water based, but they still travel across a load.<\/p>\n
Prevention is one habit rather than a technique. A pen clipped to a chest pocket is the commonest route into a drum, so run a hand over shirt pockets as carefully as trouser pockets.<\/p>\n
Coins, keys and the hard objects<\/h2>\n
Coins are the most common thing checking pockets turns up, and the most consistently damaging.<\/p>\n
In a front loader they migrate to the bottom of the drum and work their way into the rubber boot seal, where they wear a hole.<\/p>\n
In a top loader they sit under the agitator and grind against fabric for the whole cycle.<\/p>\n
Either way they arrive in the dryer eventually, where they hammer the inside of the drum for forty minutes.<\/p>\n
Keys do the same thing with sharper edges. A key ring can open a small tear in a knit that only shows once the garment is dry.<\/p>\n
Screws, bolts and washers out of work trousers are worse again, because they are small enough to pass into places nobody can reach.<\/p>\n
Loose metal is worth catching for a second reason. A small hard object rattling in a dryer sounds exactly like a mechanical fault, and it sends people hunting for a problem that has been sitting in a pocket the whole time.<\/p>\n
Tissues, receipts and everything made of paper<\/h2>\n
A tissue in a pocket does not disappear. It disintegrates.<\/p>\n
Wet paper breaks into thousands of small pieces, and static holds those pieces against fabric once the load is dry.<\/p>\n
Fleece, corduroy and anything with a raised nap holds them worst. Dark clothes show them worst.<\/p>\n
A dryer will not remove them. The lint screen catches some and the rest stays in the weave.<\/p>\n
If it happens, shake every item out hard while it is still damp, then run the load on air with a couple of dryer sheets and vacuum what is left.<\/p>\n
Receipts are worse than tissues, since thermal paper carries a coating that can transfer a grey smear onto light fabric.<\/p>\n
Lip balm, crayons and anything that melts<\/h2>\n
Lip balm is the item people forget most often, and it does more damage than a pen.<\/p>\n
It is wax and oil. Wax survives a wash almost intact, then liquefies in the dryer and soaks into whatever it is touching.<\/p>\n
The result is translucent greasy patches spread across the load, and they do not lift with a normal rewash.<\/p>\n
Crayons behave the same way and add pigment to the problem.<\/p>\n
Chocolate, hand cream and cough sweets all belong in the same category, which is anything that stays solid in cool water and turns liquid at dryer temperature.<\/p>\n
Checking pockets for these matters most on children’s clothes and on coats, since both spend months without being emptied.<\/p>\n
The test is simple. If something would go soft on a warm windowsill, it will certainly melt in a dryer, and it does not belong anywhere near the load.<\/p>\n
Zips, hooks and hair clips<\/h2>\n
Once checking pockets is done, the next pass goes over anything hard on the outside of the garment.<\/p>\n
Close every zip. An open zip is a row of metal teeth dragged across the rest of the load for the whole cycle, and it is the usual cause of pulls in knitwear.<\/p>\n
Fasten every hook and clasp. One open bra hook will find a sleeve and stay in it.<\/p>\n
Do up cuff and collar buttons if the buttonholes have gone loose, since a spinning drum works them open and stretches the hole further.<\/p>\n
Hair clips, grips and elastics come out of hoods and sleeves rather than pockets, so check both.<\/p>\n
Turn a hood out as well. Hoods collect small objects all winter and nobody thinks to look in one.<\/p>\n
Check drawstrings too. A long cord wraps tightly around another garment during a spin and leaves a set of marks that look like a flaw in the fabric.<\/p>\n
Turning things inside out and unrolling what is folded<\/h2>\n
The last pass is about how each garment sits in the water.<\/p>\n
Turn printed shirts inside out. The print then faces the drum wall instead of rubbing against other clothes, and it survives considerably longer.<\/p>\n
Turn dark denim and dark cotton inside out too, since most fading happens on whichever surface takes the abrasion.<\/p>\n
Unroll socks. A balled sock washes only on the outside and comes out of the dryer with the inside still damp.<\/p>\n
Unroll trouser cuffs and shirt sleeves for the same reason, and because a rolled cuff holds grit against itself.<\/p>\n
Shake out anything that has been folded in a basket for a week so that water can reach the whole of it.<\/p>\n
The Tempe part<\/h2>\n
Fine dust is the first desert factor and it changes what ends up inside a garment. Dry ground and open air mean grit finds its way into cuffs, hoods and turnups, and it is abrasive rather than merely dirty. Shaking a garment out before it goes near a drum removes more of it than any cycle setting will, and grit left in a cuff sands the fibre for the length of the wash.<\/p>\n
Heat is the second. A vehicle parked in the sun in summer gets hot enough to soften wax and plastic, so lip balm, crayons and pens left in a bag or a coat are often already liquid before the laundry reaches a machine. That makes checking pockets more urgent here than in a mild climate, because whatever was missed has usually leaked before you arrive.<\/p>\n
Mineral rich water is the third and it changes the repair rather than the prevention. Hard water makes oily marks harder to lift, so ink or wax that has already been through a cycle needs a solvent and a proper soak rather than a hopeful second wash.<\/p>\n
Strong sunlight is the last one and it is an argument for the inside out habit. Ultraviolet light is intense here, and a printed shirt dried outdoors fades quickly, which is one more reason to turn prints before they go anywhere near water.<\/p>\n
Where the load goes once it is checked<\/h2>\n
Checking pockets only pays off if the machine then carries the loosened grit away instead of moving it around.<\/p>\n
The machines at our self-service laundry on East Baseline Road<\/a> move a lot of water through a large drum, which is what lets a full load rinse properly rather than pushing dust off one garment and onto the next.<\/p>\n Our machines and the store are cleaned daily.<\/p>\n Nou wash-dry-fold service<\/a> covers the everyday laundry.<\/p>\n For general guidance, The American Cleaning Institute publishes a laundry basics guide<\/a> that is a useful cross-check.<\/p>\n Checking pockets is the single step that protects a whole load. A ballpoint pen spreads oil based ink across everything in the drum and the dryer then sets it. Coins and keys work into the door seal and grind against fabric. Tissues disintegrate into pieces that static holds in the weave. Lip balm and crayons survive the wash and melt in the dryer into greasy patches. After the pockets, close every zip, fasten every hook, empty hoods and cuffs, turn prints and dark denim inside out, and unroll socks and trouser legs so water reaches the whole garment.<\/p>\n WaveMAX Tempe<\/a> is at 222 E. Baseline Rd., easy to reach from Tempe and the surrounding area. If you have a load that will not fit at home, call us at 480-278-9685<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Every load has a few minutes of work before the water starts, and checking pockets is most of it. A pen that survives a wash cycle can mark forty garments at once. A coin can chew a door seal. Tissues turn into confetti that no dryer will remove. Five minutes at a table saves the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12210,"parent":10497,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"phone_number":"","address":"","times":"","business_hours":"","google_maps_url":"","wdf_price":"","wdf_minimum":"","wdf_standard_price":"","wdf_24_hour_rush_price":"","wdf_includes_hangers":"","wdf_detergent_included":"","wdf_color_sorting":"","wdf_same_day_available":"","wdf_promo_bar_text":"","google_rating":"","facebook_url":"","instagram_url":"","google_review_url":"","promo_bar":"","owner_name":"","neighborhood":"","contact_email":"","app_url":"","ss_price_min":"","ss_price_max":"","ss_dryer_price":"","ss_dryer_minutes":"","num_washers":"","num_dryers":"","pickup_delivery_url":"","pickup_delivery_price":"","testimonial_1_name":"","testimonial_1_text":"","testimonial_1_rating":"","testimonial_2_name":"","testimonial_2_text":"","testimonial_2_rating":"","testimonial_3_name":"","testimonial_3_text":"","testimonial_3_rating":"","city":"","state":"","zip":"","last_wash_time":"","promo_bar_text":"","postal_code":"","location_video_url":"","google_place_id":"","latitude":"","longitude":"","pickup_delivery_available":false,"is_open":false,"ghl_api_token":"","ghl_location_id":"","ghl_webhook_url":"","_et_pb_page_layout":"","local_video_url":"","news_video_html":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-13273","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wavemaxlaundry.com\/ht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wavemaxlaundry.com\/ht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wavemaxlaundry.com\/ht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wavemaxlaundry.com\/ht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wavemaxlaundry.com\/ht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13273"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wavemaxlaundry.com\/ht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13323,"href":"https:\/\/wavemaxlaundry.com\/ht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13273\/revisions\/13323"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wavemaxlaundry.com\/ht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/10497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wavemaxlaundry.com\/ht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wavemaxlaundry.com\/ht\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The short version<\/h2>\n