Washing Money Down The Drain

Our latest study looked at how Americans wash their dirty laundry, and more specifically, whether they’re washing it correctly. We surveyed 1,000 American adults and asked them questions related to their laundry habits, how well they follow laundry label instructions, and how much washing clothes improperly costs us.

Key Findings:

• Americans replace $8.2 billion of clothes due to washing their laundry improperly, the equivalent of $31 per adult per year.
• Over 700 million items of clothing are ruined while doing laundry each year, with the typical adult damaging or ruining 2 to 3 garments yearly.
• The most common types of damage are shrinking (73%), color bleeding or fading (69%), and the fabric becoming stretched or warped (31%).
• Over half of adults (55%) cannot identify the laundry symbol for “Do not bleach,” 46% cannot identify the “Machine wash cold” symbol, and 44% cannot identify the “Tumble dry low” symbol. 
• Two-thirds of adults fail to check the laundry instructions with every wash, with 31% of people washing their clothes the same way every single time.

The Cost of Damaged Laundry

Our study of 1,000 adults found that, on average, Americans damage or ruin between 2 and 3 items of clothing per year, spending $44 per person, between those who admitted to damaging their clothes in the past year, or $31 as the national average.

Adjusting for the number of adults in the U.S., this means over 700 million clothes get damaged and ruined each year while people do their laundry, and an estimated $8.2 billion is spent nationally replacing damaged clothes.

Men are slightly more likely to damage their clothing than women, with the typical man admitting that they’ve damaged an average of 2.94 items over the last 12 months, while for women this figure was just 2.45 garments.

Multiplying by the total adult population, men have damaged or ruined a total of 378 million items of clothing by washing their clothes poorly, with women damaging or ruining 327 million. 

Damaged clothes often need replacing, and figures showed that over the past 12 months, the typical man in the US has spent $37 replacing damaged clothes in their laundry, amounting to over $4.8 billion. Women, meanwhile, spent an average of $27 replacing damaged laundry items, at a total expenditure of over $3.5 billion per year.

When it came to the damage itself, our survey found that the leading types of damage people did to their clothing were shrinking (73%), color bleeding or fading (69%), and the fabric becoming stretched or warped (31%).

How are people damaging their clothes in the laundry?

The three core main types of damage that people reported in our survey can all be attributed to how they wash their clothes and whether they follow the correct laundry instructions for their garments. 

When asked how well they knew the symbols on laundry labels, a third (33%) of adults said they knew them well, while 56% said they knew some but not all. To test this, we showed three standard washing instructions that can lead to the three leading types of damage.

‍

When shown the image for “Do not bleach,” more than half (55%) of respondents incorrectly identified the symbol, with over a quarter (27%) believing the image meant “Do not wash.”

More than two-fifths (46%) of respondents were unable to identify the correct symbol for “Machine wash cold”, with more than one-fifth (22%) believing the symbol meant “Hand wash only”, and 18% saying it meant “Rinse only”.

More than two-fifths (44%) incorrectly identified the symbol for “Tumble dry low”. Of the 1,000 respondents, a total of 30% believed the symbol meant either “Air dry only” (15%) or “Tumble dry with no heat” (15%).

People may have been unable to identify the symbols because they’ve never studied or felt the need to check laundry labels on their clothing. Nearly one in four (24%) of respondents said they rarely checked, never checked, or didn’t know clothing had laundry instructions. 

For those who did look at the labels, just a third (33%) said they always checked the laundry label instructions. So what do they do instead?

Nearly one in three (31%) respondents said they wash everything the same way, while 10% just use the default machine settings. This means that more than two-fifths will throw their laundry in the machine and follow the same routine every time, no matter the material, color, or type of garment.

A further 30% of all respondents said that they typically forget or just don’t bother with looking at the laundry labels, while 10% admit they don’t know what any of them mean.

Methodology:

Our survey of 1,000 U.S. adults was conducted on May 19th, 2025, using the PollFish survey platform. We asked our randomised respondents a series of questions related to their laundry cleaning habits, their knowledge of laundry label symbols, and whether they had damaged or ruined any of their clothes in the past 12 months.

To analyze the average number of items and cost, we used weighted averages to estimate the number of items ruined by the typical American and the average cost per person. These figures were then multiplied by the adult population, both men and women, to provide figures on the annual number of damaged clothes and retail spending to replace damaged clothes.

Respondent breakdown (1,000)

• Men: 439 (44%)
• Women: 561 (56%)

• Respondents' ages ranged from 19 to 81

Source:

Census Bureau - Population Data

‍