I propose that for all of the high and mighty customer support / IT people in the world who mutter "RTFM" under their breath at lusers, we create a new acronym: RTFL. Read the Fucking Label. It amazes me that such an elite band of people seem to have such a hard time with something as simple as reading a care label on a piece of clothing.

Washing machines generally come with more than one setting. They are not quite so simple as ON or OFF, yet they are nowhere near as complex as coding a program in C++. One has the option of HOT, WARM, or COLD water, then HEAVY DUTY, PERMANENT PRESS, or GENTLE/KNIT. On the tag which is sewn into every article of clothing which is manufactured by someone other than your mother, there are care instructions. They read something like this: Machine wash cold, gentle cycle. Line Dry. Do not iron. Such articles of clothing should not go into the washing machine on HEAVY DUTY, HOT. Nor should they go into the dryer on HIGH HEAT, MORE DRY.

Use the different settings. The general wrong method is to simply wash everything in hot water, then throw it in the dryer on high heat for the longest period of time. Hey, you figure, this will get it cleaner faster! Wrong. You do not know how to do laundry correctly, unless you are washing towels or underwear. This is not an excuse for your lazy ass not to do laundry. "I don't know how to wash that sort of stuff" does not cut it. If I can install memory, you can wash articles of clothing with instructions on them that are easy enough for a 4th grader to understand.

The ON/OFF method of laundry is often the reason that your wife/girlfriend/mother/sister has to go to Victoria's Secret to buy a new bra. The elastic has been disintegrated by the gas dryer that it never should have been acquainted with.

Summarizing, make life easier on everyone around you. When you clean the bits of Chicken McNuggets out of your keyboard (if you ever do), do you do so with a scrub brush? No? Then don't wash my bras as though they are coveralls you borrowed from the mechanic.