People stunned to discover hidden laundry hack that 'unlocks' symbol meanings

Cleaning fans on social media have been left baffled by a simple and quick hack that tells you how to safely clean your clothes, sheets and towels in the washing machine.

Most of the time, it's likely that we just throw all of our laundry into the machine on a 30C wash and don't think too much about it. However, for those items of clothing that need a bit of extra care, it can be difficult to know what to do.

The tiny laundry symbols on each label can be confusing when you don't know what each one means. But fear not, there's no need to spend ages Googling what every individual symbol represents, as there's a much quicker way to go about it if you have a certain type of smartphone.

The laundry experts at cleaning company Fabulosa have shared a simple hack on TikTok for instantly knowing how to wash, dry and iron each item of clothing instantly, and were left wondering how they hadn't tried it before.

Known for its huge range of sweet-smelling cleaning products, the Fabulosa team is no stranger to helping out cleaning fans with their dilemmas. Often sharing helpful hacks and new product launches with their 114.8k followers, each new video is well received - and the laundry hack is no different.

Having amassed 163.6k views and hundreds of saves at the time of writing, it's clear to see that people are keen to try it out, and it couldn't be simpler to do.

All you need to do is grab an item of clothing, towel or anything else you're planning on washing, and locate the label - usually on the inside - that tells you how to launder it.

Then, snap a picture of the label using your iPhone's camera, making sure the laundry symbols can be clearly seen. When you go on to the photo in your camera roll, press the 'i' button on the bottom of the screen, and then tap 'Look up laundry care'.

There you'll see clear instructions on how to wash, dry and iron the garment without the faff of looking up each individual symbol. Captioning the video, Fabulosa said: "New laundry level: Unlocked."

Several people flocked to the comments, tagging their pals to let them know of the hidden hack that could help to make laundry day much easier.

This is thanks to a tool called Visual Look Up, which you should have built-in to your camera if you're on iOS17 or later. It can also help to identify plants and animals, and Android phones boast the Google Lens feature which works in a similar way.

The update was launched in September 2023 - but many people may still be unaware of it. Posting a clip just after the launch, @home_reimagined hailed it as the 'world's best laundry hack'.

Join the Daily Record's WhatsApp community here and get the latest news sent straight to your messages.