Inquiring minds want to know

[TwoTankAmin]

As a bachelor I have been doing my own laundry for many decades. I will also confess to the fact that, when it comes to underwear, I have always worn briefs.

A long time ago I noticed that the dryer likes to eat a sock now and then because I can put in 6 pairs but then take out 5 pairs and one orphan sock. I know somewhere in the universe there is a sock belt circling some planet.

But here is the mystery I cannot figure out. When I put my brief into the washing machine followed by the drier, I,put them in the same way I wear them, with the label inside. However, when they come from the dryer, they are all then inside out. I have to invert them before I fold them and put them into a dresser drawer. It finally dawned on me that I should be able to turn them inside out before washing and drying them and they then should invert and come from the drier ready wear. So of course I tried just that. To my surprise. all of them came from the dryer still inside out. They did not reverse.

I am baffled by this. Is there a ghost in our house? My mom did pass away here, but she would not be treating me like this, so I have ruled out the supernatural. Could there be some force in the universe that is out to annoy me by turning my briefs inside out when I put them into the washer/dryer in their normal configuration? I have not bothered to check where it is they invert. The laundry is a mass of very damp clothes all mixed up when it goes from washer to drier, so I have never looked to see if the briefs were one way or the other at that time.

Anybody who may have an explanation please let me know what is going on here. Are there evil laundry sprites who do this? Do briefs have a desire to be inside out and manage it on their own. If so I am glad they cannot bite.

 

[GaryE]

There is no shorts answer, but there was a brief paper by Unterhosen, Boxer and Bequini that looked at the issue. It's with my lost socks though, and I can't locate it.

 

[Sparx]

It’s the same laundry demon that eats your socks. It turns your underwear inside out because that makes it easier to ingest the nutrients when it’s chewing your briefs.. it’s not going to turn them back to the normal way for you because it’s a demon, and demons aren’t helpful like that. It turns them inside out, chews them up and spits them out. Nothing you can do about it, nor the fact that it eats socks

 

[Back in the fold]

Where’s Jesse White when we need him ?

 

[MaloK]

Aaaaaaah...

The age-old mystery of the inverted briefs. It's a perplexing phenomenon that has baffled many laundry enthusiast around the world since the invention of the tumbling action dryer.

Some believe that the laundry load dynamics, the fabric and design plays a critical role in influencing how briefs behaves in the dryer. Some brands like Fruit-of-the-looms seems less prone to the problem than other ones.

I finally was forced to embrace the mystery and consider a new laundry folding technique that manages to accommodate the recurring inverted briefs occurrences.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Well this old Latin phrase may give us a clue: Semper ubi sub ubi

 

[Colin_T]

The solution to the problem is wearing tie side or velcro sided underwear. You don't have the sides done up when washing so the underwear is the correct side out and inside out at the same time. It's a Schrödinger's Cat for the washing machine demon.