Hints from Rabbi Heloise

Last week I brought you the laundry of the future. Today, laundry tips from the past, straight from the Babylonian Talmud (Shabbat 19a - also here):

Said Rabbi Tzadok, "Such was the practice of the followers of Rabban Gamliel: They would give white clothes to the laundry three days before Shabbat, and colored clothes even on Erev Shabbat. And from their words we learned that whites are harder to clean than colors."

Abayyei gave a colored garment to the laundry. He asked, "How much do you want for it?" He said, "The same as for white." He responded, "The rabbis have already anticipated you!" [i.e., they said that colors should be cheaper to launder than whites]

Said Abayyei, "One who gives a garment to the laundry should measure it when he gives it in and measure it when he gets it back. For if it is larger he ruined it by stretching, and if it is smaller he ruined it by shrinkage."