Check Your Pockets!

Missing something? Uniform wearers are used to taking their own clothes home and washing them. So after switching to Gallagher Uniform, and having your uniforms washed for you instead, there’s one thing that you should remember to do before turning in yours: check the pockets. All too often, we discover items left behind in the garment bag, in the pockets, and the worst possible destination, the bottom of our washer. It’s one thing to be washed in your home washing machine, but one of our industrial washers? Bad news.

Curious to know what kinds of crazy things we find hiding away in uniforms? Keep on reading, and make a mental note of what to look for in your garments before you or your team turns them in!

Flash Drives

This one may be going out of style in the next few years, and may not be a regular office item for much longer, but for now, it remains one of the most common items we find lost in the mix. These often contain very important files, documents, or pictures, and are easily susceptible to water damage. They may remain physically intact after the wash, but that’s about it. Usually the water damage doesn’t leave visible harm, but you can pretty much assume that your files are washed away.

Keys

This one seems like it would be a pretty easy one to remember to grab out of your pockets, yet it remains one of our most commonly found items. Nothing’s worse than getting home only to realize that you don’t have your keys to let you in the house, or trying to leave work and realizing your car key fob is gone. Keys usually remain intact after the wash, but after drying and conveyor belt transport, you might find it to be a little bent or warped from its original form.

Wedding Rings

Wait, what? How do these end up in uniforms and then our washers? Some of our uniform wearers get down and dirty while on the job, and they wish to keep their wedding rings clean and safe. So, they take their ring off their finger and store it in a pocket for safe keeping. While this may be a good idea, it only stays that way if you remember you took off the ring in the first place, and if you forget, you’ll be in far more trouble than if it were only a dirty ring instead of a missing one. We recommend storing valuable items like these in a locker if your workplace provides you with one, or just leave it at home on days you know will be messier than others.

Miscellaneous Tools and Objects

Our catch-all category, we find plenty of random things in our facility. We find things like box cutters and small knives, magnetic name tags, watches, and even large bowls and plates. While we are sometimes puzzled as to how these items make it into the garment bag, we understand that a busy day can get the best of anyone.

Give the Uniform a Double-Check

Through our many years serving the communities of Michigan and now Northern Indiana, we’ve gotten to learn more about our customers and their teams by finding the trinkets left behind in pockets and inside the garment bag. We have quite the collection! However, we’d prefer to limit this, so we encourage uniform wearers, and all people in general, to check your pockets before you toss clothes in the laundry.

If You Know You’ve Lost an Item, Call!

We do get weekly calls from clients asking if we’ve found anything they’re missing, and we HIGHLY encourage this! The sooner you call, the better, as sometimes we can catch the item in check-in before garments are sorted and placed in the wash. If you know you’ve lost something, just give us a call; we’ll gather your contact information, look for the missing item in our lost and found or at check-in, and then contact you if we do or don’t find the item. If we do have it, you’re more than welcome to come pick it up right here at Gallagher, or if you’re comfortable, we’ll send it in a sealed envelope with your route representative to drop off at their next delivery date.

All kidding aside, these are (mostly) valuable items for employees, and they can also cause damage to equipment – washers, dryers, and conveyors especially. Not to mention potential damage to the human when they explain they lost ALL of their summer vacation photos, that large presentation, or their wedding ring because they left something in their pockets. So next time, before your route representative makes a stop, be sure to remind yourself and your team to dig through their pockets!