🧺 Top 10 Pocket Finds (Ranked by “Wait, What?!” Factor)

10. 💄 Nail polish & curlers - The dryer smelled like a beauty pageant.
9. 🔑 Tractor key - Because apparently, laundry day starts on the farm.
8. 🥶 Frozen chimichanga - Still cold. Still confusing.
7. 🪨 Rocks - Collect them, sure. Wash them? Bold move.
6. 💸 $$$$ - Technically the cleanest money we’ve ever seen.
5. 🔫 Loaded handgun - A new spin on “self-defense cycle.”
4. 🪒 Adult bedroom toys - We don’t ask questions, we just sanitize.
3. 🪶 Bong & spoons - A full kitchen and a vibe.
2. 💉 Used hypodermic needle - Not funny, just terrifying.
1. 🌋 Lava lamp - Still glowing, still undefeated.

If laundry could talk, it would probably scream. After years of running wash-and-fold services, I can confidently say: people’s pockets are basically treasure chests of chaos. From half-eaten snacks to weapons of mild destruction, we’ve seen it all. So, grab your dryer sheets and a sense of humor, these are some of the strangest things we’ve ever discovered while doing laundry.

1. The Lava Lamp Incident

Imagine this if you will: a customer drops off their laundry bag, we toss it on the scale, and something inside sloshes. A few minutes later, we unzip the bag and pull out a lava lamp, still half full. Why? How? Did someone just… decide to wash away bad vibes? All I know is, when you’ve got a glowing goo light in your Whites load, you’ve officially reached “weird day at the laundromat” status.

2. Beauty Tools Gone Rogue

Curling irons, hair rollers, nail polish, basically an entire beauty salon in one hamper. One customer dropped off their clothes with not one, not two, but three curling irons tangled in their jeans. Another had nail polish explode mid-spin cycle. Let’s just say the dryer drum was giving Lisa Frank vibes for weeks.

3. The Chimichanga That Time Forgot

This one still haunts us. We once found a semi-frozen chimichanga wrapped not so neatly in foil inside a hoodie pocket. It was perfectly preserved, like a tiny Mexican time capsule. The customer’s reaction? A casual, “Oh, I wondered where that went.” Look, we’re all for meal prep, but maybe not in your sweatshirt.

4. The “Adults-Only” Discoveries

Let’s just say some pockets should come with a parental advisory label. We’ve pulled out more “personal entertainment devices” than we can count, and the reactions range from full-blown embarrassment to “Oh, you found it! Thanks!” Pro tip: if you wouldn’t hand it to your grandma, don’t drop it off in your laundry bag.

5. Locked, Loaded, and... Laundered

We’ve found hundreds of shotgun shells, bullets, and even loaded handguns (yes, plural). The first time it happened, we thought someone was filming an episode of CSI: Wash Bar. We live in Oklahoma, where open carry is legal, so the first time we found a loaded 9 mil in the washers, it was bizarre, but not alarming. We see people carrying guns on their hips everyday. But I'll tell you one thing, its a little unnerving to walk by and unattended washer at one of our laundromats to hear a horrible clanging and look inside during the spin cycle to see a hand gun being thrown around like a rag doll.

6. The Needle Scare

This one wasn’t funny, but it’s important. One of our attendants was once poked by a used hypodermic needle hidden in a pocket. She had to go through 30 days of medical treatments and testing to make sure she didn’t contract anything. Thankfully, she recovered just fine, but it was a reminder that we’re not just folding shirts, we’re handling other people’s lives (and sometimes, their bad decisions).

7. Money Laundering (Literally)

On a lighter note, we’ve also found thousands of dollars in cash tucked inside jeans, socks, even pillowcases. Laundered money is a daily occurrence in our stores. For the record, we don’t charge a “finder’s fee.” (But we do accept thank-you coffee.)

8. The Everyday Oddities

Tractor keys, car keys, silverware, rocks, machetes, bongs, mice, roaches, you name it, we’ve fished it out. At this point, our lost and found looks like a cross between a hardware store and a pirate’s junk drawer.

The Moral of the Story

Before you hand off your laundry, check your pockets. Not just for your sake, but for the safety (and sanity) of the people washing it. You might save yourself a little embarrassment—and save us from another glowing lava lamp in the spin cycle.

And to my fellow laundry pros out there: stay alert, stay safe, and never underestimate the power of a lint trap to tell a story.

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