Where the Lost Laundry Goes: A LTC Ombudsman Story
- Carol Lindsay
- Feb 9
- 2 min read
I work with a resident who has been blind since birth.
She reads Braille and was independent for most of her life, until mobility and chronic health problems made 24-hour nursing care necessary.
At resident council this week, when the group began discussing missing laundry, she spoke up.
Three times in the past month, she said, she had been dressed in clothes that weren’t hers.
Each time, she didn’t realize it until another resident or a family member noticed.
“That’s my shirt,” another resident said, accusingly.
“I have a sweater just like that,” a resident said, confused.
“That’s my mom’s nightgown,” her roommate’s daughter said, kindly.
She shared how embarrassed she felt. How she worried people thought she was stealing.
She explained that she was born without optic nerves, and that all the glasses in the world wouldn’t make her see. She said it like she needed to justify the mistake.
Families often ask me,“Where does the laundry go in nursing homes? How does it get lost so often?”
My blind resident has the answer.
It goes into other people’s closets and drawers.
The first mistake happens when clean laundry is returned to the wrong room.
But a second, or third, mistake may follow.
If a resident realizes the clothes aren’t theirs, they may toss them back into the hamper, where they might have another chance to return to the owner.
An aide, moving quickly through a busy shift, doesn’t check the name on the tag. Doesn’t pause to ask, “What would you like to wear?”
The clothes go on.
The resident is dressed in clothes that aren’t theirs.
Eventually, hopefully, the laundry ends up back with the correct owner.
At every facility I visit, there is discussion about laundry in resident council.
One man laughed and said he had two women’s slips in his closet.
“What size are they?” another resident asked. “I’m missing two.”
Another said, “I got four pairs of pants that aren’t mine.”
To which someone responded, “I’m missing four pairs of pants.”
But the clothes don’t always end up in the closets of people who can sort them out.
And the people who are missing them can’t search through other residents’ closets.
Residents on Medicaid have a $45 monthly spending allowance. Replacing lost clothing is often out of reach.
If no one checks, the laundry stays lost.
The person it belongs to doesn’t have it.
The person whose closet it’s in doesn’t wear it.
It sits there until the closet is cleaned out, the resident is discharged, or dies.
Then it may return to the laundry.
Or it may truly be lost forever.
So where does the laundry go?
Most of it is in someone else’s closet.
Except for the socks.
I’m guessing they go where all socks go.
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