How often do you pay attention to the labels on clothes? Usually we just grab our dirty clothes and bung them in the washing machine without thinking twice.

But the symbols on your clothes tell you exactly what you need to know about how to wash your beloved sweaters and shirts.

What's most important is knowing whether you should even machine wash your clothes at all.

There are up to five symbols on clothing labels, and they are there to help prolong the life of clothes. However, many people admit to not knowing what they all mean - including the triangle which can be shown in four different ways.

Which? Recently posted a TikTok explainer showing exactly what each symbol means.

Firstly, the most important symbol to take note of is a tub of water with two lines crossed through it, which means you should not machine wash your clothes at all. Not even on a delicate cycle.

If your clothing item has a tub with water sign it means it can go in the washing machine. The tub usually also has numbers - such as 30 or 60 - showing what temperature the clothes can be washed at.

One line underneath the tub is for synthetics at a slower spin speed, and two lines mean gentle or wool cycle.

Some washing machines might have a hand wash feature which can be used for clothes with labels that show a tub of water and a hand symbol.

A triangle with a cross on it means do not use any bleach on the clothing item, the circle symbol means dry clean only.

You can even find out how to dry your clothes with the symbols - a square with a circle inside it which is crossed out means you cannot tumble dry it, only air dry.

Additionally a twisting sign with a cross on it means do not twist the clothing as it can damage it.