Laundry on Chol haMoed

Hi,

When a small stain occurs on a garment, one may clean it on chol hamoed; this is not the type of cleaning forbidden on chol hamoed.

One should not give a garment to someone else to clean, even if that person is not a professional. However, one may do so within a spousal, parental or teacher-student relationship, if the cleaning will not be done professionally.

[Rav Moshe does not explicitly limit this to cleaning for use on chol hamoed or yom tov, but it seems reasonable to assume that this is the case.]

(Rav Moshe Feinstein, Igrot Moshe Orach Chaim 5:36:1)

Have a great day,
Mordechai

Laundry on Chol haMoed

Hi,

One may not do laundry on Chol haMoed (the intermediate days of holidays). This law is intended to encourage people to do laundry before the holiday, so that they will enter the holiday with a clean home and with clean clothes.

There are exceptions to this rule. The major exception is for clothing which will not last 8 days, so that laundering everything right before Yom Tov will not help. Example: Cloth diapers, or other baby clothing which gets dirty with similar frequency. One must still launder as much as possible before the holiday, but in the event of need one may launder it during the Intermediate Days, too.

(Code of Jewish Law Orach Chaim 534:1; Mishneh Berurah 534:7)

Have a great Moed,
Mordechai