Ever wash a baseball cap in the dishwasher?

There's an old, dirty baseball cap of my husband's that's been crumpled at the bottom of our hamper for, well, at least four months. I've been avoiding dealing with it given I've somehow never washed a baseball cap before, but after seeing it for the umpteenth time this morning as I went to go do a load of laundry I decided it was high time to take action.

After doing some research, I now realize it's an easier endeavor than I'd have thought. All you do is pretreat the stains with a spot cleaner and then wash it with the rest of your laundry. In this case, the cap is a deeply saturated dark blue, which means I'll throw it in with blacks just in case the color bleeds. There are special molds you can buy to preserve the cap's shape, but I've decided to forgo that step (though if you've got a lot of baseball caps in your household this is something you may want to consider purchasing). The key is not to put it in the dryer-just let it air dry to make sure it doesn't shrink or lose its form.

More interestingly though, I also stumbled on testimonials from people who swear by washing baseball caps on the top rack of their dishwashers. If you have plastic strainers that are roughly the size of your cap, you can sandwich the cap in-between and bind it together with garbage ties and proceed with your usual wash and rinse cycle. Check to make sure your dish detergent doesn't contain bleach, which can lead to spotting or discoloration, and let it air dry (one site recommends letting it rest on a large coffee can to hold its shape). I'm intrigued. Has anyone tried this?

Sources: ehow.com; housewares.about.com; planetgreen.discovery.com