the items of clothing 2 these are suspended in the housing 1 by the hanging devices 4 as described previously the transport belts also move in the clockwise direction in this exemplary embodiment first of all the items of clothing 2 are wetted with fresh water by the wetting nozzles 9 the items of clothing 2 are then moved onward to the washing nozzles 10 by which they are sprayed with washing liquid which is produced in the washing apparatus 19 by injecting detergent into fresh water the washing liquid is pumped out of the sump 18 in circulation by the washing apparatus 19 is heated and sprayed onto the items of clothing 2 so that contaminants are rinsed out following washing the washing liquid is pumped away by the discharge pump 12 and the items of clothing 2 are rinsed in order to rinse washing liquid and residues of the contaminants out for such a purpose fresh water is sprayed onto the items of clothing 2 by the rinsing nozzles 11 in a number of rinsing passes and is pumped away the rinsing procedure can be configured as in the previous exemplary embodiment following rinsing the items of clothing 2 are further dried mechanically by the nonwoven 20 for such purpose the distance between the nonwoven 20 and the pressure roller 21 is reduced to such an extent that an item of clothing 2 moved through is pressed against the nonwoven 20 by the pressure roller 21 in the process the highly absorbent material of the nonwoven 20 extracts further moisture from the item of clothing 2 the moisture picked up by the nonwoven 20 is pressed out again.