How many loads of washing a week?

valk_scot

jackieb wrote: »

I wash duvets at least twice a week, that's not including bedding. .

Have you ever thought of using indoor weight sleeping bags for the bedwetters? They are polyester filled and you don't need liners for them so you'd just be washing a bag plus bottom sheet each time rather than duvet, duvet cover and bottom sheet. A duvet is bulky so you'd presumably be washing them individually wheras you'd get two of the bags in at once. Also, they won't disintegrate with repeated washings like duvets will. Also sleeping bags are warmer in winter because no drafty edges. Most kids like them too!

valk_scot

Reverbe wrote: »

Thanks for sympathising Bitter. TBH its much more annoying that we havent had a working fridge/freezer since it stopepd working last Summer But I can not get over the laundrette cost..as I have outlined on MSE boards before in reply to a post by Martin. it costs 2 bus fares at approx #1.20-30 each..5 , 6 or 7 in a washer and a few quid in dryers as cant take it home wet as have only a line hung over bath to dry on..:(

I do all the same as you did.. most clothes dont actually get dirty and I have a good stock of pants, socks hankies etc.. pjs IF worn get worn with undies under and I dont sweat so dont get that dirty either. Towels are individually used person by person and hung on the boiler to dry between uses..fmate tends to have a good wash more than have a shower due to time. We have about 5 tea towels and the bedding gets washed when it needs it..I do do handwashing between washes but dont really trust my skill at this to gte them really clean so do iton a make do basis until I can go to laundrette (time .money, etc) similarly some items get handwashed ie work uniform/items when I was working at Xmas as worked all day every day and didnt have time to go to the laundrette.

When I was a student and stoney broke I didn't use the launderette for two years, except if I was on a holiday. I washed everything by hand, as did my flatmates. We used to throw all the bedding into the bath and leap around on top of it like we were treading grapes. We used the water one of us had just bathed in plus some extra detergent, and rinsed in cold. We would wring the wet stuff out between two of us and drip dry out the back windowm then over the bannisters. We washed the rest of our clothes out individually, every second night in turns, in the kitchen sink. It got the clothes as clean as a washing machine...in some ways better because you can scrubb out marks individually. We did have an old washboard though! Then someone's mum gave us an old fashioned spinner and that was great because it spun all the water out.

ragz_2

My washing machine instructions say to leave a hand width (like when measuring a horse) clear at the top of the drum, so I always check now to make sure I'm not over loading. Our machine is only 5kg but I can still get 3 sets of single bedding in it.

I also wash nappies, 60 degrees even thought they say only 40, as I found they smelled otherwise. 60 kills off smelly bugs, but more than 60 and the bio powder doesn't work (which is why my whites were not getting white on a 90 wash).

I use waitrose essential sensitive liquid (£3 20 washes) for the kids as DS2 has eczema, it's great, unscented but washing still smells nice... and I can use that at high temps when I need to.

Bedding is always washed at 60, cloths go in with whatever else but a higher temp if I can, I would never wash at less than 40, I don't see it getting things clean.

I wash my knickers with everything else, it never made me ill!

Oh, I wear an apron when cooking and cleaning, saves getting clothes mucky, plus if I don't have to get 'dressed' I will stay in pjs/sweats and clean in them.

Valk_Scot I've known other people do that who don't own washing machines, it always sounded like fun!
When we were in caravans with no electric my Mum used to have to wash outside in a big bucket, not fun in the winter! Our whites were never white

threemuttleys

a daily wash here. that way it doesnt build up, and I dont end up with no socks/huge piles of clothes that I CBA to put away

VJW87

Two to three washes per week, my husband and I both work shifts so have to try and work washing around shifts so we have enough clean clothes!! All generally dried inside, again because I work nights... if I put a washing out and it rains through the day I'm not getting up to bring it in, pfft!

valk_scot

Flibsey wrote: »

. husband's Gi needs washing after every karate class, which is generaly once a week on average but if he's off work he does more. it's hoooooorrible but if I leave it to him to do it, we'll get to the next class and it'll be mouldering in a pile where he's forgotten it.

Well, let it? He's an adult...can't he look after his own kit? We've got a rule in this house that if it's not in the laundry basket it doesn't get washed and tough if you then have to wear rancid clothes that day. They only do it once!

valk_scot

dibuzz wrote: »

At least 4 loads a day and I'm still playing catch up
2 of my kids play rugby and their shorts are white, I've already washed them but they need another.
Seriously, it must have been a man who designed the kit!
Doesn't help that they can only be washed on a 30 degree wash so it's a nightmare getting them clean just to be covered in mud again the following Sunday.

My son plays rugby..two training sessions a week and one or two matches at the weekend. Match shorts have white panels...I find Fairy liquid and a nail brush helps. However he keeps his match kit just for matches..if it's a training day he wears plain navy rugby shorts and any old rugby top out the charity shop. The worst to wash is the body armour btw...son is a prop and needs padding..it gets soaked in a bucket of cold water after every session to get the sweat, blood and mud out.

I'd have a word with your sons' coach about kit. If they want white for matches fine, but for training it's totally ridiculous.

GreyQueen

ragz wrote: »

My washing machine instructions say to leave a hand width (like when measuring a horse) clear at the top of the drum, so I always check now to make sure I'm not over loading. Our machine is only 5kg but I can still get 3 sets of single bedding in it.

I also wash nappies, 60 degrees even thought they say only 40, as I found they smelled otherwise. 60 kills off smelly bugs, but more than 60 and the bio powder doesn't work (which is why my whites were not getting white on a 90 wash).

I use waitrose essential sensitive liquid (£3 20 washes) for the kids as DS2 has eczema, it's great, unscented but washing still smells nice... and I can use that at high temps when I need to.

Bedding is always washed at 60, cloths go in with whatever else but a higher temp if I can, I would never wash at less than 40, I don't see it getting things clean.

I wash my knickers with everything else, it never made me ill!

Oh, I wear an apron when cooking and cleaning, saves getting clothes mucky, plus if I don't have to get 'dressed' I will stay in pjs/sweats and clean in them.

Valk_Scot I've known other people do that who don't own washing machines, it always sounded like fun!
When we were in caravans with no electric my Mum used to have to wash outside in a big bucket, not fun in the winter! Our whites were never white

This is excellent advice. One thing I notice from observing the older women of the family, who are now in their 70s and 80s, is that they are careful of their clothes. Not because we're posh (common-as-muck rural working class) but because their habits were formed pre-automatic machines when laundry was so much more of a PITA. Clothes were also proportionately more expensive, in relation to income, than they are at present, although that may well change.

What the older ladies tend to do is wear hip-length tabard-type pinnies, are slightly more modern take on those cotton floral cross-over pinnies that I can see on photos of my great-grannies pre WW2. This keeps your upper body covered front and back but your arms uncovered. They have "house clothes" to wear under the pinnies to do chores etc and then change into something tidier to go out to the shops and much tidier for social calls, trips out or to church.

This meant that they had several sets of clothes on the go at once but that they were lightly used and that they never risked splattering up decent stuff with food prep or cleaning materials.

The old boys who worked on the land would have trousers and shirts and over those would wear boilersuits which would catch the worst of the dirt as well as keep them warmer. It was very common to wash the men's workclothes separately from their own and the kids and the household textiles because they'd be so very mucky.

A lot of OS was about boiling things and my pensioner Mum is still pretty keen on boiling teacloths and keeps a dedicated aluminium cauldron exclusively for that purpose. She'd clean enough but would never be described as particularly houseproud but has a bit of a thing about dingy whites; she loathes them.

In times past, before laundry detergents became so effective, it was much harder to keep a spotless home and women really prided themselves on the quality of their housework.

valk_scot

kittie wrote: »

:eek:I don`t ever wash tea towels with knickers or boxers. They go into a hot wash with other non `stinkies`

Well unless you're economising by not using loo paper or sanitary protection why would they be stinking? Also a 40'C wash with detergent will kill everything necessary off. We're past the days of having to boil everything because of having nits or impetigo. Anyway, bio powder (which is necessary if pants have skid marks or blood on them or you've been mopping up ketchup) won't work over 60'C so a hot wash is a waste of time and money. 90'C washes are a throwback to pre-washing machine + detergent days, when boiling the clothes really was the only way to get them clean.

21st Century, folks. Make use of the technology. Everything that can be machine washed only needs 30'C or 40'C and supermarket detergent to get it clean enough for health!

Any

GreyQueen wrote: »

This meant that they had several sets of clothes on the go at once but that they were lightly used and that they never risked splattering up decent stuff with food prep or cleaning materials.

This is what I do. I think most women do.
When I get home I immediately change into lounge clothes. My nice work clothes (office) would be absolutely knackered pretty soon if I cooked and tidyed and stuff around in them.

And then I change into jeans if I go to the pub or to the shop. It makes sense. I can afford nicer clothes that way, because I know it will last me some time.