Wash Day Blues

tawnyowls

iceicebaby wrote:

I live on my own and I seem to generate a ton of washing! about 5 loads a week.
1 load or whites, 1 load of darks, 1 load of coloureds, 1 load of bedding and 1 load or towels!
God help me if my OH lived here or I had children I dont know how I would cope
I suppose I generate so much as I have clean clothes each day, also clean pyjamas every night. If I go out then thats a second change of clothes in a day. Also change my bed every week to!

Im I being to "extravagant" do u think ?

That does seem a tad OTT, especially with the PJs. I do think there's room for cutting down on the washing a bit - most times, outer clothes just need freshening on the line if they've only been worn for a day. In any case, even with a change of clothes every day (so presumably 7 pairs of PJs, 7 work 'bottoms' & 7 tops, possibly 7 jumpers, plus socks and undies), how do you manage to get 3 loads of washing out of that? Couldn't you just have 1 dark and 1 light, and wash the whites with the towels, and the pyjamas with the bedding? Or do you use 7 towels as well?

henhog

Hi
I wash nearly every night and also dry the clothes from last night's wash in the tumble drier over night - all on economy seven.
A while ago I had a huge ironing pile - OMG - it was soooo big I either had to move house or do something about it, so I resigned my self to a week of ironing every night, and after a full day at work that was so depressing. I went upstairs to do the ironing, when I had a brain wave! I just put all the unironed clothes away in the wardrobes and drawers! It took half an hour and I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.
Now, I take the stuff out of the TD (or off the line in the summer) and put it all away - no ironing. I have discovered that most things don't need ironing, and those that do can be ironed quickly in the morning.
This really has changed my life - and leaves me with more time to do things I like! :beer:

lil_me

Henhog I also detest ironing and it never stays nice in the drawers, I iron the childrens school clothes once a week, with clean for each day, and hang those, the rest goes away straight away and is ironed if required. Shirts etc ironed but I intentionally about the easy iron tops etc for me and DP and most items just don't need it. First thing I think of if buying new clothes is will it need ironing lol! I used to love it, even ironed all the terry nappies and towels etc when the children were little, but over the last year I have lost interest. Probably saves me on elcetric too

iceicebaby

tawnyowls wrote:

That does seem a tad OTT, especially with the PJs. I do think there's room for cutting down on the washing a bit - most times, outer clothes just need freshening on the line if they've only been worn for a day. In any case, even with a change of clothes every day (so presumably 7 pairs of PJs, 7 work 'bottoms' & 7 tops, possibly 7 jumpers, plus socks and undies), how do you manage to get 3 loads of washing out of that? Couldn't you just have 1 dark and 1 light, and wash the whites with the towels, and the pyjamas with the bedding? Or do you use 7 towels as well?

Hmmm ill try the whites with the towels and pj's with bedding. Not thought of it like that. Thanks x

lil_me

Careful not to make your machine unbalanced, that is what broke mine, I stick to putting similar weights in a wash as I can't afford another Washing Machine! My current one won't spin if unbalanced which I suppose is a good thing, but leaves washing saturated http://www.washerhelp.co.uk/usage.html this offers advice on not overloading and causing machines to be unbalanced, I would far rather do an extra wash than break my machine.

tawnyowls

This is true - a WM drum is basically a centrifuge. When loading, you should try to alternate sizes (i.e. don't put all the big things in and then a few small things on top). However, putting a few extra things in with towels is highly unikely to harm it. You're far more likely to end up with an unbalanced load if you underload than if you overload (as the link above points out, and hence the reason why many manufacturers warn more about underloading, especially at high spin speeds (https://www.servisuk.co.uk/DOWNLOADS/installation_downloads/Washing%20Machine%20Handbook.pdf). The ideal load is to have the drum full apart from a space at the top big enough to shove your arm into. That's always been my rule of thumb (arm?), and as I've had one WM last me 14 years and a second entering its 9th year of service, I reckon it works!