Does anyone manage without a washing machine?

whiteguineapig

i am amazed that people find the launderette expensive, maybe they charge more in different areas?
it costs £2.40 to wash here
i use it all the time for drying during the winter months , i don't have a dryer and it costs me about £1.60-£1.80 to dry 2 full loads , i am sure it would cost me more at home, i can be in and out with all washing folded in about 25mins (providing there isn't a que)

Chris25

squiggles wrote: »

There is a clip on youtube showing you how to do laundry with a kitchen salad spinner.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDzqP40sWFQ

bought my mum one & she uses it to spin her washed 'smalls' - it's really efficient .:T

She rarely uses her machine - she folds her bedding, underwear & clothes and steeps them overnight in a bowl, then rinses them in the morning & if possible, puts them to drip-dry on the line.

t/towels & dishcloths are boiled up on the stove & the only things she really likes to machine wash are her towels & duvet.

BitterAndTwisted

whiteguineapig wrote: »

i am amazed that people find the launderette expensive, maybe they charge more in different areas?
it costs £2.40 to wash here
i use it all the time for drying during the winter months , i don't have a dryer and it costs me about £1.60-£1.80 to dry 2 full loads , i am sure it would cost me more at home, i can be in and out with all washing folded in about 25mins (providing there isn't a queue)

The price does vary: at the nearest launderette to me the small machines (about the size of a domestic washer) were £2.50 and the large ones £3.60. It cost me nearly £3 to wash one small load to folding-away dryness in the winter. In the end I hand-washed what I could and only took towels and bedding, and a darks-wash once I had enough to justify the cost of a machine.

At over a fiver a week for the launderette a washing-machine starts to look cheap in comparison. If the initial outlay can be afforded, of course: which was my handicap. I had to buy one second- hand

whiteguineapig

yes you are right , i hadn't thought out the cost of washing, i have a miele washer which was expensive but worth it, i go to the laundry all winter, i also have a jar in the cupboard and each week during the summer months i am putting away about a pound of 20ps to spread out the cost
i spend about £3.60 a week during the winter i guess and thats for drying only,
i think thats a real bargain, i'm sure it would cost more at home if i had a dryer

sunnyone

Oliver14 wrote: »

Though it is an improvement on size. Most modern fitted Kitchens would not have room for a Traditional twin tub. It's also time even with a twin tub it takes far longer than an Automatic Washing machine and needs to be monitored.

I do wish though I had room for a toploader (not a twin tub). They are very popular in the states I have a a friend who has one it seems to wash better and more efficiently and the build quality is so much better so you don't have to replace them as often

I have though found this site for those still interested in twin tubs
http://twintub.co.uk/

I love my american washer and drier, we had to alter the utitlity to fit them in but they are so much better than my old front loader and normal dryer, they can easily take my king sized duvets in easily.

Ben84

I expect the automatic washing machine is a lot more energy efficient than hand washing. The main reason is it gets good results with small volumes of water by spending a long time tumbling it through the solution. Hand washers usually get good results too, but they use more water as it makes the task easier and faster. The key point is heating water is the major energy consumer in both options. The motor that spins the automatic drum around uses surprisingly little energy. So, the automatic trades time for reduced water volume and ends up heating a lot less water. Hand washers normally can't or won't spend two hours tumbling the clothes around, so they tend to use more water and trade that for reduced time. Total energy cost however is largely controlled by the volume of water heated. You might have noticed that as modern automatic machines become more efficient the cycle times tend to get longer, it's the same trade off, spend more time tumbling the clothes and you can, within limits, get away with using and heating less water.

So, I doubt you would save energy by hand washing in most situations. However, a typical modern machine uses 1-2 kWh for a normal 60 degree cycle. Even if you did somehow save from this, the total saved must be capped at 10-20p as that's all it costs to use, and in fact would likely be a lot less and require very careful attention to limit the volume of water used if you're to do it with less energy than the machine. It would make more sense to spend the time on other money saving/making efforts, for example list a few unwanted items on eBay, hunt for a cheaper energy supplier or install some loft insulation.

I do save some money with my machine however, I make sure it's full when I use it and I typically use supermarket brand powder at 60 degrees. Aldi powder at 60 works better than Ariel at 40 for me and the savings on powder far outweigh the extra electricity.

Austin_Allegro

I think modern clothing habits have a lot to answer for as well.

People didn't wash clothes so much in the old days. They weren't really dirty, they just didn't have so many washable clothes.

A single man, like my father in the 1960s before he got married, would probably own little more than a suit for work and a tweed suit for weekends that would only be sponged and pressed, or dry cleaned, from time to time; his shirts and his bed linen would be sent out to a laundry or a washerwoman, and he'd probably just wash his smalls and socks in the sink.

I can see the need for a washing machine for a family, but I think single people could probably do without; we just expect a machine as the norm nowadays.