Amazing but true laundry stories!

[Trek420]

Something like that

Trek420, I'm going to ask because I've been curious and can't work it out due to size - what is the dog doing in your picture/avatar? Sniffing a bag of laundry?

That's our mutt, Mae sniffing a gopher hole right before diving in to dig at it.

Now back to our sponsor; laundry by hand.

And thanks Knott, I do have a double rinse setting on the machine. Who knew?

[lph]

I grew up without a washing machine, in a cool, wet climate, and am definitely no fan of handwashing clothes... but I guess I should read the tips on handwashing larger amounts. Scrubbing jeans on an oldfashioned scrubbing board just got me sore knuckles and determination to own a washing machine when all grown up.

But we don't have a drier and don't miss it, except very occasionally when we have lots to wash and have to stagger it so that the livingroom slash drying room doesn't feel like a sauna.

[KnottedYet]

Bicycle-powered washing machines!

YouTube has a gazillion videos of home-made pedal powered washing machines. This one is kind of cute, cuz they show a couple "mistakes" they made: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fktpd...eature=related

I like this one best, because he's taken the guts of a washer and hooked it right up to a bike. Saves all the constructing the drum and gearing and hoses from scratch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDgQ5ABlqEU&NR=1

Doin' bicycle laundry with Lady Gaga: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oM7l9E6u6TU&NR=1

Doin' laundry (and other things) with Queen's "Bicycle Race" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kL6Mk...1&feature=fvwp

There are also a gazillion videos of the bucket and plunger washer, too. They seem to leave off the "let it soak, and do less work" part that the laundry forums emphasized.

[OakLeaf]

ya - we had to have some work done on the water lines in the basement this May, and the plumber had to move the dryer out of the way.

We still haven't plugged it back in.

It usually gets some use in the fall when it's too rainy to dry on the outside lines consistently, and too humid to dry on racks in the house.

Bicycle-powered washing machines!

Now that's a spin cycle!

[KnottedYet]

I've found a couple references in the laundry forums to "European waffle-weave" bath towels and bath sheets.

I assume this is it: http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Design-...g_ai_ps_t3_t_9

And these are organic cotton and made in USA: http://www.tomorrowsworld.com/Organi...5-1910n-bt.htm

Apparently, they are popular with handwashers and people who air-dry their laundry. Wash easily, dry quickly.

Expensive little buggers.

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ETA:
AAAAAAAH!!!!! Gross, gross, gross!!!! AAAAAAAAH!!!!

I just tried something I read for the "gray water" crud. Add a couple tablespoons of baking soda to the rinse water when your water is running clear, and it will make MORE gray crud come out of your clothes when you thought you'd already gotten it all.

AAAAAAH!!! GROSSS!!!!!

It does.

Yuck.

[NbyNW]

Sigh. I thought I was being all eco-conscious by not using that 2nd rinse cycle, but this thread is making me want to flip that switch.

I would totally miss having a dryer. I always miss having one, if I am traveling in a part of the world where they are uncommon, and have to air-dry all my things. Just not a fan of that crispy air-dried feel.

[OakLeaf]

My washer defaults to two rinses with an optional three.

Front-loaders don't use near as much water as top-loaders, so I justify it ... I usually start the cycle with 2.5 gallons of water dumped out of the dehumidifier, and for the time being water is relatively plentiful here <praying>, so it's just a matter of the electricity to pump an extra few gallons per load.



ETA - I learned when I was visiting my parents where the term "hard water" comes from. Wonder of wonders, when they air dry clothes they don't come out hard! Our water at home, on the other hand...

[rollinat]

I would miss having a dryer too, which seems faintly ridiculous to me as I managed for years in Scotland without one, and here I am in CO using a dryer - I really will have to stop embracing the American way quite so whole-heartedly! I really like hardly having any ironing to do, I have to say.

I spent a year in France where my room-mate and I bought this contraption for about $30 - it was like a toy washing machine, you stuck it in the bath tub and stuck a hose on the faucets. The whole cycle took about 10 minutes - it was just one step up from the effort of washing by hand or going to the laundrette. It was a bit like this http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/32...g_machine.html

[OakLeaf]

Amazing discovery: if you just hang something in the closet, assuming it's modern stuff treated with the scary anti-wrinkle chemicals that make everything come out of the dryer perfect, eventually the wrinkles will hang out of it. Same thing with folding it and putting it into a drawer. Just don't be in such a hurry to wear stuff after it's dry.