My ex-husband once washed my favorite dress and tossed it in the dryer on high. The skirt shrank up in just one spot, so that it all hung properly except for the part that aspired to be a mini-skirt. That was about fifteen years ago, and he’s since died, but I still get mad thinking about it.
You can see it in this very thread, and in previous threads we had about how to properly wash things - a certain group of people belong to the “I throw everything into the machine together, one setting, nothing happened so far, I don’t buy delicate stuff” (With the subtle inference that anybody who doesn’t buy sturdy cotton that can handle this stress is some kind of freak asking for and deserving to have their clothes ruined); despite several other dopers in the same thread trying to explain why some stuff is delicate and needs to be washed a certain way and not with bleach etc.
I think partly it’s strategy of men: if they do the work shoddily, they know they won’t be asked a second time, the woman will add the wash to her work load.
Partly it’s lack of respect: Why should I pay special attention to your stuff, more than to my stuff (when he wears sturdy jeans and thick t-shirts, but she needs blouses and wool sweaters).
If I wanted to be favourable, I would ascribe it to different standards similar in cleaning - some persons (many of them male) consider a room “Cleaned up and doesn’t need scrubbing yet” when other persons (often female) see the same room as “stuff lying around everywhere and needs to be scrubbed right now” (this isn’t limited to genders, though - everytime people in college move together, you get long discussions about how clean is clean enough, and whose turn it is to do the dishes piling up in the sink).
However, I can’t ascribe this mechanism if people loudly proclaim, after having it explained to them, that they will continue doing it their way. Obviously only spite, lack of respect or strategy to get out of their share of the work can explain it.
Well, I’m one of the ones who’s fine with tossing towels in with most other stuff. (I don’t dry things like bras or most shirts, dresses, and skirts to be on the safe side.) But apart from the Dope, I’ve honestly never heard of the not washing towels with other things. Nothing bad has ever happened, and I’ve been doing this for years.
The only implication is that people who buy lots of delicate stuff and refuse to have it dry cleaned are making an awful lot of work for themselves, and they should recognize that it is entirely voluntary on their part.
I actually don’t believe the non-complicated-clothes party (NCCP) has any responsibility to fuss with the complicated clothes. If complicated-clothes party (CCP) can’t figure out how to separate out their complicateds from the non-complicateds so that NCCP can pitch in without causing CCP an anyeurism, they should not expect help with the laundry. CCP made the extra work, CCP is responsible for it.
I am female, by the way.
My towels are 20 years old and have been washed once a week or more for those 20 years, so they get thrown in with jeans and heavy shirts and such. Dress shirts and underwear go in a different load just to be safe. Everything with cold water. Hand washables and bright colors go in a separate basket to be dealt with when there’s time.
And for gods sake, beware of bleach! Bleach has a sneaky way of splattering on what it shouldn’t, no matter how careful you are!
It depends on what you have. I’ve owned a few very nice, expensive garments that I saved up for. And I put them aside to be either handwashed or drycleaned. And my husband decided to throw them into his load of jeans. Then he’s amazed that I’m pissed because he ruined about $300 of clothing. By “ruined” I mean that they can’t be worn again.
Maybe you don’t wear such garments. But all it takes is ONE careless moment, and your pretty blue blouse has a gazillion pills on it, or it’s shrunk to doll size, or whatever. You can wash and dry regular jeans with towels, no problems. You CAN’T wash and dry towels and a delicate rayon or acrylic blouse or sweater.
By calling it “delicate”, you’re already passing judgment. I have nice blouses which I need, and warm wool stuff, which I also need. Why in the world should I waste a lot of money to have dry-cleaners put dangerous chemicals on them, when I can wash them in the wool cycle of my machine at home? True, I don’t like hand-washing the very very delicate stuff, but I’m dead-set against the so-called dry-cleaning. It’s harmful for the enviroment and health, and unnecessary.
Like I said: lack of respect for other people’s belongings, or laziness to do their share of the work. If you share the work, you do it properly or not at all; and if you don’t want to share the work equally, then you should pay a certain amount in compensation into the household budget (for a maid, for example).
Nobody’s asking you do to a particle ananlysis of the fibers. You empty the clothes hamper, seperate into 30 C wool, 40 C fine, 40 C cotton, and by different colours, one white 60 C cotton. That’s not rocket science. Then, you select a pile that’s big enough for one load, put into the washing machine, add the necessary of three powders (wool/fine, colour, general) + de-calcifier, choose the program and the machine does the rest. What’s so difficult about that?
Fair enough. I do wear such garments, and I either hang dry them or just have them dry cleaned. Most of the stuff going into the dryer is pretty hardy, so I’d be pissed if someone took a skirt that was dry clean only and tossed it in with everything else. Another reason I’m glad no one touches my laundry but me. 
You know, in the interest of fairness, shouldn’t the compensation come from the person responsible for all this extra labor? It’s like going to a restaurant, and expecting the person who just had a salad and an appetizer to go dutch with you when you order an expensive entre and a fancy dessert.
So… wait… what happens if you have a pile that’s not big enough to wash? Does it just never get washed until you buy enough clothes of that style to fill out a load? Also, does it have to be powder detergent, or would an appropriate liquid detergent work as well?
For a single person household, it can be difficult to find enough of one colour - I don’t want to wash my 3 reds with the whites if they will bleed, so I will pay attention to buying more reds the next time. But in a two-or-more person household, it should be easy to get a full load. Unless you have an enormous machine (7 kg?) for washing your towels in…
I don’t buy liquid because it’s relativly more expensive with less washing power, according to Stiftung Warentest (an independent magazine that tests products). And the ecologic detergents I buy aren’t offered in liquid form, anyway.
Most washers will have a setting for small, medium, and large loads.
That’s my question, too. The other question that springs to mind is, how many clothes do you have? I have maybe 7 or 8 shirts and three or four pairs of pants each season, which means that if I wear it, it has to be washed within the week so I can wear it again. I could never fill up the six or seven piles that constanze mentioned.
However, I have a four year older daughter in a full-on princess phase. We could easily do a load of pink every week.
Wow. We are definitely talking across cultures here.
The smallest washer I have access to holds 30 lbs (~12kg).
There is no low-water or “half full” setting.