Somewhere in my brain I got it that I was “all growed up” after I bought my first washer and dryer. I could never go back to the communal laundries the Navy offered or laundromats.
Having the laundry in the basement is the only way to go…
That’s an astute observation. Yes, she goes through huge amounts of those.
Last week she finally brought me into her office to give me a massage. Oh. My GAWD. It was awesome.
I beg to disagree. I love how outdoor-dried clothes smell. I’d say the clothes are “crisp,” which is lovely, especially the sheets. Saves money, too.
Unfortunately, I can no longer dry clothes outside because I don’t have the time now that I have a full-time paying job. It was great when I was home with the babies.
We called quarters ‘sacreds’ in college and after when we had only coin op laundry. I’d never go back!
By necessity I do laundry weekly, and I admit it does monopolize my schedule. I’ll put off plans if I think it’ll interfere with getting it done.
We live in an apartment with 9 other tenants that has only two washers and two dryers and fairly strict 8am-10pm use restrictions. Seeing as I often don’t get home from work until 10pm, I can only do laundry on the weekends. Since I’d like to get it all done ASAP, I tend to get up at 8am for first crack at the machines.
It usually takes me 4 hours to get all our laundry done, and during that time I go out every 30 minutes to move loads to and from the dryers. Since I need to get up so often, there’s little else I can do during those 4 hours, so I prefer to get it over with as quickly as possible. And if that means occasionally declining invitations, leaving someone’s party early, etc., I can’t really help it. It would be a pretty big inconvenience if I didn’t get my laundry done, and the trade-offs are usually worth it.
I can’t wait until I have an in-unit washer/dryer and don’t need to stockpile so many f#@king quarters.
Years ago, my BIL had a great business idea. (I don’t think it was an original one, though.) He wanted to open a combination laundromat/bar. That way, people doing laundry could enjoy a nice brewski while doing the linens.
Had his idea taken off, I suspect that the quoted conversation would be happening a lot.
My experience is similar to AudreyK’s. Even though I generally wear pants and outer garments (sweaters, jackets) three times before washing, and I have a lot of dry clean only clothing, I still need to do laundry once a week. I live in an urban apartment where I need to go down two steep flights of stairs, one inside and one outside, to get to the one washing machine and one dryer for the building. Since I do two loads, one normal and one delicate, total washing and drying time is about four hours, with regular trips to move stuff in and out of machines. That’s a lot of stairs. I also have a lot of pieces that I hang or lay flat to dry, which means not only carrying them up wet, but also figuring out where to hang them and setting up the drying rack to lay out sweaters. It’s a pain, and if I didn’t regularly schedule it, there’s no way I’d get it done.
Two positive points:
- My current landlord has removed the pay elements from the washer and dryer, so no more quarters.
- I am by far the senior tenant in the building. When new tenants move in and ask me about the building, the main thing I tell them is that Sunday after 4:00 p.m. is my laundry time. Since everyone knows, I rarely have to deal with other people using the machines. There is nothing worse than lugging all of your laundry down two flights of stairs only to discover that the machine is occupied.
There was one of those in Chapel Hill, NC. It was a bar/laudromat/game room combo. It did really well, if I recall correctly.
Despite what TV tells us, laundry seems a bigger deal in the UK to me, at least the way my MIL does it. Her machine heats the water (ours get water from the water heater) so it takes about 2 hours to do a load, as opposed to our 45 minutes or so. Then she either hangs the clothes out (and with the paltry sunshine, it can take a while to dry) or hangs them over the radiators for several hours or overnight. She will even turn the radiators on just to dry clothes, all to avoid the “tumble dryer.” She worries about shrinkage with the dryer, but her washing machine won’t allow her to wash in cold water, so they shrink in the washer anyway.
You’ll be getting the bill for my new keyboard!
Some of the Europeans in this thread really need to stop watching sitcoms like Friends. Most of us don’t live like that at all.
My kitchen and laundry room are adjacent to each other. Cooking dinner and doing laundry is a non issue. Believe it or not some of us can multitask.
Growing up, my parents always did laundry once a week on Sunday. My parents alternated whose turn it was to do the laundry.
I do a similar thing, where every other Sunday, I do my laundry. If I did it any sooner, I wouldn’t have enough clothes for a full load. I can’t imagine doing it any other way.
There are a few of those in New Orleans. One that I used was a laundromat that served drinks. The weird one was a true bar open 24/7 called Igors that was a hard-core bar with washers and dryers in the back. You would see people getting trashed, dancing, eating buffalo wings, and hooking up at 4 am yet some people were trying to make their way through with laundry baskets. Only in New Orleans.
The mistake here is not in watching sitcoms like Friends, because as my earlier post noted, some of us do live like that. The mistake is in extrapolating generalities from specific character traits.
It would be much easier if there were about twice as many driers as washers, since drying almost always takes about that much longer, but there usually aren’t.
It’s happened twice, which is enough for me. And if i answer them, they will then ask if they can be my boyfriend, and several more quite annoying personal questions.
And if it makes you feel better to call me racist please do so, but i don’t like being hassled and hit upon by men I don’t know.
Aren’t you English? Is the construction “needs washed” (or “needs Xed”) common in England? In America it’s considered a ringer for someone hailing from Pennsylvania (exclusive of Philadelphia, I believe), or eastern Ohio.
I think the first part of this may depend on your local climate - drying in a gentle breeze stops is very different from in hot still air. The former is what you can expect on 90% of dry days in Britain, which must be a factor in the popularity of drying outside. As for smelling nice, I fear you may be conditioned into liking the smell of the perfume in the detergent.
Sounds like an example of Hyperreality.
So you have tumble dryer sheets like Bounce, all marketed with images of washing on lines outside, smelling better than the genuine article that is being emulated? What a crazy world we live in. Next you’ll be telling me that your fake Christmas tree looks more real than a real one, to borrow an example from the Wikipedia article above.
Suburban mom checking in (American). We own our washer and dryer–I got a front loader a few years ago. It does save substantially on water, which is nice. I probably do about 3-4 loads a week. My husband does his own laundry (that was his solution to my complaint when the kids were quite small that I needed help keeping up with the laundry. Instead of folding a bit, he does his own. Fine with me).
All my kids know how to do their own laundry. #1 son (16) does his. Daughter is away at uni, so I hope she’s doing some. I still do the household stuff (towels, sheets etc), #2 son’s and my own.
The town I grew up in had an ordinance AGAINST outside lines for wash*. I would like to install one in our laundry room, but for the most part, I hang up what shouldn’t be dried on a plastic hanger on the pipes (unfinished laundry room) or the shower rod in the bathroom. Scatter rugs that can be machine washed get hung over the deck railing out back. I wouldn’t mind a backyard line; it’s just not what I’m used to. I agree that it makes sense for the environment.
Those cozies for the laundry machines are just nasty. Ugh! Instead of looking at serviceable appliances, you now look at frilly, silly covers. I don’t understand stuff like that.
Oh, and to whoever upthread who suggested a bar/laundromat–Miss Manners in a very old column said that would be the best way for singles to meet. I tend to agree with her!
*they are considered unsightly, and yes, there is some classism going on. What do you Brits do in the middle of your oh, so rainy winter?
the main problem with line drying is pollen in my case.
for others it may be the fast 15-20 minute unexpected thunder storm. (that is quite the rinse cycle!)
i didn’t have a dryer until 2 years ago, so all the wash had to be on the line in the basement. having a fan down there in the summer helped quite a bit, but things esp. jeans would take 2 days to dry. in the winter things were faster due to the lines being near the heating unit.
the limited amount of line made a wash load every other day the norm.