Thoughts about clean laundry

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Need to clean my washer too, but I’m scared. Don’t want to admit the honeymoon period between the new washer and me is over. Or maybe it’s one of my other irrational fears trying to surface. Also have to clean the detergent reservoir and it looks like it’s going to be painful.

Is vinegar & baking soda better than diluted chlorine bleach?
 
A rotary iron is essentially a heated mangle. Squeeze flat items (bedsheets, tablecloths, cloth napkins, pillowcases, handkerchiefs…) between two heated rollers and in one pass they come out ironed on both sides. Not as good as using a hand iron, but the result is still surprisingly smooth and so much faster to achieve.

An example (this is a really good brand and thus rather expensive):

https://www.mangelwaren.de/epages/63430572.mobile/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/63430572/Products/100422

I have a hand-held fabric steamer that has saved me countless hours of work, particularly when changing the altar cloths. The main altar is six feet wide (2m); changing its cloth takes 45 minutes with a hand iron but only 10 with the steamer, although again the result is not as fine. It’s also good for refreshing The Husband’s suits between dry cleanings.

As for cleaning the washing machine, there are products sold here specifically with that task in mind. You just dump it into the detergent reservoir or directly into the drum and run a hot cycle (60°C [140°F] or higher), the longer the better. I just use one of those every three months.
 
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Okay, I will admit this. I have never cleaned my washer. And it is about 25 years old and still works fine.
Kitchenaid.
 
I’ve never done so either, except to wipe out dirt and grass after a particularly muddy load of laundry (my son likes to play in puddles, so it happens often enough).
 
I think if you use it frequently enough with hot water washes, you don’t need to clean it.

Sometimes they get a little musty if a few days go by without using it.
 
We have those new side-loading washing machines at our laundromat. I don’t much like them 😠. I’m tall, and they’re set low to the ground, so I have to get on my knees to load and unload the clothes. Once the cycle starts, the machine locks and cannot be unlocked until the load is done (for obvious reasons :roll_eyes:). The only good thing about them is no agitator arm like the top-loaders have, which I think wears out the clothes sooner. And they supposedly use less water.
 
When it comes to cleaning the washing machine, disinfection is the least of my worries. The maximum washing temperature is 95°C (203°F) so the cleaning product I mentioned in an earlier post used at this temperature takes care of the germs. On the other hand, we live in an area with very hard water. If I don’t clean the machine regularly, hard water deposits build up and the contraption doesn’t work properly. Also, the door closes hermetically so I leave it open between uses. If I don’t, the interior molds. Don’t ask me how I know that 😊

We have one of those horizontal axis washing machines; they are the norm in Europe. However, I insisted upon a model that loads from the top instead of the front in order to be able to access the drum in mid-cycle.
 
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I need to clean mine the fiance thought he was helping by doing a load of washing and ever since then everything that goes in gets covered in red fluff
 
Wash all of his white clothes in there. that will get rid of the red…😂
 
My washer has no agitator arm and uses a lot less water, but it is still top loading.
 
i remember my mother had something like
that and she would sit down and do all the bedding on it. it really took out the wrinkles.
 
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I used to have cats and dogs. so sometimes i was cleaning up after them with towels or washing their bedding and that is when I started cleaning my washer.
i never use bleach in my wash.
then when i lived with my son and his family, i always wanted to clean the washer when they had babies because sometimes diapers wouldn’t hold everything and my daughter-in-law wasn’t that good at rinsing things out before tossing them in the washer.
I don’t use bleach on my clothes, but I have used bleach to clean the washer too.
 
@Milt, does this chicken/rooster need his laundry done? He seems a little frustrated. I wonder if people with washboard abs get those from doing laundry…

There’s a prayer that goes “Create a clean heart in me, O God.” Maybe that’s what we’re all trying to do.
 
The only chore I kinda like. Although, my washer stopped working, so there’s that.
 
When our dishwasher gave up the ghost, we waited almost a year to replace it because we just didn’t have the money to buy a new one. The washing machine stopped working during this time, and we somehow found a way to buy a new one within two weeks 🤑 Doing all the dishes by hand is generally sustainable over an indefinite period, even for the most reluctant among us (:raising_hand_woman:t2:). Few people will commit to hand washing all their textiles “until further notice”… 😖

It was during those two weeks, however, that I discovered an awesome local laundromat :+1:t2:
 
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I worry, that though dishes can look clean when done by hand, that the water temperature never gets high enough to kill all the microbes that can still remain on them. Also think newer dishwashers use much less water than doing them by hand.

Since we got the new washer & dryer, we have had no more flooding on the laundry room floor.

Years ago we used to have a little apartment sized washer and dryer. I remember having to move in 2001, right after 9/11 and we had to leave our nice Maytag washer & dryer behind. It was not a good year. Oh well.

Just some thoughts…
 
After some years of having cheaper overseas made washing machines,I got fed up and bought a reconditioned workhorse,made in America 🙂 Going strong.
One good thing about living in a dry hot climate at times is the knowledge that when I hang washing ,mats ,pillows ,place mattresses in the hot sun dust mite (found in most,every household ) die.
 
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