Coming Clean

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Things I have  learned about laundry, and things I still wonder about. 

First, each person in a household typically has a chore, in my experience. Not necessarily assigned, but just..logical. Jonathan takes out the trash. And I--do the laundry. On Sunday, usually.

It’s fine, it’s rewarding, even, and it’s an easy multitask. I can write at my desk and hear the ping from the washer and then the dryer when it’s time to change the loads, and I can fold the laundry watching TV at night so it doesn’t feel as if I am just wastefully watching TV.

When the pandemic started, I will confess, I stocked up on laundry detergent and stain removing stuff and color-brightening stuff and whitening stuff. I always use those so carefully.

We also got a new dryer mid-pandemic, what fun. And a washing machine about two years ago. (Our previous ones were from the 1930’s, I think.)

But--couple of things. My clothing seems to be wearing out way more quickly than it was before.  Why is that? My t-shirts are suddenly fraying around the neck. They never did before.

And all the laundry gets really tightly twisty in the washing machine. Thing I never thought of: is a front loading machine better because it uses gravity instead of torque? I have to untwist everything before I put it in the dryer or it will never unwrinkle. 

And striped and flowered sheets with a white background but say, navy flowers--are those whites? Or colors?

And if I put colors into the white load, what would REALLY happen? (Not counting a red thing.  I am terrified to wash red things.)

Do I need all those colorboost and whitening things?

What say you, Reds and readers?

JENN McKINLAY: Sunday is laundry day here, too. Except everyone does their own. Amen! It takes all of my self control not to give in and do the Hooligans’ laundry. Now that one of them has moved out, he comes by to use the washer/dryer, but the other kid, well, I just close the door to his bedroom and pretend I don’t see the piles and piles of clean-dirty-smells okay clothing that covers every surface. Mercy! As for detergent, we’re a Tide family. Dryer sheets are about as fancy as we get. 

RHYS BOWEN: I write about the past and am reminded of my grandmother’s generation washing everything in a big tub, putting it through a mangle and then hanging it out on a line. It was a whole day’s work. It makes me feel guilty just to toss it into the machine and press the start button.

With only two of us at home laundry is no big deal. Even though we only have enough for one load I do one load of whites and one of coloreds. Habit, I suppose. We bought a new washer about three years ago (when the 20 year old model died) and we got a new-fangled top loader, not the type that rotates but rather like a front loader that uses very little water and gets things super-clean. It’s only drawback--it is HUGE. When I try to retrieve the last sock from the bottom I’m always scared of falling in, headfirst. And I am not a small person. 

I’ve always used Tide until I started getting skin that breaks out easily and my dermatologist told me Tide was the worst and I should use ALL. Actually then I researched and now use organic, bio-degradable laundry sheets. I’ve only just started using them so I can’t report on the improvement yet but they did get the first loads really clean.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: It hasn’t been that many years since I was literally doing a load of laundry EVERY day, so running the machine every 8-10 days now feels like an incredible luxury. (When summer arrives, the pace will pick up, because clothing gets dirtier when I’m outdoors a lot and I do the sheets every week instead of every fortnight.) The Maine Millennial and I kind of roughly split the chores - I’m usually the one to load the washing machine, we split hanging the wet things up 50/50, and she frequently folds. NObody irons, because I ain’t got time for that nonsense.

Perfume-free, dye-free, non-allergenic detergent here for years and years. Most of the family has sensitive skin, and once you get used to your clothing smelling like sunlight, you don’t want to add anything else!

Oh, and Hank, your story about hearing the machine “ping” made me think of an exchange I saw recently on Twitter, about someone’s smart washer not properly pushing notifications on his phone. I thought, who the heck needs a text letting you know your clothes are ready to come out? Do you live in Buckingham Palace?

HALLIE EPHRON: Laundry is not my strong suit. I need lessons. After I turned our underwear pink and ran the dryer with a black crayon in it, my husband took over doing his own laundry. And our sheets and towels. I do my own, for better or for worse. And though I use “brightener” powder it just clumps up and does, as far as I can tell, nothing. I got hooked on GAIN a few years ago. It smells best. And I’m so glad we don’t have to wash by hand and mangle. 

I consider my great laundry achievement was cloth diapers. For both girls. I still love the feel of them. And bleach is the world’s greatest cleaner, assuming what you’re laundering started out white. 

LUCY BURDETTE: I’ve gotten very lazy about laundry. I don’t even sort whites from colors anymore. None of our pandemic clothes are new enough to worry about--they’ve been washed so many times! Both Lottie and Tbone like to help “fold” when the laundry is just out of the dryer--they roll around in the clean, warm clothes, and one of them drags pieces off. It’s hard to say who’s better at the job!

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Lucy, so funny! I have to declare a dog and cat free zone on the bed before I fold laundry! I do the washing, Rick does some of the folding, as he’s better at it than I am.  I do still separate whites/lights from darks, but the clothes we’ve been wearing for the last year are so ratty that I doubt it matters.

No dyes or perfumes in the detergent--I can’t stand the smelly stuff--so it’s Kirkland brand eco liquid. 

Echoing Rhys on the deep washing machine! We had to replace ours a few months ago, and I was afraid I was going to need a ladder to reach the bottom of the tub! I’ve managed, but I have to stand on my tip-tip-tippytoes!

HANK: Oh, this is hilarious. I truly thought it was me--I CANNOT reach all the way to the back of the new dryer. Hmm. My first thought was "they designed them for men." But huh. I bet that's wrong.

So how about you, Reds and readers? Do I really need to separate the clothing? I love Persil--do you know about it? And still, after all these years, I am grateful that I no longer have to lug to the laundromat.

Tell us your laundry secrets--and your questions!