Seewalds 24 - Bought the House from Grandma

[SassyPants]

8 hours ago, Shadoewolf said:

Laundry room is in the back part of the basement so 2 long flights of stairs with full baskets. Unless I'm doing clothes. Then its just chuck them down one flight of stairs, carry to the basement door and chuck them into a basket at the foot of the basement stairs. Bringing clean stuff up is what kills my knees.

I used to do a lot of chucking when the laundry was in the basement-

[nst]

1 minute ago, SassyPants said:

I used to do a lot of chucking when the laundry was in the basement-

one of my bucket list things is to have a washer and dryer in my apartment 

One day 

one day 

[Cheetah]

I have a kind of funny story around why I hate UK washers, although it's from 2001.  We were traveling around Europe with our then 4 year old daughter (and I was pregnant with #2).  The place we had stayed previously didn't have laundry facilities so we had a backlog when we got to the apt we were staying in in London.  It was summer but cool and rainy.  The flat had a very tiny washing machine and no dryer, and we couldn't wait for a sunny day because of the clothes backlog.  I had separated our washing into lights and darks, and put the lights into the washer.  Left the room for some reason or other before starting the cycle and didn't notice that my 4 year old had 'helpfully' added her new purple tie die shirt to the lights load.  So 2 hours later after the wash cycle finished, all of our light clothes were purple.  It was a mess.  So between having to fix that with another couple of (2 hour) washes to get the purple out, and then trying to find enough space to hang out 2 loads' worth of clothes indoors (and then of course it wasn't all that warm out and kind of humid so they took a couple of days to dry).

 

I have another foreign laundry story.  We went to Japan 3 years ago (now with 3 kids) and I don't read Kanjii.  (I don't speak Japanese either but at the time I could at least decode the other 2 alphabets enough to look the word up on google translate) but anyway, the apt we were staying in had a washing machine and they'd helpfully put a sticker by the start button.  But then the washer stopped mid-cycle and I had to put a photo on Facebook and asked, 'if I wanted to just drain and spin, what button do I press?'  LOL.  Got it figured out.

[Incognito22]

@SassyPants that laundry room is beautiful! I'm in love with the floors too!  

[Gobsmacked]

16 hours ago, SassyPants said:

We just enclosed a balcony and turned it into a laundry room upstairs where all our living is with the exception of 1 bedroom and bathroom. It connects to a bathroom and a bedroom. Best addition, ever. We also have a washer and dryer in our basement.

That's a brilliant idea. Balconies in colder countries are not often used. You have added a whole new room! 

[nst]

@Sassypants that laundry room is MY laundry room in my head.   The Floors, the cabinets, the stain glass

can you decorate my future house !!!!!!

[catlady]

59 minutes ago, nst said:

one of my bucket list things is to have a washer and dryer in my apartment 

One day 

one day 

and you will love it forever!  i had community laundry from age 18 to age 37, when we bought our current house.  we then became the proud owners of a basic top-loading washer and matching gas dryer.  within a week i was running wash at odd hours (which our prior landlord did not allow) and leaving things in the dryer overnight; it was fabulous!  we'll probably stay here until we downsize back to an apartment, but my primary requirement will be in-unit laundry.   

our house has a laundry chute, which i absolutely adore, so our standing rule is "no dirty clothes on any surface ever" since the chute is less than 20 feet away from pretty much every point in the house.  so no more hampers or baskets of dirty underwear anywhere but the basement.

[nst]

12 minutes ago, catlady said:

and you will love it forever!  

I had community laundry since the age of 19.  When i bought my first places 10 years ago ish - we had to have scheduled times in the laundry room which was insane because I couldn't do it at 2:45 on A tuesday because I was at work... I always ended up doing it at my mom's.  Here in this building any time all the time.. It's great

But I want my OWN so I don't have to get up at 5 am if it's important and do laundry 

Bucket list 

[Gobsmacked]

I remember my late mother-in-law telling how she had to get up at 6am on a Monday morning aged 9 onwards to go to the communal wash house (they lived in a type of Scottish tenement). It was her duty to light the fire underneath the wash copper, then to string up the family wash-line across their patch of drying green. She had breakfast then off to school. This only stopped when the family moved into a bungalow when she was 19. They had an indoor wash copper and their own garden. 

Each time I put a load through my in the kitchen front-loader I feel grateful!

[catlady]

5 minutes ago, Gobsmacked said:

Each time I put a load through my in the kitchen front-loader I feel grateful!

as much as community laundry annoyed me, i do remember to be grateful for having access to automatic machines.  throughout the 1970s, my mom had this funky semi-portable washer:  it was small, was on wheels, and was stored in a closet near the kitchen.  on saturdays, she'd push it over to the sink, attach its hose to the faucet, put the drain hose into the sink, and do one very small load at a time. i don't remember exactly how it worked, but the washing cycle was done in one drum, then everything had to be transferred sopping wet to a second drum for the spin cycle.  and everything had to be hung up to dry.

[Four is Enough]

Growing up, we had a washing machine. Every Monday, my mother would drag it over to the sink to hook up the water, then set up the suds saver, and laundry day would begin.

A suds saver collects the rinse water from the second rinse, and it is then used to start washing the next load. There is much weeping and wailing and adjusting of hoses to get them JUST RIGHT so that the water doesn't spray out of the top of the suds saver (ours was the body of an old washing machine, and HEAVY) or fling itself onto the floor while spewing water, or just run water down the sink, as happened at the first rinse and sometimes the second if you didn't remember to switch the hoses back and forth.

After that trauma, we hung the clothes out on the line. First we had to wipe the lines with a wet rag to make sure there was no bird poop or pollution that could get on the clothes. Then we hung out the wash. 95 degrees and humid? Hang it out. 30 degrees and windy? Hang it out. IN wintertime, the clothing would be stiff and we wouldn't know until it thawed out in the house if it was completely dry.

If it rained or if it got dark, (for some reason, we could NOT leave clothing out after dark) we brought it in, and there was a popup little clothesline we'd use to finish drying things... right in the middle of the dining room floor.

Washer? Dryer? I got 'em. Thank God.

[Palimpsest]

If we are not careful laundry could turn into a duvet debate!

I covet @SassyPants laundry room.

Front loader "down cellar" here.  I do a lot of chucking from floor to floor to get it down and Mr. P. is good about bringing heavy laundry baskets upstairs for me.  I cold wash only and hang outside to dry when possible.  No way can you dry things outside in the winter here.

20 minutes ago, catlady said:

 throughout the 1970s, my mom had this funky semi-portable washer:  it was small, was on wheels, and was stored in a closet near the kitchen.  on saturdays, she'd push it over to the sink, attach its hose to the faucet, put the drain hose into the sink, and do one very small load at a time. i don't remember exactly how it worked, but the washing cycle was done in one drum, then everything had to be transferred sopping wet to a second drum for the spin cycle.  and everything had to be hung up to dry.

Oh, the memories!  I actually used one of those throughout the 80s.  My MIL gave it to me when she upgraded.  It was a warhorse, and must have been at least 20 years old when she gave it to me.  You had to watch it all the time because it could spin itself off its wheels if the spinner side got unbalanced.  Also the hose could pop out of the sink when draining.

I used it for everything except bedding, which we took to the laundromat.  A single double sheet could turn it over.

We ended up putting it on the curb when we upgraded to a top loader.  Someone trundled it away within 5 minutes and I hope it was as useful for them as it was for me.  Perhaps I should have held on to it as a collectible!

[Gobsmacked]

47 minutes ago, catlady said:

as much as community laundry annoyed me, i do remember to be grateful for having access to automatic machines.  throughout the 1970s, my mom had this funky semi-portable washer:  it was small, was on wheels, and was stored in a closet near the kitchen.  on saturdays, she'd push it over to the sink, attach its hose to the faucet, put the drain hose into the sink, and do one very small load at a time. i don't remember exactly how it worked, but the washing cycle was done in one drum, then everything had to be transferred sopping wet to a second drum for the spin cycle.  and everything had to be hung up to dry.

My mum had one of those. It was called a twin tub I think. Onetub for washing , one tub for rinsing. The hose had to go into sink for emptying. It also filled by hose connected to the kitchen tap. It did have the advantage of heating the water itself as our house had no hot water system. Bath water etc had to be boiled in huge jam-pan on the gas oven. That twin tub was a fantastic. It also boiled nappies. Mum had two babies in nappies for between 1962-1964. It lasted for years. The vibrations from the spin cycle made it dance across the kitchen floor on occasion though.

 

[Carm_88]

I too want @SassyPants's laundry room. I enjoy laundry for the moment because it's only mine I have to do, and it's summer so I can hang them out and get some fresh air on them! 

[catlady]

while my mom still had it easier than @Gobsmacked's MIL, the only times i ever heard her swear (like a sailor) was when the drain hose worked itself out of the sink and emptied onto the floor.  she ultimately spent a lot of time leaning on it to keep it functioning correctly.

[Palimpsest]

5 minutes ago, Gobsmacked said:

That twin tub was a fantastic. It also boiled nappies. Mum had two babies in nappies for between 1962-1964. It lasted for years. The vibrations from the spin cycle made it dance across the kitchen floor on occasion though.

Twin tub!  That was it.  Mine must have been an inferior model.  It didn't heat the water and I wish it had restrained itself to merely dancing!  

[Gobsmacked]

Catlady, I remember my mum uttering a few curses when the hose flew out of the sink!!! Water everywhere. Mum yelling to everyone KEEP OUT OF THE KITCHEN. We were toddlers /very young then.

[Daisy0322]

I'm 25 not but when I was little, maybe up until I was 4 or 5 we had a washer but no dryer. We clothes line dried everything so even today sometimes I just hang my clothes if it's hot already and I don't want to run the dryer. I didn't realize though there's SO MANY people who wouldn't know what to do if they only had a washer. My friend's dryer this summer broke and she's been going to the laundromat. I think she's crazy haha.

[catlady]

I have clotheslines outside and in the basement; most of my work clothes never go in the dryer, year-round.  the outdoor line is used only in the warm half of the year, and as long as the weather cooperates, all sheets and most casual wear are hung outside.  

@Four is Enough, i somehow missed your last post earlier; i never leave anything out after dark, either, but for me it's because i have a freakish level of arachnophobia, and a back corner of my brain says spiders will invade only at night (??!??!!).  this weird notion is backed up by the fact that i once left the pins on the line overnight, and the next day, one of them had a big ol' spidey hiding between the part you pinch.  now the pins come inside too.

[cascarones]

I've had a variety of laundry machines, some good, some not so much, some that had the laundry room chute. My favorite was when I lived in an old mansion that had been converted into tiny apartments/ communal living, I was six flights above laundry, no elevator, but there was a dumbwaiter. I used that thing for everything, laundry, getting groceries up to the kitchen, sending all of study books up or down. It was fantastic, you'd just dial the correct number for the floor on the rotary phone, close the gate and off it would go. 

[wikinggirl]

I've never had a dryer, they're not that common here in Norway. You just hang your clothes up to dry. My mom has a rack over the bathtub, or you just buy a cheap one at IKEA.

[Elvis Presby]

17 hours ago, Gillyweed said:

It might just be because he lacks hair, but I feel like Henry has a bigger head than Spurgeon. I'm having a hard time placing who Henry looks like because I feel like only Jim Bob has a big head, yet Henry doesn't really look like him. Does anyone in Ben's family have a big head? 

(For the record, there's nothing wrong with having a big head. I have one, and as a toddler had to get a CT scan because it was so big in proportion to my body )

To me, Henry looks like Davia Waller.  Maybe it's just the shocked / disgruntled expression.  It could also be the lack of hair.  Anyway, Henry and Davia really seem to know what's up and neither like it!

 

[December]

39 minutes ago, Daisy0322 said:

We clothes line dried everything so even today sometimes I just hang my clothes if it's hot already and I don't want to run the dryer.

When I was a broke college student, my apartment building had coin-op laundry machines. I would stuff a week's laundry into the washer then air dry it on my balcony to save $$$. This plan did not work out so well in winter... 

5 hours ago, nst said:

one of my bucket list things is to have a washer and dryer in my apartment 

I hope you get it someday! It's a wonderful convenience. 

[JillyO]

1 hour ago, Daisy0322 said:

I didn't realize though there's SO MANY people who wouldn't know what to do if they only had a washer. My friend's dryer this summer broke and she's been going to the laundromat. I think she's crazy haha.

That reminds me. When I was studying abroad in the US during undergrad, I took a class on the Americanization of Europe. Naturally, along with local students, there were quite a few European exchange students in that class (including myself). At some point, we were discussing the fact that dryers are fairly uncommon pretty much anywhere in Europe.

This one American girl raised her hand and asked "So, like, how do your clothes get dry?" She was serious.

[Bad Wolf]

We still hang out our clothes, even in the winter. Takes most of the day to dry in the winter, but in the summer the first load is practically dry before the second goes out. We get a lot of sunshine.