Seewalds 39: Piping in on the IKEA conversation

[Smee]

I didn’t realise quite how many modern conveniences I take for granted. For instance, I don’t actually even know where the nearest laundromat would be. Dry Cleaners, sure (not that I use them), but laundromats are a real rarity here because everyone has their own washer. I have a dryer too, but I rarely use it. I’m doing at least one load of laundry every day, so life without a washer would really suck.

I don’t prerinse anything before it goes in the dishwasher, unless it’s like a big pan that still has lots of bits of food I need to rinse off. The dishwasher is turned on at least once a day, but there are 5 of us in my house so that’s 5 sets of breakfast bowls, 5 dinner plates, 5 glasses as a given, plus lunchboxes, pots and pans, tea and coffee mugs, cheese grater etc - it adds up fast.

My house suits me wonderfully right now, but we did only buy it last year and have renovated the kitchen and bathroom. I’m in love with my bathroom. Every choice I made was to minimise cleaning efforts. I hate cleaning.

[is.it.real]

There are so many differences in what one take for granted and what one see as a luxury. In my country everything is regulated. Washing machines are expected to be a available either in the apartment or in a communal laundry room (which almost always has a booking system and industrial machines) in apartment buildings. We have a washing machine and dryer in our two bedroom apartment. But I would prefer to have a communal laundry room because I do 5-6 loads a week just for me and my husband. When we had a communal laundry room we did laundry together every other week and when we were done everything was folded, the bed sheets was mangled, and everything was ready to be put away. We don’t really have anywhere to dry clothes in our apartment, and tablecloths and curtains is a pain to hang. And I do more laundry that my husband in our current situation, because I’m home more, but also because I “see” laundry before him. It was more equal when we had access to communal laundry room.

 

Our washing situation today

 

A random Swedish communal laundry room

 

 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

3 hours ago, Eponine said:

I'm also semi-terrified that I will lose a finger to it someday...

I see you've spoken with my parents.

[Meggo]

We have a washer & dryer in our house - between our garage & the kitchen. And as much I think this is a pretty handy set up (having main floor laundry) - it's also a giant pain in the arse because MOST of the laundry is created upstairs (bedrooms, bathrooms) and it also means I can't spread out all the laundry piles without getting in the way.

I often think I should take it all to a laundry mat - throw it all in, bring a good book and have ALL the laundry done at once. 

[nvmbr02]

1 hour ago, Meggo said:

We have a washer & dryer in our house - between our garage & the kitchen. And as much I think this is a pretty handy set up (having main floor laundry) - it's also a giant pain in the arse because MOST of the laundry is created upstairs (bedrooms, bathrooms) and it also means I can't spread out all the laundry piles without getting in the way.

I often think I should take it all to a laundry mat - throw it all in, bring a good book and have ALL the laundry done at once. 

Our house prior to this one had laundry upstairs and it was mostly really nice. Like you said, most of the laundry is upstairs at least for us. Bedding, clothing, bath towels, etc... The only laundry we had downstairs was kitchen towels and hand towels for the downstairs powder room. We did have a guest room/bathroom in the basement, but we really only created laundry there a few times a year when we had overnight guests.  The only disadvantage to the upstairs laundry was I would have to run upstairs to start a load or switch laundry around. But not a huge deal. 

We have friends that have 2 laundry areas, 1 downstairs in the main area of the house (technically it is in the mother in law suite, but they just use that as a guest room) and a full laundry room upstairs. It is really nice since their master bedroom is downstairs and they have 4 children upstairs so everything just stays on the correct floor. We don't really need (or want) a house that as big as theirs, but I still think it is cool when we visit.

[SportsgalAnnie]

Moving over the winter has taught me a lot about what I can and Can't live without.
College : Dorms-Apartment

Post College :  Apartment-Condo

Need

Having my own laundry area, I lived with community Laundry til post college.

That's it, until recently I didn't have a garage, working disposal. Mine at the old place would get so backed up I'd have to do my dishes in the bathroom because the maintenance couldn't figure it out and I wasn't allowed to use drain cleaner. 

I do prefer a dishwasher because I don't have a big sink but anything Is better then what I had. 

I still feel small in my new place, the livingroom/kitchen/garage is bigger then anywhere I've had other then my parents house. Now I even have an upstairs. 

 

[nst]

my friend who bought a house for 6.5 million 1mill below asking- has 2 sets of washers and dryers in her house. 

 

[Smee]

1 hour ago, nvmbr02 said:

Our house prior to this one had laundry upstairs and it was mostly really nice. Like you said, most of the laundry is upstairs at least for us. Bedding, clothing, bath towels, etc... The only laundry we had downstairs was kitchen towels and hand towels for the downstairs powder room. We did have a guest room/bathroom in the basement, but we really only created laundry there a few times a year when we had overnight guests.  The only disadvantage to the upstairs laundry was I would have to run upstairs to start a load or switch laundry around. But not a huge deal. 

My house is (currently) all one level, but if it wasn’t I think not having the laundry on the ground floor would be really annoying because 90% of the time I dry my clothes outside and I wouldn’t want to be traipsing down stairs with a basket of wet things all the time. 

[SassyPants]

26 minutes ago, nst said:

my friend who bought a house for 6.5 million 1mill below asking- has 2 sets of washers and dryers in her house. 

 

I have 2 sets in my-not-a-6-million-$ house!

[nvmbr02]

2 hours ago, Smee said:

My house is (currently) all one level, but if it wasn’t I think not having the laundry on the ground floor would be really annoying because 90% of the time I dry my clothes outside and I wouldn’t want to be traipsing down stairs with a basket of wet things all the time. 

That would be annoying! We lived in Minnesota at the time and really only line dried outside occasionally in the summer.  Our laundry room was big enough that it had a few clothing racks that I could lay clothes out on or hand on hangers to dry. We air dry about 50% of our stuff, but we mostly do it inside. It has been years since we have lived somewhere that it was easy to line dry outside. We are moving to the dessert this month and I am hoping we find a place with a area of the year that it is out of the way to put up a clothes line.

 

[takers401]

I am the oddball that prefers my laundry room off the kitchen, even with our bedrooms upstairs. I have a hard enough time remembering to switch loads with a buzzer going off a few feet away (as most of my day is spent in the kitchen/family room). I can't imagine how many loads I'd have to rewash if I was out of hearing of the buzzer. 

[SportsgalAnnie]

13 minutes ago, takers401 said:

I am the oddball that prefers my laundry room off the kitchen, even with our bedrooms upstairs. I have a hard enough time remembering to switch loads with a buzzer going off a few feet away (as most of my day is spent in the kitchen/family room). I can't imagine how many loads I'd have to rewash if I was out of hearing of the buzzer. 

I understand that, Mine's at the top of the stairs, I usually change into cozy clothes when I walk in the door and it'd be easier if the laundry room was downstairs. Plus if you know load time you can use it to bake and not use a timer. 

Edited May 1, 2019 by SportsgalAnnie
typo

[AprilQuilt]

On 4/28/2019 at 10:49 AM, IsmeWeatherwax said:

UK calling! In general our kitchens don't have the room as standard for a dishwasher. In this house (1950's build) I have the choice of washing machine or dishwasher, washing machine wins! and a space for my tumble dryer. My previous house (1880's) teeny tiny kitchen washing machine only, tumble dryer had to go in the shed. The house before that I had a mahoosive kitchen! I was able to have washing machine, tumble dryer AND my first very own dishwasher! I was the grand old age of 33 and it was my pride and joy! until I discovered how absolutely disgusting they get even with rinsing off before loading, eew no thanks, it takes 2 minutes to bleach my sink and scrub it with boiling water, so yes I loved the convenience of my dishwasher but I don't want another one. My friend uses her as storage lol

I bottle fed all my 4 kids so that meant washing all their equipment by hand in the sink before sterilising in the steamer bottle machine, Avent for the win! After seeing the grim of my dishwasher I wouldn't use it for doing my baba's bottles, tho I was anally retentive when it came to doing them...I wouldn't allow anyone else to do them ?.

*everyone is different and has their own way of doing things, and variety is the spice of life ?*     

I've never had a dishwasher in all my adult life. Definitely no room in anywhere I've rented here in the UK. Now we've bought a house we're designing and building a kitchen (DON'T DO THIS WITH A NEWBORN), so we've opted to put a slimline dishwasher in the tiny kitchen, and have plumbed the washing machine in under the stairs. Which cuts down on storage but so would putting it in the kitchen, so what are you gonna do? Anyway, the freedom of owning a place is incredible in terms of actually getting to decide and plan how we use the space, even if it is still minimal.

We are inheriting my granddad's tumble dryer if we can manage to get to it (again, newborn) but God knows where it'll go. I guess we could run power out to the garage. For now we've just got a heated drying rack for the collosal piles of laundry our 10lb infant somehow generates every day.

[IsmeWeatherwax]

4 minutes ago, AprilQuilt said:

I've never had a dishwasher in all my adult life. Definitely no room in anywhere I've rented here in the UK. Now we've bought a house we're designing and building a kitchen (DON'T DO THIS WITH A NEWBORN), so we've opted to put a slimline dishwasher in the tiny kitchen, and have plumbed the washing machine in under the stairs. Which cuts down on storage but so would putting it in the kitchen, so what are you gonna do? Anyway, the freedom of owning a place is incredible in terms of actually getting to decide and plan how we use the space, even if it is still minimal.

We are inheriting my granddad's tumble dryer if we can manage to get to it (again, newborn) but God knows where it'll go. I guess we could run power out to the garage. For now we've just got a heated drying rack for the collosal piles of laundry our 10lb infant somehow generates every day.

Rental property kitchens are just poorly designed full stop! My one at the mo is ridiculous...there aren't even any kitchen drawers...we had to use my sons small chest of drawers as an emergency measure?  Congrats to you for buying tho, its darn hard to get on that ladder here! 

I got my first tumble dryer when my eldest was 10 months old, shes 22, I can and have lived without many conveniences over the years, but you can prise my beloved tumble dryer out of my cold.dead.hands.

If its any help, I've had to put my tumble in my bedrooms over the years, no where else in the houses and I NEED it! 

[AprilQuilt]

17 minutes ago, IsmeWeatherwax said:

Rental property kitchens are just poorly designed full stop! My one at the mo is ridiculous...there aren't even any kitchen drawers...we had to use my sons small chest of drawers as an emergency measure?  Congrats to you for buying tho, its darn hard to get on that ladder here! 

I got my first tumble dryer when my eldest was 10 months old, shes 22, I can and have lived without many conveniences over the years, but you can prise my beloved tumble dryer out of my cold.dead.hands.

If its any help, I've had to put my tumble in my bedrooms over the years, no where else in the houses and I NEED it! 

yes! our last flat had no kitchen drawers! It was completely baffling. Obviously designed by someone who was absolutely never going to live with it themselves. The whole place was weird, it was in a huge converted Victorian house so the rooms were insanely large but they'd still only put in the most cramped galley kitchen and a teeny tiny shower room. Thanks for the congrats, yep it was a total slog getting on the ladder (we finally completed 2 months before our daughter was born) and only possible because we moved out of London. I wasn't going to collude with that housing market, it's criminal.

BTW, I went to UEA too, for BA and MA a bit later. I really loved it, and miss Norwich very much. I'd have returned there in a heartbeat if my partner had been up for it. It's a very fine city indeed, I hope your daughter's enjoying herself.

[IsmeWeatherwax]

13 minutes ago, AprilQuilt said:

yes! our last flat had no kitchen drawers! It was completely baffling. Obviously designed by someone who was absolutely never going to live with it themselves. The whole place was weird, it was in a huge converted Victorian house so the rooms were insanely large but they'd still only put in the most cramped galley kitchen and a teeny tiny shower room. Thanks for the congrats, yep it was a total slog getting on the ladder (we finally completed 2 months before our daughter was born) and only possible because we moved out of London. I wasn't going to collude with that housing market, it's criminal.

BTW, I went to UEA too, for BA and MA a bit later. I really loved it, and miss Norwich very much. I'd have returned there in a heartbeat if my partner had been up for it. It's a very fine city indeed, I hope your daughter's enjoying herself.

Im so glad to know the lack of drawers is not just something that happened to me!! My kitchen is a 1950's council Hygena eyesore! Ive got 4 worktops, so a nice sized kitchen...all 4 are different style and colour ?. But still it will do for another year, I decided to fablon my cupboards to make it look nicer so thats the bank holiday weekend fun! 

She loves Norwich! Ive been up twice to visit her and I would happily live there! She's sad to leave in Sept but she wants to do her PHD and rules say she can't do it UEA as of the 2 other degrees, which is really sad but she can always move back at some point. She started there in Sept 2015 doing BA Eng Lit and was in Paston house. What about you? 

[AprilQuilt]

@IsmeWeatherwax I was in Norfolk Terrace, one of the ziggurats. That was 2006-7 before they were renovated - still had communal showers and great big laundry drying rooms (so this is totally not thread drift from the thread drift) - and we had a whale of a time getting out on the terrace roof bits which I don't think is allowed any more. The campus is so beautiful with the lake and all that green space (and bunnies), and it totally sold me on brutalist architecture. I did my BA in the School of World Art Studies at the Sainsbury Centre, and then a Creative Writing MA after a few years in work. The writing/literary community there is wonderful, shame your daughter has to move on. I didn't realise that was a rule! I hope she's going somewhere similarly great.

[Glasgowghirl]

We have a dryer but we tend to usually hang our washing outside, if the weather permits or on a drying rack. The dryer is expensive to run so we try to avoid using it. Our Kitchen when we first moved in had a clothes drying rack that you hung up on the ceiling and it was dried clothes quickly and saved space. We got rid of it in the 2000s, when the kitchen was remodled, mum and dad regret getting rid of it now as the rack we have takes up space in my nephew's room and every time he wants to come up they have to move it.

 

[Meggo]

6 hours ago, takers401 said:

I am the oddball that prefers my laundry room off the kitchen, even with our bedrooms upstairs. I have a hard enough time remembering to switch loads with a buzzer going off a few feet away (as most of my day is spent in the kitchen/family room). I can't imagine how many loads I'd have to rewash if I was out of hearing of the buzzer. 

That's the ONE perk to it being near the kitchen. I don't forget nearly as many loads as I did when it was in the basement. We have lived here for three years now & have been wracking our brains trying to figure out how to make that one little area less congested. It's as wide as a washer & dryer sitting next to each other. And across the from the washer/dryer is the ONLY closet on the main floor. And it's our main entry (we have a front door - but only guests use it). So all the shoes, boots, jackets, keys, bags go there, along with the big container of dog food, all the bins for mittens & gloves and hats, any brooms or mops or cleaning supplies. 

We have spend the last 2 years we've lived here trying to figure out how to make it a better set up space wise. There is room to move it downstairs into the basement, we could bump out the roofline a bit and put it off our closet... we just can't find the right thing...

[IsmeWeatherwax]

2 hours ago, AprilQuilt said:

@IsmeWeatherwax I was in Norfolk Terrace, one of the ziggurats. That was 2006-7 before they were renovated - still had communal showers and great big laundry drying rooms (so this is totally not thread drift from the thread drift) - and we had a whale of a time getting out on the terrace roof bits which I don't think is allowed any more. The campus is so beautiful with the lake and all that green space (and bunnies), and it totally sold me on brutalist architecture. I did my BA in the School of World Art Studies at the Sainsbury Centre, and then a Creative Writing MA after a few years in work. The writing/literary community there is wonderful, shame your daughter has to move on. I didn't realise that was a rule! I hope she's going somewhere similarly great.

The bunnies are still there! Ah Paston was a newish build, and its was a shower en-suite, I dont think she would've coped with communal lol Each floor had a laundry room of a couple of washers and dryers, coin operated of course because it doesnt cost enough for the accomodation as it is... She looked at a couple other Uni's but what sold it to you also sold it to her ? Nottingham will be the next place, she's not hugely thrilled but I don't think anywhere will ever compare to UEA for her. I love thats its such a small world   

[nst]

13 hours ago, SassyPants said:

I have 2 sets in my-not-a-6-million-$ house!

as you should!! 

 

[just_ordinary]

On 4/29/2019 at 12:02 PM, lumpentheologie said:

I had no idea dishwashers were so common until reading this thread!  They've always seemed like a luxury to me, and I'd lived my whole life without one until last October. My parents have never had one either. My last roommate in New York was from Denmark and she had never gone without a dishwasher before and had no idea how to even wash dishes.  I was so shocked by that!  It was horrible, she had no idea how to do it and I basically had to re-wash all her dishes because they still had food on them in the drying rack.  It would still have never have occurred to me to use disposable dishes though. 

I like having a dishwasher now but it's not nearly the game-changer having a washing machine is. This is the first time I've ever had a washing machine in my apartment and it's so amazing to do laundry whenever I want instead of having to haul everything to the laundromat once a month and spend half a day there. 

I've never had an ice maker either, but I only use ice occasionally in the summer when it's really hot, so ice trays are fine for me. 

We do currently have 6 different bins in our kitchen for trash/recycling: paper, plastic/metal, glass with a deposit, glass without a deposit (sorted into colored/clear when we take it to the big bins), compost, and trash. The only thing that bothers me is that we have to haul the glass a 10-min walk away to recycle it, so we don't do that as often as we should. Well, and it also bothers me that not all the stores will take all the deposit bottles, so sometimes we have to go to multiple places to get rid of those. 

When I lived in New York I had a basket for paper, a bin for other recycling, a bin for trash, and I kept my compost in the freezer. And I also kept plastic bags under the sink and every few months I'd take them to a place where they could get recycled. 

Unpopular opinion ahead: Disposable dishes are really bad for the environment. It’s ok (still not ideal) to use them for a picknick (or a children birthday when you have to expect they brake your plates) or temporarily but to use them for every day purposes is just bad! I can’t wrap my head around how much waste some people willingly produce. And some even pretend they care about the environment. It’s the same with people going all crazy about Primark but act as if they care about human rights. Too bad that doesn’t include the poor people (often women) that make those clothes. Most of us (and I include myself) are just not wiling or too lazy to really act as they preach. Especially if the people who suffer live far away and we are not confronted by our actions.

On 4/29/2019 at 6:31 PM, nausicaa said:

I'm American and have never had a dishwasher, and can't understand why I would need one unless I suddenly popped out four kids. I live alone and wouldn't make enough dishes to fill a whole load until the end of a week, and everything would be smelly and moldy by then. You also have to scrub everything anyway before loading it up.

It is nice to have a washing machine though. I suppose I could cut down to a once a month laundromat visit if I had to though, and just catch up on reading while doing the wash.

What I can't go without is a full kitchen. Not anything fancy, but I need an oven, a full-sized fridge, and some cabinets for storage. A ton of places in this area are in-law suites or basement apartments and it's illegal in my county to run a separate gas line in your house. So, many places just have a microwave cabinet, a mini fridge, and a little table. Apparently plenty of people (working adults, not college students) are fine with this? And the rent isn't much cheaper for these places than for the ones with full kitchens. I just can't imagine living solely off of snacks and microwaved meals. It's a total deal breaker for me.

I am confused- you would scrap the uneaten food from your plate before you hand wash wouldn’t you? And if pots or pans are burned you just scrub/wash them by hand anyway so no need to put them in the dishwasher.

I totally understand that a dishwasher might make no sense for just one person though. 

What I hate about dishwashers is that they will affect your glassware at one point. But it takes a long time. I can see the first signs now on our glasses and we have them for about ten years. They will be fine another five to ten I am sure (no clue how we managed not to break one yet. I guess the babe will take care of that in a good year or so). I would never put delicate old glassware in it though.

Most people here have dishwashers nowadays. Except for some old people and students who share a flat and a very little minority of the rest. My grandmother still doesn’t have one - when I was a young child (6-10) I hated having to help washing the dishes. When my parents dishwasher broke down (family of five) we had to hand wash for six weeks till it was repaired. We all chimmed in and it wasn’t too bad. We had some nice chats. But we knew it would only be temporarily. 

[nausicaa]

7 minutes ago, just_ordinary said:

I am confused- you would scrap the uneaten food from your plate before you hand wash wouldn’t you? And if pots or pans are burned you just scrub/wash them by hand anyway so no need to put them in the dishwasher.

By the time I've scraped the food off and rinsed it it makes more sense to just wash the dish. I don't understand how the dishwasher saves me any time. The only time they make sense to me is if you've had a big party or just hosted Thanksgiving. Or are the Duggars. 

[Silas]

I only miss having a dishwasher on big holidays, which we rarely host. I despise unloading a dishwasher. I know it's easier to unload than wash dishes but I am what I am. Plus without a dishwasher, we wash dishes as we go so there's never a lot to wash or put away at once. 

Going without a washer/dryer in the house is hard though. I remember a few years ago we all came down with the stomach flu while our washer was broken and we'd been using the laundry mat.  I still have nightmares. 

 

[just_ordinary]

53 minutes ago, nausicaa said:

By the time I've scraped the food off and rinsed it it makes more sense to just wash the dish. I don't understand how the dishwasher saves me any time. The only time they make sense to me is if you've had a big party or just hosted Thanksgiving. Or are the Duggars. 

 But that’s the point. You scrap the leftover food in the bin (as you would before you wash it) and put it straight in. No rinsing. If you do a proper rinse there really is no time saving or an environmental benefit.

Nothing wrong if you prefer to wash by hand though obviously. Different people prefer different cleaning methods and are faster and more comfortable in their ways than in others.