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I am a complete idiot

15 replies

UserAlice · 23/02/2019 12:27

NC for this as I am so embarrassed.

Today I decided to try and wash this huge blanket I use every day when I’m chilling in the sofa in the evening. It is huge, like King Size duvet size.

It was too big for the washing machine so I took it upstairs to hand wash in the bath. What a fucking stupid idea that was.

The blanked literally soaked up all the water and became this saturated and ridiculously heavy mess. I have definitely pulled something in my back trying to move it (I actually felt the twinge) which is not helped by the fact I am 12 weeks pregnant today.

Spent the next 30 mins wringing it out as much as a I could, bit by bit, to the point where I was able to pull it into an old suitcase and drag it down the stairs.

I’ve got it into the garden (whilst practically flooding the kitchen) and it’s now hanging over our green wheelie bin which I half arsedly tried to give a quick wipe down before hand but at this moment in time I don’t care how clean this sodding thing no longer is!

I reckon it will take a good 3 months to dry and flood the garden in the process.

What a fucking idiot I am.

Anyone else want to humour me with their housekeeping disasters? I think I’ve given up on cleaning for the rest of the day.

OP posts:
hidinginthenightgarden · 23/02/2019 12:29

Oh no! next time take it to a lundertte. They have big dryers.

GertrudeCB · 23/02/2019 12:44

Are you me ? I have shit like that happen all the time and I've not got the excuse of being pregnant.
My now adult DC still talk about the time mum decided to swap their rooms over, Including 2 cabin beds that needed to be dismantled to be moved an hour before bedtime. Confused.
Chill out, have a Brew and some Cake and remind yourself that this will be a cracking anecdote in the years to come Wink

CrackersDontMatter · 23/02/2019 12:46

Oh no! Do you know anyone with a big washing machine who could spin it for you? Mine is 11kg and takes a super king duvet. Could a neighbour help?

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bobstersmum · 23/02/2019 12:54

Oh no! This made me laugh though sorry! Will you local museum lend you a mangle?

CakeNinja · 23/02/2019 13:00

Sorry, I found this hilarious Blush Grin
Apart from the bit about pulling something in your back, that’s not funny.
Agree with getting it spun in a machine though, I have washed my king size duvet in my machine before and that isn’t a big machine, just a standard one.

UserAlice · 23/02/2019 13:10

Oh don’t worry about laughing I completely appreciate the ridiculousness of it all. DH will hopefully laugh with me when he gets home later.

I will see what the state of it is this evening after it’s had all day in the sun to drip dry 🙄

Next time I will just take it to the bloody laundrette (hindsight is a wonderful thing!).

OP posts:
thinkingaboutthinking19 · 23/02/2019 13:13

Could you pack it in the suitcase and take it to the laundrette today? Just thinking about how I love snuggling on the sofa under our blanket....would miss it if we didn't have it.

If you're able to at least you should haven't back nice and clean for this evening Smile.
Hope you get it sorted.

Crunchymum · 23/02/2019 14:00

Oh bless you OP, it really does sound like something I would do (especially more destruction as I tried to fix the initial issue!!)

Feet up with a cuppa me thinks.

PinkHeart5914 · 23/02/2019 14:12

I feel your pain my lovely

I’ve done similar, I have this rug beautiful it is was the first thing me and dh brought when we got our first house.

Anyway it was a bit grubby so I have the bright idea of washing it, wouldn’t fit in the machine so I like you hand washed in the bath and it was like a sponge sucking up all the water. I couldn’t lift it, so once dh was home from work he made a make shift line in the garden out of wood and although it was summer it took 4 days to dry!

Needless to say I have never washed it again....

DeathyMcDeathStarFace · 23/02/2019 15:35

When I was a youngish teen (about 30 years ago) I had a thick, feather filled double size quilt kind of thing. Not the white material you have on duvets now, but a thicker shiny pink material and I didn't know what it had inside at the time. It desperately needed a wash but definitely wouldn't go in the machine.

As you have done, I put it in the bath. Copious amounts of washing powder and loads of water, which it just sucked up, as it was this massive absorbent quilt thing. Gave it a good hand wash, took ages. There was no way I was going to get it out of the bath though, it was so heavy I couldn't even lift it with my brother's help.

Had pulled the plug to drain the water, and the water just kept trickling out of the duvet down the plug hole for ages. Eventually managed to lay bits of it flat in the bath and squeezed down on it to get as much water out as possible, doing it bit by bit, took hours, squeezing, massaging, treading on it like grapes, everything.

Got it light enough to cart downstairs and out the back door, soaking the floor on the way! Got it over the line but it made the line so low most of the quilt was on the ground, was surprised it didn't break the line. I think I propped the quilt up, spread out on dining chairs either side of the line, to raise it off the floor. Took days to get dry, was outside for days then wrapped it around the hot water tank after it had stopped dripping (didn't want to leave out in rain), the filling had gone into clumps and the middle of the clumps were not drying, had to keep shaking it and physically trying to break the clumps up. This was when I found out it was filled with feathers as they kept poking through the covering and I kept pulling them out.

It took so long to dry it went a bit smelly, like a load of washing does if left in the machine wet for a day or two. There was no way I was going to wash it to get rid of the (not too strong) smell as it was not going to dry again and couldn't afford a new duvet/quilt at the time, so sprayed it with things like deodorant/perfume etc and kept hanging it to dry outside to air when it wasn't raining. It was probably highly flammable afterwards but did smell much nicer by the end. (I don't know if Febreeze was around then, but we certainly didn't have any.)

Took well over a week of my life, that quilt. I remember parts of that time vividly, especially the panic when thinking I might have ruined it and mum was a single parent struggling to make ends meet so couldn't replace it. It had been given to us second hand in the first place so we hadn't had to pay for it originally. It never recovered from that washing properly, some of the pockets of feathers were a bit deflated afterwards, but it was a double so still worked well for just me. I am now much more careful when washing duvets, the white kind with washing instructions on them!

WeBuiltCisCityOnSexistRoles · 23/02/2019 15:54

I did this! I'm so glad I'm not alone, so thanks user, although I am sorry for your troubles Grin

Mine was a kind of quilted pouffy bedspread thing and when I put it in the filled bath, it soaked up every single drop of water in there and doubled in size. I couldn't do anything with it. It was like wrestling a kind of horrific monster.

In the end I had to call a friend over and he got most of the water out (he is a professional sports player and still struggled!). IIRC at one point we put a sheet around it and twisted it to sort of wring the water out - have you tried that?

It never dried properly though and ended up being tipped eventually as it smelt like a mouldy old cellar.

If only I'd read a thread like yours before I did it! Think of how many MNers you have been a warning toGrin

UserAlice · 23/02/2019 16:00

I cannot believe I am not the only one! Thank you all for sharing your similar stories and ideas Grin

I’ve just been out to check on it and it’s still soaking wet and now freezing cold so I’ve given up. I’ll wait for it to dry out enough for me to put it in the dryer (has a much bigger capacity than my washer) and then I will take it to the launderette. I am expecting this to take at least a week; thankfully no rain is forecast.

Luckily I have other blankets to use this evening. DH will have a field day with this... he always says I have zero common sense!

OP posts:
Dohee · 23/02/2019 16:07

Oh yes. A duvet. A single one. That bastard nearly killed me. What sort of geniuses are we that we decide the bath is a good idea? The weight of it! I then broke our washing machine by trying to put it on the spin cycle. Washing machine couldn't move. Not my finest hour 12 hours

Dohee · 23/02/2019 16:10

If it's any consolation, I put mine in the wheelie bin. Probably the heaviest wheelie bin they've ever emptied, but it got it out of my hair.

BishopBrennansArse · 23/02/2019 16:15

I did that with a duvet once. Never again.

I was pregnant, too. Blame that.

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