To think the Ozzies are mad (washing question)

[beautyspot]

Living in Oz and renting. Our beautiful and expensive flat comes with a cold fill only washing machine!

(OliPolly's recent thread re washing her smalls by hand made me think about this)

My neighbour was in the other day and shocked to see me filling the washing machine with hot water from the shower (carrying buckets!). Most of the people I know here are happy to wash in cold water and says it protects their clothes and the environment. I say it can never clean clothes properly.

Am I being unreasonable to think that a cold water wash can never clean properly? My neighbours here think so.

I once had food poisoning from eating dodgy chicken in Singapore. I should have trusted the sniff test...

But no, I have never not once been sick as a result of washing my clothes in cold water. There are what? about 22 million Australians? Most of us wash in cold water. So lets be generous and say that 5 million of them don't, that leaves 17 million people wearing clothes washed in cold water.

We are not dead

I am going to need some actual evidence of illnesses caused by washing clothes in washing powder in a washing machine in cold water before I can be convinced that a method that has worked perfectly well for so long for so many people should be changed.

Seriously, not all bacteria needs to be pulverised, we don't need to be sterile.

My (Aussie) washing machine is ancient but will do hot or cold. I wash bedclothes, towels & dp's lovely & fragrant football kit on warm, & everything else cold. It all comes out nice & clean.

The handy man at the last unit we lived in told us to run some Epsom salts through the machine every now & again to stop build up from the liquid detergent - a great tip.

Also, I though it was POHM (Prisoner of Her Majesty)

In all my time in Zim I don't think I ever met anyone that had been ill because of hand washing clothes in cold water!

Met a few with HIV/AIDS, skin cancer, and a couple with malaria (as well as the normal coughs and colds) - but I would have though the sickness rate would have been much higher if they were so prone to bugs.

And Zim isn't really the cleanest place in general either!

Same in Cambodia baroque. In fact the clothes that we took to the laundry there came back immaculate & perfectly ironed & pressed, best wash they've ever had I think! I often just washed things under the shower with a bar of soap - SHOCK HORROR! Don't think they made me sick....

I did attempt to hand wash my clothes myself for the first six months............they never looked clean - but they kind of smelled it - and I was never ill then either

I always wonder about people who worry about this stuff so much (i.e. all bacteria being killed etc).

Whether they worry about it because they get sick a lot or whether they get sick a lot because they worry about it.

We have a 'robust' view to living and it seems to work. We are all bounce off the walls healthy 99% of the time. We did all get swine flu in the UK, but fought that off with a minimum of fuss as well. In the last year DS2 has had one fever (teething) and DS1 had a day off school after school went back in a week that had a row of 40+ degree days (it was just too much).

I don't use antibacterial soap, we use natural shower/cleaning products (I find white vinegar to be the most effective), I don't spend a lot of time cleaning and I do our washing in cold water. Can be a bit hit and miss with bathing the kids, and consider a good dunking in the pool to be sufficient for the day. DH and I do both shower twice a day though. I am of course mad about napisan and use it like the dad in 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding' used windex.

So are we in robust good health because of this stuff or in spite of it?

I love my top-loader. I spend the first few minutes of any cycle opening the lid five or six times to chuck in all those missed bits of clothing shed by toddler in bizarre places.

Cold wash and hot dryer will do the trick too. A hot iron would kill some off too, I would think. But why would you worry? Are you chewing your clothes?

You dry your dishes with your tea towels.

You wipe your hands on towels.

I don't antibacterial soap either; we use all organic natural shampoo and soaps in this house, organic natural dish and laundry soap and no softeners, and use a steamer instead of cleaning products. DD hasn't yet had the flu, although she's only 2 and I couldn't remember last time DH and I have. One fever too due to teething and the only time she had a diaper rash was when I had to use a Huggies diaper instead of the natural ones we always use. She has had developed a runny nose after being at the rec centre daycare, but it never becomes anything more than that and lasts only a few days. And yes, a good dunking in a pool would clean you; chlorine is a great cleaner.

If washing in cold was sufficient, professional laundering companies that do hospital to restaurant laundry would be using it.

Er, what? I'm Australian and have never met a cold wash only washing machine. They're attached to taps. Turn the hot one on and use whatever temperature you like! There are cold water only washing detergents if you want to go that route, however...

P.S. It's 'Aussies'.

We brought are washing machine over with us from UK and it's meant to heat water up! But everything is line dried as the sun shines all the time in Western Australia!
This thread has mad me laugh though as it's gone from washing machines, to shower heads ( wish i could move mine unside down to wash bits to!) , to calling people Ozzies/Aussies. What a fab thread and now of to get ds's fromschool and hope no bodies asks if I've had an interesting day!

Well hospitals are a bit different aren't they?

I don't clean the floor with hospital grade disinfectant nor regularly bath my hands in alcohol gel at home.

Australia has one of the highest life expectancies in the world, if we were all living on the edge of this imminent danger I am sure it would be reflected somewhere.

I just dont like ozzzie as it makes you sould like a major bevan

Is there a difference between a bevan & a bogan?

(sorry for going off topic)

I know someone else has mentioned the Dettol & Canesten anti bacterial liquid wash which is good if you're really worried about germs. You can use them in cold or hot water.

It's state specific generally. Although I think Queensland's Bevans leave the bogans of the rest of the country for dead
Except maybe NT

Im a queenslander so we say bevan :)

Wow I'm qld too but hear bogan far more than bevan. I shall adjust my vocabulary accordingly

I have never heard a queenslander say bogan but i am in my 40's so maybe its an older thing and people are adopting the southern slang

The things your learn on MN hey!
When I was at school it was Feral or Westy, but that was Sydney specific I think? Squinter is another great Sydney term, but not as derogatory as any of the above.

we say ferals too but westie is a sydney thing for sure

When I was at school it was always bevans or stateys (state school kids)

Onlion, Bogan seems to have crept up from Victoria - I remember when you knew someone was from Melbourne if they said Bogan and I'm in my early 30s so it's a fast moving trend.
Am now visualising a stream of bogans driving north from Melbourne

yeah

victoria on the move

to queensland

my washing machine is cold fill, and I'm in the UK. I haven't died yet.