to be so clueless, and to ask for nesting support?!

[Superslinger]

So I've started maternity leave from a pretty full-on career that has meant I've spent the last ten years domestically cutting every corner possible - e.g. buying liquidtabs instead of using waching machine drawer etc.

Anyway, now I'm home and starting to care about home and having the urge to wash, clean, and wash again, I've become most disappointed to find I actually don't have a clue what I'm doing!

e.g.

• I can't remember which bit in the washing machine drawer is for which thing! I've bought some bottled detergent and fab conditioner and very excited about spending today washing our piles of lovely baby stuff, but just realised I have no idea where to put the fabric conditioner vs the detergent!

• What do people do about towels? I'm not normally bothered about towels hanging around waiting to be washed, but now I am! If you want to wait til you have 4/ 6 white towels dirty before you do a towel wash, what do you do with the first towels to be written off whilst your waiting for the others to be used too? Presumably you can't put them in normal washing basket because of the damp? Any brilliant strategies? Maybe I'm just being really dim on this one, but I just hate used towel smell...

AIBU to be so clueless?! So embarrassed to not know the drawer thing in particular! There are other things too, like how to clean mirrors without leaving enormous stains... Where oh where do people learn this stuff?! Please, please teach me the secrets to these questions - and any other housekeeping gems!

TIA

Go to the 'housekeeping' section

I dunno, I just use tabs.

Google the make and model of your machine and you'll find out.

Just dry the towels before putting them in the basket

Oh and get a hobby...life is too short for this

Ha, yes, Worra, I have begun to wonder whether I should be planning for 'more' than this. For the time being though, I'm obsessed!

Usually sections in the washing wachine drawer are marked with numbers/symbols but the the size difference can tell you too. The main wash section is usually the biggest, the contitioner section usually has a little plastic piece in it to help it disperse slowly and the prewash section is usually thinner and shallower than the main wash one. In mine the main section is on the left, conditioner in the middle and prewash on the right. Mine have markings pressed into the plastic by the front of the drawer which are || for main wash, a flower symbol for the conditioner and a | for the prewash.

I leave towels to dry on the towel rack before they go in the basket or they get washed pretty quickly after use. There's 6 of us so there's always loads of washing to do, especially white washes for the kids school polo shirts & underwear etc so towels can go in with that or the bathmats which are cream.

I use microfibre cloths for glass, a damp with a bit of soap one for wiping then quickly dry and polish with a clean dry one.

Rikalaily, you are my hero! Just checked my machine and found those exact symbols! SO excited (loser, I know) - off to wash the lovely little things...

I never thought to dry glass after polishing - that's clearly why the smears. I'm not such an idiot in normal life, honest... !

Fabric softener is an irritant and can inflame ezcema so don't wash baby clothes with it :) Use a tumble drier to keep them soft instead.

Agree with previous poster, check the good housekeeping section of mumsnet. Soon you too will be drying your bathroom tiles with a towel, buying a steam mop and washing all manner of things in your dishwasher. As for your washing machine....service wash anyone?!

Oh, and the Lakeland catalogue will be your new friend!

The housekeeping section will keep you busy - you are having afternoon naps aren't you? (because you should!)

The marks on the washing machine could be something like 1 line/mark for pre wash, 2 lines/marks for main detergent, flower symbol for conditioner. The biggest section in the drawer would be for the washing liquid.

I don't do a towel only wash, it's better to wash a couple of towels with other items so I usually mix with bedding for a hotter wash or baby clothes if it's baby/kids towels which aren't as dirty. I hang the towels up to dry as usual then I change them at the end of the day when I'm doing a final clear up or first thing in the morning when I go down for breakfast.

Oh no! I put fabric conditioner in (in the excitement of knowing which bit to put it in)! I got a sensitive, fragrance-free one, but didn't know it was bad for baby skin?! Maybe I should re-wash once this load has finished to get it off?! None of the baby stuff feels soft enough at the moment, especially the blankets. We don't have a tumble dryer at the moment, so that's not an option... I saw some fabric softening ball type things in Jojo maman a few months ago, and wondered, but didn't get them... Maybe I should re-wash without conditioner but with the balls...

Ladyface, is 'service wash' something else I should understand the meaning of?!

natural, never thought of doing towels with other stuff (no idea why), and no I haven't been napping. Maybe I should... If only I could stop spotting flecks of dust that have to be moved right here and now (you've all no idea the extent to which I used to be unable to care less! - we used to hate having guests in without prior warning because the place was so unkempt!)

No, you should bin the contaiminated clothes and start again...

Joking! Don't do that!

I'm quite jealous really. I never got the nesting bit with DS and spent my maternity leave in a freezing cold house (winter, renovating ) with all the curtains drawn feeling miserable. Massive AND and PND.

You can put the washing that is on now on an extra rinse if you know which button it is. If not put them on a quick wash.

The softner balls - are they not designed to go in a tumble drier?

Seriously, get thee over to housekeeping, they will put you right

Haha, AKMD, don't mess with my bonkers brain like that! I have to say I'm extremely, extremely relieved to be feeling this way - I was very concerned I'd struggle being at home, and I've got horrible SPD, so pretty much stuck in the house as crutching down the street saying 'owww, OWWW' and grabbing my crotch was getting me strange looks! I think DH is very relieved to be given a guided tour of just how spangly everything is every evening, rather than finding me wrapped in a duvet, depressed on the sofa (I have got a track-record of spending days at home resulting in this).

Superslinger, you could be me! I always felt i must have missed out on the housekeeping 101 class that everyone else went to - clueless about lots of housework and am constantly amazed by the shiny cleanliness clutter-free houses of fellow mums. I have three children, work like crazy, no money for a cleaner and so the house does tend to run to seed (fortunately my standards are rather low...) I do have ambitions to turn a new leaf and become less of a slattern and more of a domestic goddess as we are moving house later this year - i shall be checking out the housekeeping section of MN, who knew?!

I do towels all together on their own, means you can put them on a boil wash.

Theres a Housekeeping section on here? Well I never! I have to go and read over there. I'm useless at house keeping

superslinger when is your baby due? because I only got this 'nesting' urge really close to my due date (I got this mad urge to start moving heavy furniture around into better positions - much to DHs annoyance as I'd moved quite a lot of stuff I shouldn't have in my condition before he caught me at it). Anyway, try the housekeeping section here, there's also a woman called flylady whose website has lots of tips.
Re towels - just let them dry before putting them in the wash-basket. I'm obsessed by separating washing by colour, and use towels to bulk out a dark wash/ white wash/ whatever - rarely bother doing just a towel wash.
service wash is AFAIK running the washing-machine empty of clothes on a very hot wash to clean the machine out - they can get a bit moldy/ bunged up with dried on detergent otherwise (I sometimes put a bit of laundry bleach in the machine when doing the service wash).

By the way, if you are going to have a baby soon, get some Napisan, it is brilliant for cleaning baby poo off (you put a bit in the main powder compartment with your usual powder) and it means you don't have to run a separate wash for the (usually tiny) soiled clothes.

sighs I remember nesting - I discovered Zoflora and Flash with Febreze and cleaned everything to within an inch of it's life. If it didn't move for more than 3 minutes it was Zoflora'd - the dog slept with 1 eye open for weeks!!

I mopped and bleached and scrubbed and hoovered on my hands and knees. My house was spotless.

I'm pleased to say that the moment I arrived home with DD the urge left me and normal chaos and destruction returned :D