Laundry Dilemma

[JustALittleBitClueless]

Please be kind, this is my first post and I would appreciate some guidance.

DH and I have been married six months (and nine days) and I'm really struggling with the laundry. Up until now, I've had to hand wash on the sink and do our sheets and pillowcases in the bath. It's a big effort to wring everything out, and some days I can't peg out on the line. I have an old wooden clothes horse and it's not up to much.

Well now we have bought a second hand twin tub, which is amazing, but I still don't have a clue what I am doing laundry wise.

Should I put the immersion on first and then connect the hose to the hot tap, and fill? Or should I connect the hose to the cold tap, and then use the twin tub heater? Which is more economical?

When I've washed the whites, do I need to add more powder when I put the coloureds in? Does anyone know? I'll be doing DH's work overalls last, of course.

Will it be okay to do the first spin back into the wash tub and then fill the spinner water tub with cold water from the tap, and move the output hose, so that the spinner water goes back into the sink? And how many times would I do the cold water thing? Until the water runs clear, I guess.

Sorry for all the questions, my mind is in a whirl. I could ask DM, but she lives three bus rides away and neither of us has a phone installed. Although we hope to have one once we've paid off the bank loan on the Cortina.

To add to the situation, I'm expecting, due on 1st July, I hope it's a boy. I don't know if it would be hygienic to wash the nappies first, given that they will need the hottest wash. But what about the other washing? I thought if the nappies were soaked in a bucket of Napisan and sluiced off beforehand, I could wash them first, and then do the baby's nightgowns, rompers, matinee coats, bonnets etc, towels, sheets and pillowcases, our clothes, then overalls last. I'd probably need to wash twice a week then.

But at the moment, is a weekly wash going to be enough, given that it might take several days to get things dry? We have a gas fire in the living room and a wall heater in the bedroom, so I probably need another clothes horse. I'm still working Monday to Friday, so have to do my housework at the weekend. At least DH spends Saturdays and Sundays fishing, which gets him out of my hair.

Reading this back, I may be overthinking things. But you'd think I'd be able to find a system that works. It's 1979, for goodness sake, not 1879. And I'm 19, with two 'A' levels, so I have a brain.

@CecilyP, there's a launderette near where the student houses are.

I like The Weekly News and Mother & Baby.

Mum had a twin tub - her Friday night in the 60s was spent doing the washing whilst my Dad went out to a church related thing. He used to bring us all sweets back. Later on I used to cycle to guides and then be sent to the off licence to buy pop and crisps.

When I married in 1980 we lived in a flat which wasn't plumbed in for an automatic washer so I had a single tub with a separate spin dryer which you had to hang onto when it span because it bounced all over the place. Just ONCE my then DH did the washing - and he put all my white bras in on the hot wash - they came out grey with all the elastic hanging out. I was gutted - they were brand new, saved up for and bought as part of my "trousseau". I never forgave him.

@Elieza, we're in a two bed stone terrace, £6,000. We put down a 10% deposit.

Oh @VexedofVirginiaWater, how upsetting. I'm not surprised you never forgave him.

@JustALittleBitClueless

I hope your current dilemma is sorted very soon *@1forAll74* .

There is nothing more joyful than a line of freshly laundered nappies.

Which always go last into the twin tub.

You work up by temp.

My eldest sin was born in July 1980.
You’ve given me hives thinking about it.
We had a one bedroom council flat so I took all my laundry to my mum’s to use her twin tub. Those were the days.

Eldest son not sin. Haha

My DM didn’t really hold with automatic washing machines. I remember we were living in Europe in the early nineties and a group of my interrailing mates came to stay and we spent a productive afternoon shoving six rucksacks full of clothes in and out of the twintub.

In the seventies and eighties telly and eventually the video recorder came from Radio Rentals and the twin tub and cooler were on the never never.

My mother got a twin tub in the seventies. Before that I have no idea how she did the washing. Launderette I suppose. She went away for three weeks abroad to visit her family and I was left doing all the household washing in it for four people. Why my father couldn’t have done it, God knows. I was 14. Child abuse really.
They were a nightmare to use.

Gosh, well, I'm flummoxed now @Nanny0gg.

I thought you worked down the temperatures as the washing water cooled.

Will the nappies be cleaned properly, going in last?

I assume the water is not fresh every time, and you do all loads in the same tubful. Like taking turns in the tin bath in front of the fire.

Which I used to do at home, before I was married. Now we have an indoor bathroom, the suite is a turquoisey blue.

The beauty of the twin tub is that you can always bung the nappies in last so you never have to have smelly buckets hanging around.

You start cool with the delicates that won't be that mucky and work up.

Just remember though, hankies need to be boiled in a pan on the stove.

Thank you for those wise words @Nanny0gg, I will bear that in mind once my little one comes along.

Do you have any tips on rinsing and spinning?

Another thought.

So you use the twin tub heater, not the immersion, to increase the temperature as you go along. Is that expensive to do? We don't have a slot meter, we're on a quarterly bill. But I imagine one would soon tire of having to constantly feed 50p pieces into the meter.

I can't help wondering if this thread started three days late...

Eurgh I still remember the smell of the public phonebox .
There was always a 2" pool of water in the bottom that you hoped was rain ( but probably wasn't)

And the reciever always smelled of cigaretes , beer and had condensation from the last users breath .

@ProfessionalWeirdo

I can't help wondering if this thread started three days late...

I double-checked when I got to "it's 1979" too! I had a twin tub until 1992, when we moved to our current house, and the kitchen wasn't big enough. I was always wary of automatics until then.I used to start with whites in hot water, and work down.

@sueelleker, a vote for hot to cold, thank you.

Phone box smells are quite vile @70isaLimitNotaTarget. I don't like to think too hard about who might have used it before you.

Mum and dad only got their first indoor toilet in 1979

When we moved to a house with an indoor bathroom, it was like winning the pools @Hankunamatata. That was in 1977.

@CecilyP

I remember my mum's automatic washing machine died at some point in the 90's. She chose to replace it with a twin tub and I was quickly trained up in using it.

Why would she do that? It was unusual in those days for houses to be plumbed for an automatic, but if they were, why would you not use one?

@CecilyP

I think she had a few reasons...
Cheaper on water and washing powder for a start.
I suspect her main reason was the weather. I grew up in an area renowned for rain and bad weather. We relied on a dry windy day, rather than sun to dry clothes. No central heating and a tumble dryer was an extravagant luxury that my parents wouldn't have been able to afford.
If there was a dry windy day, a twin tub meant she could get all the washing done. It could easily be a fortnight before there was another dry day. She used to watch the weather like a hawk, and still does to this day, despite now having an automatic and a range of options for drying indoors and much less washing as its just my parents at home now.
Hanging out is still her preferred drying option, and she often says "twill be a good drying day tomorrow, have you stripped your bed?", despite the fact I live in a different country.

I also think automatics weren't as good at cleaning back then. (? Could just be based on my mother's opinion though). With a twin tub, you could easily pull a garment out, check if the stain had gone, treat and throw back in as necessary.

Different times, different needs.

My mum had a twin tub, I went to university in 1997 and had to ask how to work the automatic washing machine. Saturday morning was wash day (I think she did another smaller one mid week) there would be piles of washing outside the kitchen up the hall so she could work through them.

I lived for a while in a house with an upright, I did like that. There is a spin dryer at my MIL's I'm not sure if there is much demand for them now, so not sure what we are going to do with it.

@AfternoonToffee, if you have room, perhaps in the garage, I would keep it. It would be really useful for an extra spin for bedding, towels, swimming and sports gear, which would then need minimal drying time.

Sorry - I've only just come back to the thread- was busy taping the top 40!
It's soo hard trying to tape all the music without the presenters talking all over it!

1979

Too right @Frickssake, you need such quick reactions not to get the voiceovers.

Sunday night is bath night in this house, I'm having DH's water. We take turns who goes first.