DH and his big washing day…

[99problemsincludinghavingteenagedaughters]

Family of 5 for context.

DH doesn’t often do a wash (unless he needs something specific for work) that’s my department, no moans on this as DH does other stuff and with 3 DD’s has no idea what belongs to who.

DH does sometimes have a flurry of excitement that he must take over the washing and prove that it’s not as hard as it looks and insists that he is being very helpful.

Yesterdays flurry came off the back of our tumble dryer not working and quite a back log of washing to get through and a work day at home for him.

Credit where credits due he did get the tumble dryer working and I left for work with with his 1st load on…

Skip 8 hours to me getting back from work and I came back to what can only be described as an old laundry, there were clothes everywhere, on radiators (fine) on back of chairs, up the bannisters, over the top of drawers, and doors we also discovered that DH isn’t particularly good at telling the difference from loads that are dry or damp and had piles of clothes everywhere from the tumble dryer. I bit my tongue though even when DD1 moaned about all her damp Nike socks and DH told her to hang around her bunk bed!!

It came to a head this morning when DH obviously very delighted with his successful washing day (as I couldn’t find a fucking thing and had girls moaning that all their tights were damp and found my makeup bag under a dumped white wash on the floor) asked if I had any dark things as he was putting on another wash before we left for work and I truly lost my shit with him.

Apparently the way I wash isn’t fast enough his way is much better and I should be grateful.

AIBU to think what he is is doing is not “doing a wash” putting it in the machine and half drying it and leaving it in mixed damp piles all over the house for me to sort is not at all fucking helpful and further more illogical as most of it will end up smelling and need to be rewashed.

My dd3 has a bottom drawer for university- she's 15!

Our tumble dryer is in the garage (at the bottom of the garden) and, particularly at the weekend, my husband is likely to be the first person to go down. The dryer runs overnight on Economy 7.
No matter how often I ask him to leave the drying in the dryer until I'm ready, or fold it if he must bring it in, he insists in bringing it up and leaving in a screwed up mess! If he would just leave it alone the dryer drum turns occasionally after finishing to reduce creasing.
If I get to it first, most can be folded and put away.

Oh bloody hell are you married to my husband OP?? Could have posted this myself.

Because the OP says the tumble dryer wasn’t producing dry clothes but damp clothes. So the DH thought it was fixed, and was pulling out clothes from the dryer that were not dry. He was then hanging them up everywhere to finish drying. Ergo, the dryer was not actually fixed.

Because the OP says the tumble dryer wasn’t producing dry clothes but damp clothes.

No the OP said DH can't tell the difference between dry and damp, I can only assume he pulls clothes out of dryer before they are actually done.

A dryer either works (tumbles with heat) or doesnt work.
If clothes are left long enough in a dryer with heat, they will dry. Just because OPs husband has a hard time distinguishing properly dry from still damp does not mean the dryer is broken.

I don’t agree he has trouble distinguishing damp from dry because if he did, he would have folded up the damp clothes and put them away, or piled them on a bed or sofa. But he didn’t, he did what anyone would do with damp clothes- he hung them up all over the house as the OP describes in great detail.

Well, that’s the bit I don’t agree with think she’s bashing him. If you cannot tell dry from damp, then why are you hanging up what is damp? If you think damp is dry, you wouldn’t be hanging the clothes on radiators, over doors and backs of chairs in order to dry now would you? And yet that is the number one complaint the OP makes.

The om poster regularly gets the wrong end of the stick, they clearly have comprehension issues. It's every thread they comment on tbf.

He can't tell which are damp as he piles them up with dry things!

I assumed that the sheer quantity of washing that the H had done meant that even with the tumble drier working he couldn't dry it all and so had resorted to hanging it everywhere!

The only relevance of the drier being broken is that it caused the washing to build up in the first place.

Hmmmm yes I hadnt noticed the name but yes, often has a very different take.

No, he ran out of places to hang the damp laundry up. OP never states dry are mixed with damp at all. Just that there are piles of damp laundry building up adding to the chaos.

I don’t have comprehension issues btw. How do you explain a supposedly working tumble dryer creating zero dry clothes then? And frankly a dryer cycle is quicker than a wash cycle (as anyone who actually does laundry knows) and so you’d never have an issue of a washer outpacing a working tumble dryer.

The damp clothes will ruin the wooden furniture over time.

Also shocked at the number of people just drying big loads of washing on the radiators multiple times a week. Mould must be thriving.

How do you explain a supposedly working tumble dryer creating zero dry clothes then? And frankly a dryer cycle is quicker than a wash cycle (as anyone who actually does laundry knows) and so you’d never have an issue of a washer outpacing a working tumble dryer.

I don't completely agree with that, there are loads of variables. My washing machine takes 7 kg of washing, my tumble drier only 6kg. I use a 50 min short wash for cottons but a full load of cottons in the tumble drier apparently takes 2 hr of drying (I don't actually do this, I only use a tumble drier for bedding and for 20 minutes of tumbling of towels to get rid of the crispiness). Maybe the H was thinking that stuff must be dry in the tumble drier by now and so took it out before it was dry to shove more stuff in?

DS does too. Cutlery, glasses etc squirreled away in the loft. He's 14

Before I met DH I lived with a male flatmate who seemed unable to use the rinse/hold function.

He would do a huge wash on the fastest spin, then leave it for hours and then iron the whole lot, including jeans and underpants!

I kept trying to guide him but he wouldn't have it...

Mine would also ruin clothes however, I worked out he doesn't mind ironing. I HATE it

So I wash, dry and fold and he irons. Team work.

10 pages of comments and this is your only response? MN should flag posts where the OP hasn’t bothered to engage to save some of us the bother.

My DH is quite good at washing/drying the clothes, but under no circumstances is he allowed to put them away (other than his own) as he apparently can't tell the difference between our two kids clothes despite them being different ages and genders 🙄
He also mixes up mine & DD's socks despite the obvious size difference 🤦🏻‍♀️

Me, watching him take laundry from the dryer/line/radiators: "is that dry?"
Him: "yeah almost"
Me: "almost? It's either dry or it's not"
Him: "well it's pretty much dry"
Me: "THEN IT IS NOT DRY, PUT IT BACK".

Repeat, for 200 years.

Sorry but this story didn't half make me giggle! 🤣 Although I'm sure it wasn't so funny for you to experience....

@Onnabugeisha you have definitely got the wrong end of the stick, I clearly said the tumble dryer was fixed by DH and then followed it with…

“DH isn’t particularly good at telling the difference from loads that are dry or damp and had piles of clothes everywhere from the tumble dryer.”

There is nothing wrong with it, DH Is just taking stuff out before it has dried properly.

We have 4 DDs they sort out the dry washing Tis the only way

I laughed at him telling her to put hang her socks on her bunk beds, brilliant!

But this has been an incredibly entertaining thread
I also now appreciate, I’m certainly not alone.