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.

We so are married to the same man. I'm not fussy about how it's put away, but please don't put it on the airer, or on the line the wrong way. Otherwise it all creases too much!

Well I suppose he does more around the house than some men, but really that is no defence for the 'big I am' attitude.

I would look at him blankly every single time and say FOR ME?
Until he got the message.

It's easy to put things in a machine.

The ball ache is the drying, sorting, ironing, putting away. It's not helpful to 'wash'. It's helpful to do the other bit.

YABU the context should be “tumble dryer just broke down and so the washing is drying all about the house” instead of a husband bashing tirade. What did you expect him to do with no tumble dryer?

But why not just fold it as you put it in the bags? It really doesn't take much longer.

Yes my DH is a fan of leaving 99 percent of the washing to me (family of 5), then occasionally washing his own stuff on the longest eco cycle possible. If other small items of clothing (kids socks/pants) go into 'his' wash, he likes to leave the damp items on the counter to dry, ideally next to already-dry piles of laundry.

On the rare occasion he uses the tumble drier (which he doesn't like), he never, ever EVER empties the water first. So clothes won't dry that way either! It is utterly, utterly dementing.

YABU the context should be “tumble dryer just broke down and so the washing is drying all about the house” instead of a husband bashing tirade. What did you expect him to do with no tumble dryer?

in the same post you quoted: "he did get the tumble dryer working"

Many moons ago when my mum still had a twin tub, my father did the laundry when she was poorly.
He had the water at boiling point and spun everything until it was practically dry.
Cue ruined knitwear, clothes with fluff from the towels welded to them and my beautiful knife pleated skirt ruined. It didn't have a bloody pleat left in it!
Then it was all literally thrown over the clothes line to dry.....in the rain!
Fortunately he's mastered it since then 😂

Can you not teach him how to do it properly? A bit of petient explaining might go a long way?

My DP does all the laundry and he's got very good at it - he really takes pride in a doing a white wash and hanging it all up nicely

I reckon I could hire out my DH as a washing trainer. He's fab! He sorts things into light and dark, leaves anything he thinks might be delicate alone, hangs everything up on the airer or outside when it's done and folds everything into neat piles by owner when it's dry. Admittedly it took a while. When I first met him everything he wore was the same blue grey colour through lack of sorting and he shrunk some of my clothes. After the third accident I started charging him for the replacement and that concentrated his mind. He still wouldn't think to read a washing label, but I can cope with that. The downside is the temperamental washing machine will often refuse to switch on for me, but starts first time every time for him...

My DH is banned from touching the washing machine. It is the only way for us!

How convenient for him.

Fuck it up so that he isn’t allowed to do it any more.

Perfect. If only you’d have thought of that first.

Don't want to gloat but my DH does all the washing (except my bits of handwashing) & he's excellent at it: washes, dries, sorts & puts away.

Mind, it's taken decades to get it perfect. He used to believe that if something so much as touched the airer, it would dry no matter how much was piled on top of it.

And I've lost the occasional linen skirt & lambswool jumper which get shrunk to a size 8, but it's a small price to pay for not dealing with laundry.

In the same post you are quoting, it obviously stopped working because OP came home to the tumble dryer not working and damp washing hung up everywhere.

Well you've hit the nail on the head there @speakout it takes "just a bit of thought". Which it seems many men aren't prepared to trouble their heads over. It's pathetic.

My husband does it occasionally.

Everything white ends up grey despite him splitting the colours.

Previously some items have had an awful smell that won't go away when dry. I think they've been left damp in the machine.

I rarely iron anything as I dry things so the creases fall out. Everything he washes then needs ironing!

Friggin heck are we all married to the same man?

Big flurry of washing. No thought to where it's going to dry. Takes stuff out of tumble dryer/off airer still damp, hangs up wet things in a chaotic way that's they're never going to dry, leaves piles everywhere for me to then have to sort out.

Why?

Oh crumbs! What happened in the end?

Really bright and breezy here in the North, but cold! We’ll be getting the snow soon.

I still hide it 🤣

You copied the entire post yet didnt read that he fixed the dryer? Well done.

To sort out what clothes belong to who as I had three girls at home, all new clothes and underwear had different coloured thread sewn on to the inside label. Each child/ teenage and myself had a colour, a lot quicker than looking at sizes. They can sew them on themselves.

And you didn’t read on to note that while it was initially fixed, it again broke down and had obviously not been working by the time the OP came home from work.

Where does it say that