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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

or is this an easy thing to understand?

30 replies

ButterPie · 22/04/2010 16:37

I have two washing baskets in my kitchen. One is labelled "30 degrees. Washing powder and fabric softener", the other is labelled "60 degrees. Washing powder and nappisan".

If you were my very clever and helpful (and usually sensible) DP, who had just shooed me out of the kitchen so he could have space to do housework while I entertained the children and had a brew (very lovely of him), what would you take the labels to mean? Where would you put which items of laundry?

I was iffy about labelling the baskets to start with, it was mainly for my own good, but now I am wondering if I need more labels?

Also, if colours run, it happens in the wash, yes? Not because the stuff stayed in the machine for a couple of hours afterwards?

OP posts:
waitingforbedtime · 22/04/2010 16:38

Easy even for me

SusieCarmichael · 22/04/2010 16:40

i'm sorry but i love that you are so worried that you just had to worry about it on mn...

good luck though and yes colours run while they are washing but if you put a wet red t shirt next to a white one then that can also cause colour runnage!

SusieCarmichael · 22/04/2010 16:41

i'd be worried if dp did anything mind you so i'm a hypocrite

Original poster
ButterPie · 22/04/2010 16:41

Where would you put handknitted baby clothes? How about soiled nappies? How about a lovely frilly black dress?

OP posts:
EccentricaGallumbits · 22/04/2010 16:42

would confuse me. i chuck everything in together at 30 or 40.

Joolyjoolyjoo · 22/04/2010 16:44

Ah, but tis a well-known fact that men are not allowed to read instructions and must just work by trial and (repeated) error. Therefore, assuming your DP has a Y-chromosome, YABU! Even if you had explained the procedure to him, you would still BU as men cannot be expected to listen to anything that doesn't directly interest them.

Either way, he made you a cup of tea, so you need to be eternally grateful

Has he given you the hurt, wounded look yet?

neenz · 22/04/2010 16:45

Assuming this is not a joke thread ... has he actually done the washing wrong?

Original poster
ButterPie · 22/04/2010 16:45

EG- even nappies?

OP posts:
BallpointPen · 22/04/2010 16:45

I would put white cottons in the 60 degree nappisan basket and pretty much everything else in the 30 degree fabric softener one.

I wouldn't, however, trust my very clever and helpful DP to do the same.

Original poster
ButterPie · 22/04/2010 16:48

Loads of our clothes now have a different colour and shape to how they started (and burn holes from the top of the bloody aga-a-like, but that's another issue). I am grateful for him doing housework, I really am, but I didn't just choose those washing instructions at random.

OP posts:
Original poster
ButterPie · 22/04/2010 16:49

On a side note, ARE those the optimum settings?

OP posts:
EccentricaGallumbits · 22/04/2010 16:50

ah now that's different. i still have no idea how to wash tem though.

thesecondcoming · 22/04/2010 17:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

fartblossom · 22/04/2010 17:38

I do two loads, colours and whites. Thats it. I mostly do them at 30 degrees unless theres something in there I know has a difficult stain so do a 40 degree wash.

I dont even know what nappisan is. Is it to do with cloth nappies?

Actually while Im here can I ask what load would a black and white top go into? Colours or Whites, I always wonder, but put them in colours.

biddysmama · 22/04/2010 17:42

i would be worried, dp washed all my cloth nappies with washing powder and conditioner.... dd is 1 so its not a new thing.... he also put another wash on and used tablets with powder and conditioner in them and conditioner as well..... on a wash of his clothes, everyone was saying they could smell it

pithyslicker · 22/04/2010 17:44

I also do two loads. Dark and whites all at 40. Seems to work out ok

mathanxiety · 22/04/2010 17:45

I was never grateful for having clothes ruined. Doing it right is cheaper than replacing things that can't be worn again.

TrillianAstra · 22/04/2010 17:55

It seems easy to me, but I am very clever

Our clothes go 'darks' and 'lights', all at 40 degrees. Would probably be 30 degrees if the machine had that option.

diddl · 22/04/2010 17:59

Well it´s simple enough.
I also wash darks & lights Trillian-at 30 degrees.

Original poster
ButterPie · 22/04/2010 20:23

Nappisan is a powder that kind of sanitises stuff. Not really entirely convinced it is vital, but it is cheap and doesn't seem to do any harm, and makes me feel happier that stuff that could be germy (nappies mainly), isn't. I tend to stick a bit in the coloureds wash if, say, a nappy has leaked or something.

I have one baby in terry nappies and starting solids (mixture of BLW and purees for maximum mess) and one toddler potty training, as well as a DP who works in a warehouse and lots of cooking, baking, crafts, gardening and so on going on in the house so we have piles and piles of washing.

Does anyone know what the difference between the bit labelled synthetics and the bit labelled cottons? Each section then has a choice of temperatures, and there is also delicates and just dry, and a temp dial for the dryer which we never use. I just tend to use 30 on the synthetics bit or 60 on the cottons bit.

God, I used to sit and talk about politics, poetry, philosophy and art. Now I am actually very interested in talking about laundry...

OP posts:
notcitrus · 22/04/2010 20:38

It would confuse me - I never use the 60 degree setting except about once a month to clean the machine with extra-icky nappies. And never use fabric conditioner.

We have dark, light, and nappy loads, although I'll toss nappies and bright baby clothes in with other stuff usually. MrNC doesn't like me to put nappies in with his towels/sports kit/bedding but as long as he's not there when I unload the machine he's fine with it.

The oxy powder seems to help the nappies get whiter when I can't hang them outside in the subshine.

kickassangel · 22/04/2010 21:05

i think (but don't quote me) that the synthetics/cottons affects how long & vigorously it rotates stuff for, then you choose the temp. hence the 'delicates' - they get less of a whirl.

i always did nappies separately, but rarely used nappisan, though they soaked in it first.

'how sweet to be a nappy, whirring in the machine' - there, does that fit the poetry criteria?

menomena · 22/04/2010 21:40

I usually throw everything in together at 30 degrees, occasionally separate into light and dark if I can be bothered but if not it doesn't cause a problem!

SusieCarmichael · 22/04/2010 23:58

oh fartblossom i wondered about that too but i figured that it can't be a black that runs or they wouldn't have put it on a white top (hopefully) so my black n white stripes go in the whites. (my 'white' wash is more 'pale colours' rather than white though)

tortoiseonthehalfshell · 23/04/2010 03:34

Butterpie, mine has this habit of helpfully bleaching (toddler) clothes to get food stains out of them. Even non white clothes. Even non white clothes that say 'wash with like colours' 'do not bleach' etc.

This is why I buy everything on sale.