First time mum - do I need to purchase a washing machine/dryer?

[Growingyou]

Hi MNs,

I am living in an apartment and expecting my first baby. Usually, we do our washing once a week in the shared washing room in the basement. I'm guessing this won't suffice once the baby arrives! Would love your advice on:

1. Should we buy a separate washing machine and dryer? If there is so much washing that we'll need to wash and dry at the same time?
2. Should we buy a combined washer/dryer saving space, but reduced capacity/dry times v long.
3. Just buying a washing machine and clotheshorse drying?

We're trying to be earth/budget friendly but...it sounds like washing becomes a daily thing?

Sorry for how absolutely mundane this qu is! But grateful to learn / buy n advance

I'm with most other people - you'll either need to get a washer or have enough baby clothes and linen to go a solid week, which is a LOT. I would get a washing machine in your shoes. My experience is also that washer-dryers neither wash well nor dry well. We managed my first baby without drying outside or having a tumble dryer, we just used radiators and clothes horses. I can't say I didn't love it when we moved to a house with a utility room and I realised I would never have to dry clothes in the living room again, though.

People generally hate washer driers but I've never had room for separates and arthritis makes carrying wet washing out difficult.

With a washer dryer you can just use it as a washer and the dry load is only 1.2 of the dry load so effectively wash and dry is a wash and dry of a 1/2 load.

One thing I will say is if you do get a washer (or washer dryer) get one with a quick wash, mine has a 15min wash that is used for most things.

What have you got in the way of drying space? Do you have radiators? A balcony or an outdoor space.

Combined washer dryers do not work that well IMHO. The washer might be fine but the dryer function is not the same as a standalone dryer. Takes forever, smells musty and leaves clothes hot but still damp.

If you try to dry a full load that will be the case.

Is baby going to be in with you or in a cot?

Either way, wherever baby sleeps, on top of your usual sheet put a rubber sheet or an absorbent pad and then another sheet and have a spare duvet already in a cover.

If you have a leaky poonami or vomit in the middle of the night you can just strip off the top sheet and use the spare duvet and deal with the mess in the morning.

I would get a washer/dryer.
A washing machine is essential imo with child as if they throw up on stuff day after washing day you won’t want it sitting around a week.
My baby is fairly non sickly, but still had odd time where we have made fresh bed, then baby has come into our bed until the morning and thrown up milk all over fresh sheets!

Washer / dryer not that much more expensive, and the washing part the same with dryer as extra feature. So you can use as washing machine mainly, with drying rack fine for drying clothes. But dryer handy to have to dry towels and bedding if needed quicker.

We have separate washing machine and dryer. We still hang clothes to dry 99% of the time, but dry bedding and towels in machine for speed and softness. We use washable nappies so between nappies/ clothing/ bedding/ towels/ extras, it’s usually at least one wash a day.

And yes as above, washer dryers work fine, it’s just the dryer part has a smaller capacity so if it’s an 8kg washing, it probably only dries 5/6kg well at a time. Separate machines you can choose to get 8kg on both. But it means you can wash at full capacity say whites of baby bedding, muslins, all white baby clothes, and your whites, then when washed take clothes out and just tumble dry baby bedding and muslins so ready for use again quickly.

I have a couple of friends with 2 children each and washer dryers.

One has a separate dryer.

The other just uses clothes horses.

I have a washing machine and separate spin dryer as I don't have room for a separate dryer. It means that most of my clothes particularly bedding dry very quickly on clothes horses.

No-one I know washes daily and we all have access to outside to dry things in summer.

Thank you all so much for your advice. We're going to invest. As a space saver, can we put a thick nappy change mat on top of the machine (obviously when not in use) or is that totally unhygienic and unsafe? Now trying to work out whether we need a seperate change table or whether the frontloader washer in the bathroom could double as the change table surface.

You absolutely definitely need a washing machine.
DC2 is 6 months old and I do a load of washing most days. (DC1 is 4 and still has toilet accidents occasionally, he also gets food and mud on his clothes all the time.) But even with just one baby and no older child, there can be a lot of washing - sick, leaky nappies, etc. Even if you had unlimited access to the basement laundry room, it would still be a faff to carry the laundry and baby up and down, but weekly access is not going to be enough.

In a flat with limited space I do think it would be worth getting a washer-drier, even though they're not as good for drying as a stand-alone tumble drier. We have a washer-drier and we don't use the drier much but it is useful for sheets and towels when we can't hang them outside.

We have a pull-out indoor airer which goes over the bath, it's a handy space saver, so I'd recommend something like that if you have somewhere to put it. We also got a heated airer but I don't think it's that great tbh. A dehumidifier is a good investment though for drying laundry indoors and avoiding damp/mould. Get a very quiet one!

As for a place to change the baby - we like our cot top changer. You can also just change baby on the bed. Or get a chest of drawers with changing table on the top.

I’ve never had a nappy change table - had a mat which I kept under the bed & just pulled out at one stage, but if you’re getting a cot, I think a cot top one would be a good idea like suggested above.

Just change the baby on a mat on the floor, unless you have any physical issues that make it difficult for you to get up and down. It's far easier and far safer - no risk of them rolling off.

We’ve got a brilliant Washer/Dryer but you need to spend a fair bit to get one that works well. Ours is AEG. We don’t use the dryer function much as prefer to dry outside when we can.

We do tons of washing as we use cloth nappies. 2 loads most days as a household. The baby generates 2 full loads of clothes/bedding a week and 4 of nappies and she wasn’t an sicky baby. You could double that if you have a vomiting one.

We had a change table as part of the storage unit in the nursery.
TBH if you have a decent change mat you can put it anywhere - floor, bed, chest of drawers etc

You don't need a separate changing table - on top of the washing machine would be fine I would have thought! We just used a thick mat on a chest of drawers when the baby was tiny and then moved it onto the floor once she started rolling.

I’d get a heat pump dryer, much more economical but still convenient.

@Growingyou

Thanks *@skeggycaggy*. Unfortunately, we can only access the basement machines once a week at our assigned time. Good to know about not necessarily needing a dryer!

Then yes, I'd say you need a washer.

Re dryer, remember if you're drying on airers etc that you need to really ventilate the room so it doesn't get damp.

I'd probably opt for both, and seperate if you have space.

Re changing baby, we never really used our cot too changing table. We used a decent padded change mat on the sofa, the floor, the sideboard, the bed. We just changed nappies on the room we were where it was safe.

We didn't have space for both and got a washer/dryer but found that the drying function just took too long so I couldn't put the next load on and it was just constantly running.

For us a good solution for the main bulk of the was to have our own washing machine, do all the loads of washing one after the other at home and take everything to the laundrette and tumble it all together in their huge tumble dryers.

That said if we had a small load that we needed done desperately we'd use the washer and tumble function at home.

A changing Mat ontop of washing machine sounds fine.
We use a regular mat ontop of chest of drawers

It nice IMO to change baby up high in one place. Then all nappies, wipes, spare clothes, bowl of water can all be together and your not having to collect it all up.

We still change ontop of chest of drawers and baby is 11months and walking. Just don’t leave him for a second as would roll or climb off! If I try and change on the floor somewhere else it’s a nightmare as it’s like he knows he son floor so just tries to run away.

He also wiped tomato spaghetti all down his clothes last night despite wearing long sleeve huge bib. So it’s nice to be able to wash straight away before stain set. If I had to wait a week it wouldn’t be great

I'd definitely get a washer as a minimum - never had a washer/drier to can't comment on that, always managed ok with using airers and the washing line in summer. I find with babies that you can be ok for days and then suddenly have 1 day when you get a leaking nappy that's soaked the cot, then a huge poo explosion then they're sick everywhere and next thing you know you've used 3 outfits and 2 sheets in a few hours. We use little flannels for washing and cleaning up after meals do end up doing extra washes because they accumulate over a few day.

We either use a changing mat on a chest of drawers or on the floor - I have a little box with nappies, wipes etc in that we just get out from behind the sofa at nappy change time.

@DropDTuning

Just change the baby on a mat on the floor, unless you have any physical issues that make it difficult for you to get up and down. It's far easier and far safer - no risk of them rolling off.

This.

If you learn to change your baby on the floor you can then change them absolutely anywhere.

The alternative is to learn to change your baby on your knees.

I agree you can change the baby anywhere, although I would avoid the spin cycle if you're using the top of the washing machine. When the baby gets a bit bigger and starts to roll around then it might be less suitable. I have bad knees and developed a bad back when DS was around 11 months and I had a little sofa in DS's room and a desk chair with rollers. I used to put the changing mat on the sofa and sit in the chair holding DS and then put him onto the changing mat. A high changing mat would have been easier on my back but he was super wriggly and always tried to escape and I didn't want to risk a fall.

Changing table isn’t a necessity if you’re short on space. Once mine started wriggling and rolling around I found the floor was safer.

It became a stop gap for the clothes that I hadn’t put away (ie all the clothes).

If you have a chest of drawers you can put the change mat on there, or you can get a cot-top change board. I just used the top of a chest of drawers that was big enough to take a change mat, personally.

Changing on the floor is fine too except it can be hard on your back and sometimes awkward to pick the baby up from lying down on the floor.

Personally I wouldn't plan to use the top of the washing machine unless I had to.

I don't do washing daily, probably every other day. But that is for 2 adults, 2 children plus washable nappies and washing pet bedding.
For just 2 adults and a baby, twice to thrice a week would probably be fine. Although they sometimes go through a lot of clothes (my babies never did incidentally) the clothes are tiny! And can just go in with your clothes.

Maybe see how you get on and buy a washer if you need it?

@Growingyou

Thank you all so much for your advice. We're going to invest. As a space saver, can we put a thick nappy change mat on top of the machine (obviously when not in use) or is that totally unhygienic and unsafe? Now trying to work out whether we need a seperate change table or whether the frontloader washer in the bathroom could double as the change table surface.

I don't see why not. I definitely would not get a changing unit. Waste of space and totally useless once baby can roll. I second the cot-top changer which take up no additional space. Or just a basic foam changing mat on the floor.

I used to do 1 or 2 loads a week of baby's clothes etc, so nothing major, and had stayed pretty consistent as she has grown up. I do 1 load a week for me and 1 load a week for dp