HELP! American and/or Canadian Ex-pats...what is wrong with my laundry!!!

[lillabean]

Why is it CRUNCHY? WHAT DO I DO??? My baby's clothes are all scratchy, even if I use fabric softener. I have a washer/condenser dryer combo.

Is it my machine? Is it the hard mineral water in London?

Do they make "American" style washers and tumble dryers here? Can anyone recommend a brand?

My baby gives me such dirty looks when I try to dress her in these sandpaper garments! (and let's not even talk about my towels....)

Any other ex-pats figured out a way around this problem, is it just me?

Please help, else must consider life as nudist!

love metric

Oh, bugger. We should all go metric. Should have done it AGES ago.

Hunker, you are overloading it. Get a bigger one.

I have the worst sense of smell there is. Never understood the "lovely" line dried smell. I like my Ariel scent just fine.

its so logical# i was educated in it

have NO idea how many inches in a ...... perch is it?

I'm not overloading it, Uwila. I've put it on with just a grobag in it before now in winter desperation of nothing drying in the house after DS2 possetted on everything we had.

perch?

Cod, sometimes I wonder if you have 10 fingers? I mean the typing is so bad that I have this image of you banging away with your wrists and every now and then you hit the right key.

I have a v keen sense of smell. And I can't bear the smell of Ariel

Can't do metric either though - do you know how much you weigh in kilos then, Cod and does it make sense to you?

Uwila, she has fins

I have a fantastic 7kg tumble dryer

Are you leaving it there for hours after the drier finishes?

I can't believe I'm sitting at work talking about laundary. I am so not qualified to give this advice!!!

Nope, straight out again (complete with lava-hot metal studs on babygros, etc [ouch]).

It's really just not very good. Washer/dryers are notoriously shit though, I think.

Fio, your dryer's probably the same size as my whole kitchen then! ROFL!

I'm with you hunker. Either get bone dry clothes with perma-crease, or steaming ones! Not overloading it, not letting it sit for hours. Only use the dryer if in emergency or to give cloth nappies a quick blast before hanging up to dry.

OMG, you hang nappies? I think I have to go now.

as opposed to what????

I can't imagine having the time to hang nappies? Or wanting nappies hanging in my house? Yuck.

We have a dryer now and altho it's a faff to put the hose out the window, it's a real lifesaver, that thing, as we've got no outdoor space.

They are clean nappies fgs. And I find time as well as working FT...

Well, you are a better person than I am. I take my hat off to you.

I'm now sat here very confused by taps... why do we have seperate ones????

(I have the creased to hell/clammy and damp issues with the dryer too - also washer/dryer).

i like crunchy, hung up clothes.

tumble dryers are such a bloody waste of electricity.

No need for hat-doffing . I feel I ought to point out that I don't find time to several other things I probably should!

I suppose I could go home tonight and tell the nanny that I've decided to be more environmentally friendly and she is now to hand the kids clothes and use reusable nappies... but I think she'd hand in her notice.

Is it condensor dryers which cause these problems - if not plumbed in they need to be emptied of water and both a condensor and vented would need to be defluffed each time to be most efficient. Fewer damp problems with a vented ime.

Oh, there's one more thing I can't get used to. What is with refrigerators that fit under the counter?????