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Laundry is not hard. Go watch a YouTube video. When it doubt, sort by color and size, wash on cold, hang dry. Heat can keep things white or dry things faster, b

by dexwiz 2y ago

Laundry is not hard. Go watch a YouTube video. When it doubt, sort by color and size, wash on cold, hang dry. Heat can keep things white or dry things faster, but has higher potential to damage clothes. All mass produced clothes of any value have a care tag that at least has symbols, if not outright written Instructions. EDIT: Reading your bio makes me think of someone who has probably never had to do their own laundry.

crazygringo 2y ago
I'm an expert at doing my laundry but boy it is hard. Remembering which clothes I need to wash cold and hang-dry to prevent shrinkage vs. which can be washed warm and dried in the dryer. Enough detergent that it cleans effectively but not too much that it leaves an irritating layer on your clothes -- obviously the detergent companies are trying to fool you into using too much so that you buy more. Learning to use the "+1 rinse cycle" button to fully get rid of the detergent residue. Learning not to use fabric softener or dryer sheets. Learning that fragrance-free detergent is an option so your clothes don't smell like a horrid cheap air freshener. Learning how to use bleach and which kind (there are many formulations!) and in which part of the cycle and how much to keep your whites, well, actually white. But not so much it unnecessarily damages them. Or using a laundry loop to ensure you identify all your white cotton t-shirts that you want to wash and bleach together with your white socks washcloths etc., but then separate so you hang-dry the tees so they don't shrink, without accidentally leaving any in the dryer with your socks etc. and ruining them. Learning that you should unbutton your shirts so the buttons don't get pulled off, but zip up all zippers so the teeth don't produce wear and tear catching on other garments. Learning to turn certain pants and other items inside out when washing and drying to lengthen their life, learning to throw in a couple of tennis balls when drying something bulky, and so forth. Or learning to check my dryer every 15 minutes in case my duvet cover has decided to twist itself into a kind of rope, where it turns into this weird boa constrictor that's eaten 3 of my pillowcases that will never every dry until I untwist it and remove them. It's seriously actually kind of shockingly complicated.
- DavidPiper 2y ago
  It's also extremely forgiving though. You can ignore everything and just throw things in a cold wash with a little bit of detergent and then hang them out to dry. Things will probably be fine. Separating whites (if your clothes are particularly prone to running colour) is a mistake you only make once.
- bondarchuk 2y ago
  Hacker news, creme de la creme of technologists, don't know how to do laundry. What a joke. It must be some kind of class signal: I don't have to know how to do laundry.
  - JumpCrisscross 2y ago
    > I don't have to know how to do laundry. I don’t, not anymore. But even when I could jot afford to outsource the task, I hated it and literally changed my closet to optimise my time at the task. I’d venture that most people have a chore they hate, and that they trade off elsewhere to minimise. (Common one being cooking.)
johnea 2y ago
Ha Ha! Watch youboob, that's funny 8-) Or, ignore all of that, throw everything in together, wash on cold with minimal "sauce". No problem, been doing it for decades. Nothing fades, nothing shrinks, doesn't waste energy heating water that doesn''t help anything anyway... Why make these thiongs so complicated?
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago
  > throw everything in together, wash on cold with minimal "sauce" I’m cracking up here, because this is what I’ve settled on. Cold washes when necessary. Dry cleaning for what needs it. Drop off when I’m in a city for everything else, which happens a few times a year.

by dexwiz 2y ago

crazygringo 2y ago

I'm an expert at doing my laundry but boy it is hard. Remembering which clothes I need to wash cold and hang-dry to prevent shrinkage vs. which can be washed warm and dried in the dryer. Enough detergent that it cleans effectively but not too much that it leaves an irritating layer on your clothes -- obviously the detergent companies are trying to fool you into using too much so that you buy more. Learning to use the "+1 rinse cycle" button to fully get rid of the detergent residue. Learning not to use fabric softener or dryer sheets. Learning that fragrance-free detergent is an option so your clothes don't smell like a horrid cheap air freshener. Learning how to use bleach and which kind (there are many formulations!) and in which part of the cycle and how much to keep your whites, well, actually white. But not so much it unnecessarily damages them. Or using a laundry loop to ensure you identify all your white cotton t-shirts that you want to wash and bleach together with your white socks washcloths etc., but then separate so you hang-dry the tees so they don't shrink, without accidentally leaving any in the dryer with your socks etc. and ruining them. Learning that you should unbutton your shirts so the buttons don't get pulled off, but zip up all zippers so the teeth don't produce wear and tear catching on other garments. Learning to turn certain pants and other items inside out when washing and drying to lengthen their life, learning to throw in a couple of tennis balls when drying something bulky, and so forth. Or learning to check my dryer every 15 minutes in case my duvet cover has decided to twist itself into a kind of rope, where it turns into this weird boa constrictor that's eaten 3 of my pillowcases that will never every dry until I untwist it and remove them. It's seriously actually kind of shockingly complicated.

DavidPiper 2y ago
It's also extremely forgiving though. You can ignore everything and just throw things in a cold wash with a little bit of detergent and then hang them out to dry. Things will probably be fine. Separating whites (if your clothes are particularly prone to running colour) is a mistake you only make once.
bondarchuk 2y ago
Hacker news, creme de la creme of technologists, don't know how to do laundry. What a joke. It must be some kind of class signal: I don't have to know how to do laundry.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago
  > I don't have to know how to do laundry. I don’t, not anymore. But even when I could jot afford to outsource the task, I hated it and literally changed my closet to optimise my time at the task. I’d venture that most people have a chore they hate, and that they trade off elsewhere to minimise. (Common one being cooking.)

johnea 2y ago

Ha Ha! Watch youboob, that's funny 8-) Or, ignore all of that, throw everything in together, wash on cold with minimal "sauce". No problem, been doing it for decades. Nothing fades, nothing shrinks, doesn't waste energy heating water that doesn''t help anything anyway... Why make these thiongs so complicated?

JumpCrisscross 2y ago
> throw everything in together, wash on cold with minimal "sauce" I’m cracking up here, because this is what I’ve settled on. Cold washes when necessary. Dry cleaning for what needs it. Drop off when I’m in a city for everything else, which happens a few times a year.