Me and Washing Machines

Bless - I'm wondering if I need to check its shots lol!

Sharon - the author is Nancy Warren, and I spent far too much time reading them

Eileen - I've run an empty wash and it was fine so I'll run a proper one tomorrow.

I called in this morning and picked up school football socks for bear. The shop look like it had been hit by a severe weather incident and the assistants looked dazed. There were boxes all over, stuff bagged to be collected behind the counter and mums wandering around with a panicked expression and a tape measure. I checked bear's blazer that I bought a few weeks ago, and it's still a little on the big side. I don't expect that to last long. I also called in on Dewsbury Market, and took a pic, but I didn't see anything that I fancied.

It's a rubbish pic, but if you squint and expand, you can see the logo. I took one other, but the sun was against me and I couldn't tell what was going on with the pic.

The washing machine reminded me of an old story, so I thought I would share it again. It goes back to before bear was born, I think, or he was very young. And it's something of a cautionary tale.

I had a rug that I liked. It was sort of a cotton throw type thing, but quite thick and robust. It was only small and was looking very dingy so I thought I'd give it a wash. As it was 'hand wash only' I thought I would have to swish it in the bath, but then I had the bright idea of bunging it in the washing machine on the handwash programme.

So far, so good. However I also went out and picked up some handwashing detergent, Stergene. I want to be fair and let you know that I didn't read any instructions. Instead I threw the rug in the machine, added the detergent, turned it to the 'hand wash' setting, pressed start and carried on with the rest of my day. 

Until I heard the start of the spin cycle. It went something like, 'whum, whum whum whuuuum whuuuuuuuuuum' and stopped. This wasn't the usual sound so I went and had a look. It was overflowing with suds. These didn't come out of the soap dispenser (old machine). Instead it was all just trapped in the washer, with everything gunked up. 

I had to turn the dratted thing off at the mains, wait for it to finally release the door and then I opened it up and foam started pouring out. The bubbles seem to have been all squashed together, but once they got out of the machine, it was like they could spread out - and they did! And they kept coming! There was foam everywhere! The stuff seemed to keep coming for hours. It was like some sort of special effect in a horror story. 

Eventually I pulled out the rug (which was never the same afterwards) and ran the washer empty a few times, so it settled down. The washer was fine, but I double checked with the instructions on the bottle. I had definitely turned the setting to handwash (I use a lot of settings) and nowhere on the bottle of Stergene did it say that it shouldn't be used in washing machines.

And that's when I found out that laundry detergent actually intended for washing machines has a foam suppressor added, and soap meant for handwashing doesn't. So I'm sharing this as a warning to anyone who feels like trying it. 

Also, the floor was lovely and clean where I had to mop up gallons of the foam, so there's always a silver lining.

Hugs and good health to all.