Washday

When my mother had a twin tub she could do a week's washing in a morning.  There was a real science to it.  First of all the whites for the hot wash, then the whites for a cooler wash, then the coloureds, all in the same tub of water one after the other.  Then the water was changed and it was sheets followed by underwear followed by towels.  If you have never had a twin tub, there is one side with a tub which you fill with water and which will agitate the clothes.  When the clothes are clean then they are put in the spinner next to the wash tub.  All the dirty water is spun out then clean water is added to the spinner.  When that is spun out and looking clean then the clothes could be hung up.  The spinner was really fierce so the clothes were pretty dry when they came out.  However because you could do things like put the next lot in to wash while you were spinning the first lot, and because you could put things in for a very brief 'swish' just to freshen up the barely worn stuff you could really get a fast through put of clothes.  There was also a lot more control and there is no doubt there were better results.

I was thinking about this today as I cleared out my laundry cupboard.  Some of the stuff was what my mother would expect.  I have a jar full of biotex, which is excellent for stain removal, and a bar of soap.  I don't use them as much as she did, now that I usually 'bung in and walk away'.  She would not have recognised the 'colour catcher' or the 'colour run remover' as she never had that problem.  My mother had the weekly wash down to a science.  I don't do too bad.  However just as I was putting the box away I noticed that the blue towel still isn't colour fast and now some of the nice microfibre tea towels will be turquoise for ever more.

At least I don't have to stand over them and rinse.