Search results

Don’t skimp on the detergent and use low heat in the dryer! In my very narrow experiences of using commercial machines in such contexts, I’ve never had any issues with them.

I had no idea why the leaving the toilet seat up discussion was such a big deal in the US until I encountered American deep filled bowl toilets. Now I understand! Why is there so much water in them? It doesn’t make any sense. They bowls also often seemed much lower than here. There are a...

Colour powders are still very easily available here from Ariel, Persil (Lever) and pretty decent store brands.    I haven’t noticed any gunk in the Miele filter area, but I have been using their Twin Dos system, which is probably pretty effective.  The big ecological preference for powder is...

Probably a very different climate here, grass grows fast and most of the year, but I made a very deliberate decision to let part of my lawn and garden go petty to meadow and it looks fantastic! I’ve wild flowers off all sorts, lavender, wild garlic and butterflies, bees and birds are loving it...

I hadn’t been using powder in a long time and decided to buy a box of Ariel (bio/universal) just to remind myself if it’s any good. Wow! It works way better than I remembered. Everything came out looking absolutely perfect and I like the current scent they’re using. What impressed me even more...

I remember buying a pack of Lidl dishwasher pods and finding the scent so strong I had to keep them outside!

1993 Surf advert in Ireland - was all about price and a refund guarantee. These ran for most of the 1990s and were somewhat intentionally of a particular tone, eventually somewhat sending themselves up. She was playing a soap opera character at the time. Now it’s all about smelling like...

How is / was Surf positioned in Sweden? It was a budget brand here but seems to be all about fragrance nowadays.

The issue isn’t all 5G services, it’s specifically the 3.5Ghz C band frequencies that are used by certain satellite services. I’ve just been looking at the frequencies my iPhone has been on 5G with here. Seems to be a mix of 1800 MHz the old GSM 1800 (DCS) band and on 700 MHz which was vacated...

They’re interesting gadgets, but it just highlights how little ironing I do. I’ve never seen one of those in reality lol Most of my clothes either don’t need ironing at all (knitwear, sweaters etc) - or I just take things out of the dryer or off the line and hang or fold them and a lot of...

France seems to have been one of the few places that really took to top-load, drum based automatics. I know they were and are used elsewhere, but I think France seems to have been their 'spiritual home' for some reason. It's also not the case that most French people live in small Parisian...

I take that back … inflation… spotted one of those laundry units today and it’s now €5 for 8kg and €10 for 18kg!

Interesting. There are some hot water valve versions of those machines sold here, mostly as solar heating options. Hot / Cold fill machines were very normal here in Ireland until the sometime in the 1990s. The vast majority of older machines had both and most houses still have hot / cold...

What’s the water diverter? Did they get rid of the complex flow path thing? I know my machine seems to sound like it’s moving a stepper motor during the fill.

I’m pretty sure we used Mr Sheen ‘shines umpteen things clean!’ I rarely use furniture polish these days.[this post was last edited: 5/26/2022-11:18]

Were these cinema ads? They just seem rather detailed and long for TV, more like in-store information films or something.

@ sarahperdue Pods and tablets work somewhat well in laundries, but the issue is people will just bring their own detergent and also people can even manage to make a mess with pods. I was in a laundrette in Paris and someone had stuffed pods into the dispenser of a Miele commercial machine and...

I’ve been lucky enough to be passed by two FTTH networks and cable, opens some options but the prices here are still about €50 / month for fibre.

The 1970s really introduced a lot of natural colours which were used in very drab ways in a lot of designs - acres of greens and browns. The 80s has its moments but mostly seems fairly conservative too. Not all 1970s designs were bad. There were some really colourful and creative designs too...

It’s amazing how dramatically the eras of design changed too. Here at least, the 1950s and 60s kitchens tended to use a lot of brightly coloured laminated and really zinging colours in the 60s on cabinet fronts. I’ve moved into houses that had multicoloured red and yellow doors, coloured glass...