Oversudsing Mamasitas

[whirlcool]

Today we took a trek to the local coin op laundry to wash our down comforter as the nights are finally chilly enough to use it.
While we were in there, there was this spanish woman using one of the Wascomat machines. She just stuffed it full of everything, whites, towels, jeans, sheets all in one load. She certainly had to force the door shut. Then what did she do? She poured in what must have been about 6 capfulls of Tide with Bleach in the machine. You should have seen the suds in there! You couldn't see any clothing moving in the window, all you saw were suds! Even on the final rinse there was a lot of sudsing action.
Then another woman was using a Maytag top loader. She didn't stuff it full, but it looked like she must have dumped in 2 or three cups of Ariel into it. I wanted to go look in the machine to watch the wash action, but I didn't want to invade her privacy.
I guess is it a strong sentiment in the hispanic community to use lots of soap in your wash? Is the water in Mexico harder than it is in the U.S.? Has anyone else made this observation?

 

[brettsomers]

*Oversudsing Mamacitas*, now in paperback...

LOL! i go to laundromats every now and again, and a good 75 percent of folks use WAY more detergent than necessary. i suspect that they are guageing(?) the amount of detergent based on the amount of clothes, not taking into consideration the amount of water. and most people overload the machines as well, so maybe they think that lack of detergent is the reason their clothes dont come out clean. here in san antonio, the Dexter machines at the local washateria have such short cycle times. i just itch to hand out laundry advice when i see what happens. my mother was mexican-born, yet she always advised me to use a little less detergent than the box recommended in our small-tub Maytag. we never used bleach, yet our whites where whiter than many folks...

 

[westytoploader]

I don't think it necessarily has to do with any particular culture, just the fact that they don't know how to do laundry and probably think that more is better!

When I take my comforter up to the local "Washateria" periodically, ALL of the double-loaders are grossly overloaded. I guess if the door can still shut, there's room for more! I find it interesting that the top-loaders, however, are never stuffed full.

 

[dalangdon]

I agree with Austin

Anyone who has ever seen a college dorm's laundry room can tell you that oversudsing knows ethnic or cultural boundaries ;-)

 

[oxydolfan1]

The only thing I've strongly noticed is that many Puerto Rican and Dominican launderesses use "Mistolin", a lavender-scented all-purpose cleaner, in the rinse compartment, along with a lavender-scented softener called Lavender Sachet.

I HAVE noticed non-Spanish speaking Caribbean folks pouring ammonia and/or pine cleaner into the wash water.

And I've noticed a lot of American-born blacks patronize our dry cleaners, far more than any other group, and are more likely to use these huge stand-up garment steamers for AGES (and loads of quarters) on freshly washed clothes, and carry them out of the laundromat on hangers.

Here, the washer-overstuffing thing goes on across-the-board, although I have to confess, I used to put a lot more into laundromat machines back in the day, then I do now with the luxury (?) of an in-house washing machine.

 

[peterh770]

Welcome to my world!

Demasiado jabon! = Too much soap!

 

[whirlcool]

I can only imagine the soap residue in the clothing after one of these ovsersudsing jobs. I imagine that you could wash those clothes without soap for some time to come and still get lots of suds.

As long as we are talking about washeterias, when I was in college I was doign my laundry in a Fridgidaire coin op and I went across the street to pick up something to eat while I was waiting for my clothes. When I came back the washer that had my towels in it was in rinse mode. No towels, only water! Someone had stolen my towels in between wash and rinse! I was more shocked than angry that someone would do that!

 

[neptunebob]

College washers have a hard life!

When I went to school for business (the one I could not stand) the dorm has belt-driven Whirlpools. I saw so many people overstuff them and when I said something people thought I was a freak for knowing about that. Talk about destruction, someone put their clothes in the dryer and found them shredded, turned out someone put an X-acto knife in the dryer!

Now, my mother is older and lately she has been putting too much bleach in the Neptune when washing white towels. Talk about a chlorine cocktail, I am sometimes gassed when I go to her house!

 

[maytagbear]

Theft---

Or damage! is one reason why I never ever leave the scene when I use coin-op machines.

In college, we had some poor, abused GE Filter-Flo's, which were allegedly two-speed machines. I'd poke the button for "slow" and then defeat the lid switch (easy to do then,) and then, after observing the speed, stop the machine, poke "normal," and then rig the lid switch again. No difference at all.

I would take either my homework, or a book and a bottle down to the laundry room and just stay put.I was shocked Freshman Institute week, when I learned that I was the only one on the floor who A) knew how to do laundry at all, and B) routinely did his wash while still at home.

All the other guys moms did their wash, and most of the mothers worked outside the home. I found it utterly shocking and disgraceful that these bright, able 18 year olds had never done laundry before. Many of them quickly got girlfriends. Some came to me for laundry lessons.

I quickly learned to ask what they were about to do if someone wanted to use some of my Clorox.

I did the same the dismal year I lived in an apartment without hookups. I had graduated by then, but still took a book, or the letter I was writing to the laundry room(s). At least those laundry rooms were Maytag equipped.

I have to wash my comforter soon, too. Fortunately, it is fiberfill, and not down, so it should dry pretty quickly.

What I cannot stand, and with any luck won't have to face much longer, is smoking in a coin-op laundry.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[whirlcool]

MaytagBear:

Fortunately, I haven't seen smoking in a laundramat in quite some time. Usually they have lots of signs prohibiting it.
I suspect that one of my sons comes home from college only when he needs laundry done. His freshman year in school, around Thanksgiving time my wife asked him why he never brings his sheets home from school. He said they don't need changing yet. Believe it or not he had the same set on the bed from the beginning of school in August all the way to Thanksgiving without changing them! My wife told him to throw them out, she's giving him new clean ones. I told him to bring them home to wash them himself. For Christmas Holiday, he did. And my wife showed him how to do laundry himself. I was out on a trip and the sheets were already washed by the time I got home. One could only imagine how stinky they were. Boys!

 

[whirlcool]

And another thought:

I usually kept my dorm room pretty clean. But some of the guys I knew in college were just plain pigs. There would be piles of fast food wrappers piled in the corners, empty soda cans everywhere. Yuk. I found out that in these cases Mama used to do everything for them. If you would go visit their families on the weekends with them you would see Mother just hovering over them, doing everything you could imagine! They had absolutely no responsibilites execpt to go to school. Sometimes I think that these women were raised just to chase their husbands and sons around taking care of them.
Now I came from a military family and tidyness was forced upon us. I went to college thinking everyone was raised that way.

 

[maytagbear]

He'll change

his sheets more often when he figures out the potential benefits.

Here in Ohio, a lot of coin-op laundries still have smoking "sections." That may change Tuesday, if State Issue 5 is adopted. Ohio Issue 5 will basically ban smoking in all commercial establishments. Of course, the tobacco lobby has introduced a very confusing counter measure, Issue 4.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[volvoguy87]

College laundry.

My years at Mary Washington College were indeed interesting. The laundry rooms held very abused Maytag TL machines and 1 Neptune front loader. The TL washers were darn near bullet-proof, and the Neptunes gave little trouble. The dryers weren't that bad, but they never seemed to completely dry anything. Also, my fellow students NEVER cleaned the dryers' lint filters. When I cleaned them, there was often so much lint that I could reach in the slot and pull out a huge cake of lint. Freshman year, I was the only one who never changed the color of their clothes, and I was teased endlessly because I had a full-size ironing board and a B&D Classic iron, both of which saw regular use. I remember, one guy on my hall was going off to a formal dance and on his way out stopped by my place to brag that he had learned how to iron perfectly without my (profanity deleted) help. I congradulated him and wished him a good time as he strode off down the hall with the front of his trousers ironed flat, and a nice, sharp crease down each side. I kept my dorm room spotlessly clean. I vacuumed my dorm room with my Electrolux Super J, and waxed the floor. Most of my neighbors erroniously thought I was gay because I kept things clean. Since when are straight men required to live in squalor?

I attended the Savannah College of Art & Design fo grad school and made the mistake of living in the dorms for a year. We had Speedqueen washers and dryers, most of which were prepetually broken. I believe Maytag machines can stand up to constant abuse far better than Speedqueens. Also, the college went with the lowest bidder for laundry services, and when a machine was reported broken, it was almost never repaired. The dryers were installed improperly, resulting in the exhaust from the gas dryers being vented back into the laundry room. Still, it's amazing how clean you can get your laundry if you don't overload the machines. An overloaded machine does not clean well, but will reward the user for the abuse by shreading their clothes!
One of the funniest moments came when my neighbor, whose clothes looked progressively worse all year came to me and asked why her laundry always smelled bad. As it turned out, she did not know the difference between detergent and fabric softener. She had been using LOTS of fabric softener in lieu of detergent all year!

Ahh the memories,
Dave

 

[dalangdon]

Lawrence, when I went to college at the University of Iowa, I don't think I had done more than ten loads of laundry in my life. My mom was very possesive of "her" machines, for some strange reason. (Maybe she kept a bottle in the lint trap or something, LOL)

Back in my college days, it was a matter of squeezing as much in the machine as you could, to save money. Since the University offered a service where you could get a clean set of sheets and towels every week, things never got too objectionable ;-)

As I got older, I got a little smarter, and learned how to sort things appropriately, but since most of my work clothes in those days were suits and shirts, which were dry cleaned or otherwise professionally laundered, I still was careless.

It wasn't until I got my very own set (when I bought my first house) that I actually learned the correct way to do laundry.

btw, when I was in college and living off campus, there was a laundromat just across the alley from the house I lived in. It didn't have an attendant, and it was open 24 hours a day (which was very convenient). The place was notorious for some perv who would call the pay phone and talk dirty to whoever answered it. I thought it was hillarious, and would always talk with him, but some people were seriously freaked out by it. Iowa City had its share of weirdos, so I can understand the concern.

 

[toggleswitch]

My early college days were at Fordham University in the Bronx, NYC(ME in a Jesuit school! a non cat-lick. OY!)

The dorm laundry room had coin-operated Speed Queens. FUN FUN FUN. Boy, was I angered to find pumpkins impaled on the agitators at Halloween time. The dryers were the home-style (22,000 BTU/h +/-)that took an hour and the commercial-style (65,000 +/- BTU/h) that took half an hour. I went for the slower, cooler home-style model with my darks to avoid fading.

[As an interesting aside, I hung curtains in my shared dorm room. Can't really figure out why I was ridiculed and outed. LOL ROFL LMAO. I mean WHAAAAAT? They were an appropriate rugged weave...no lace. LOL But that is a WHOLE other story, isn't it? ]

Soon, I was living off-campus {in a 5th floor walk-up that was one radiator away from being a cold-water flat}, and had my own washer. A GE Filter-flo. Quite fun considering my family never had a GE major appliance.

Those were the days. My own apt., my own washer and away from the parental units!!!!! Unlike many others who were living away from home the for the first time, I actually was very reserved and self-directed/!!!

The rent BTW was $190 per month, landlord provided heat and hot water. With three guys living there we got by on less than $70 per month, each. *SIGH*

Anyhoo....one had to hover over their laundry in that chlorine bleach and other mysterious additons to the wash-tub would occur. I think I handled being forced to watch the whole cycle rather well, don't you? LOL.

 

[oxydolfan1]

Off-topic:

Yep, I lived on Valentine between Fordham and Kingsbridge, under rent control, $167 a month!

Can you imagine?

 

[toggleswitch]

Yes sir, the year was 1981. Little Italy, in the south Bronx.
Hoffman Street off of Fordham Road. Behind the White Castle.

Luckily Sears was nearby on Third Ave!

My mother was absolutely /horrified to hear I had a clothesline out of the tenement window. [What? your underwear on display in public. GIRL if you only had ANY clue what went on pre HIV/AIDS! LOL].

Just for giggles, the landlord almost did not renew our lease. "Too many girls" coming and going! UHM REALLY?, "Not us! It's the neighbors",, those macho sh--s! Did you not notice the lace and the frou-frou about? MY STARS! LOL

Still cracks me up to this day!

BTW, We were so poor the hamper was a cardboard box and contact paper. The curtaims were fabric suspended via cake-box string and thumb-tacks. IT WAS GRAND! Furniture was "borrowed" from the props room of the University theater dept. CONNECTIONS CONNECTIONS CONNECTIONS!

 

[irishwashguy]

When I was in school the first time...............

Before i came out of the closet, i was a Mormon, and on a mission about ten years ago.I was in Kalamazoo, Mi at the Cork street laundry and noticed the Soking/Non-smoking areas of it and thought that it was silly to have that. 1.75 to wash in the front loading double loaders, and about 50 to dry,. I would also put my closes in the extractor for another .50.i rememmber being in training in Provo,UT and having to teach a couple of the guys how to wash, dry and fold.They had NEVER washed clothes ever in their life. I think that was the norm from what I can tell. I bought Clorox 2 at the bookstore there( I had my own box of Sa-8 I had brought with me), the woman behind the counter was very quick to point out that this was not soap for washing. I told her that I had used it and knew what it was.She had the most shocked look on her face.i have been washing clothes since I could reach the knobs on the machies at home I told her,she smiled and gave me my Clorox 2.
In college i had Maytag porta Washer twin tub that I had picked up at the Mormon Good-Will( DI) for 25 dollars and used it alot.One of my neighbors told me that they had a bigger once like my twin tub in S America that they would use for more than washing clothes. He told me that living on a limited buget would cause them to get resourceful, I know you have to be. They would take a jar of peanut butter with the top on of course, and spin it in the spinner to make the peanut butter go to the middle of the jar so none was wasted. My neighbor and I tried it together. I was amazed! It worked like a charm.Crazy huh!!

 

[58limited]

In College Station, Texas they had a Laundromat/Sports Bar combination (I actually came up with the same idea after sitting bored in a laundromat a few years before they opened but I did not have the means to do it). This was great! Watch your favorite team while eating chicken wings, drinking beer, and doing laundry. They had one item called "Release Form Chicken Wings" that you had to sign a disclaimer for when ordering. They used a hot sauce that is the hottest thing I have ever put in my mouth (I sampled the sauce, did not buy the wings). The order came with instructions such as do not touch eyes or other body parts, even after washing hands. If you ate all eight wings you got a T-shirt and your name on the "wall Of Fame". I don't know if they are still there...