Underloading
Underloading is a completely foreign concept to me. Even before water shortages became a problem in my hometown, my parents were VERY frugal with water, and I was well-trained to match the load to the water level. It was only well into adulthood that I realized other people had a different way of doing things, and even then it always struck me as quite illogical. I could not conceive of filling an empty drum and dissolving the detergent before putting in the load. Having been trained on GE Filter-Flo TL's probably helped in that regard: 1) put in laundry, 2) set water level based on fullness of the machine, 3) put filter pan in place and measure detergent into the filter pan (Wisk into the solid recess around the center, or powder on the perforated part), 4) put softener dispenser in place and measure softener and dilute with water, 5) start machine. (In my case, step six was usually to jam an old toothbrush into the safety switch hole to watch the action.) The water circulation spout did a perfect job of dissolving and dispensing the detergent.
Probably owing something to my parents' natural frugality, we MEASURED the detergent and softener according to the package directions--not one speck/drop more! My mom pretty much used Tide and Downey, but always kept a bottle of Wisk in the red bottle with the yellow cap and squared top (it was pretty much the only liquid before P&G introduced Era) for certain uses.
Good grief, the details that are burned into my brain! Yet I still can't keep track of my car keys.
