Well here's me with nearly no more napkins and placemats left in our everyday supply. Sadly did not have a dirty table cloth or other large item of flatwork to make up the load. In the past have found that laundering a load of all small items (place mats & napkins) is rather hard on the Miele. Things bunch up together and create an unbalanced mess. What to do?
It was time to drag out my French boiling pot (Lessiveuse)and do some laundry the French way!
French housewives and laundresses for ages mainly cleaned linens by soaking, boiling, then rinsing. When Lever Brothers introduced their Persil washing powder to the French market, they had a slogan; "Préparer Tremper Bouiller Rincer et C'est Tout". This roughly translates into sort/prepare, soak, boil, rinse and that is all.
Pretreating stains wasn't required as today's modern detergents can cope with wine, tomato, curry, etc.. so bunged the lot of table linens into a large tub of cool water with some liquid Tide HE (the only unscented laundry detergent in the house),and allowed to soak for 30 minutes.
While the wash soaked prepared the lessiveuse. Filled the vessel with the proper amount of water, added a bit more Tide and some of that liquid Tide Stain Release liquid (hey, have to use up the stuff somehow), and gave a good stir to mix.
Once soaking time was up wring out my linen and placed into the vessel, put the lid on and placed the thing on the range.
Really should have takens some snaps, but the darn camera is never charged when you want it! *LOL*
After awhile the kichen, then soon the entire house was filled with the wonderful aroma of "boil washing". A mixture of steam, scent from soap/detergents that one really has to experience to understand. As my laundry perked on the stove the scent grew more powerful, just heaven.
Ok, here is the payoff: after boiling took dumped wash (very carefully, remember this is boiling hot laundry and wash water), into sink, and using laundry tongs, picked up and shook out each item so they could go into the Miele for rinses and spinning.
Am here to tell you that the wash water was filthy, but my laundry was gleaming white! Because the Miele rinses are shorter than the long wash, there isn't that much of a problem with tangles/bunching up.
Laundry came out sparkling white, and with a scent not of the heavy perfume P&G puts into TSR, but that wonderful smell that one only gets from boiling laundry with oxygen bleach.
Hmm, this could become a habit!
It was time to drag out my French boiling pot (Lessiveuse)and do some laundry the French way!
French housewives and laundresses for ages mainly cleaned linens by soaking, boiling, then rinsing. When Lever Brothers introduced their Persil washing powder to the French market, they had a slogan; "Préparer Tremper Bouiller Rincer et C'est Tout". This roughly translates into sort/prepare, soak, boil, rinse and that is all.
Pretreating stains wasn't required as today's modern detergents can cope with wine, tomato, curry, etc.. so bunged the lot of table linens into a large tub of cool water with some liquid Tide HE (the only unscented laundry detergent in the house),and allowed to soak for 30 minutes.
While the wash soaked prepared the lessiveuse. Filled the vessel with the proper amount of water, added a bit more Tide and some of that liquid Tide Stain Release liquid (hey, have to use up the stuff somehow), and gave a good stir to mix.
Once soaking time was up wring out my linen and placed into the vessel, put the lid on and placed the thing on the range.
Really should have takens some snaps, but the darn camera is never charged when you want it! *LOL*
After awhile the kichen, then soon the entire house was filled with the wonderful aroma of "boil washing". A mixture of steam, scent from soap/detergents that one really has to experience to understand. As my laundry perked on the stove the scent grew more powerful, just heaven.
Ok, here is the payoff: after boiling took dumped wash (very carefully, remember this is boiling hot laundry and wash water), into sink, and using laundry tongs, picked up and shook out each item so they could go into the Miele for rinses and spinning.
Am here to tell you that the wash water was filthy, but my laundry was gleaming white! Because the Miele rinses are shorter than the long wash, there isn't that much of a problem with tangles/bunching up.
Laundry came out sparkling white, and with a scent not of the heavy perfume P&G puts into TSR, but that wonderful smell that one only gets from boiling laundry with oxygen bleach.
Hmm, this could become a habit!
