The Pet Peeve Laundry Habits of Others

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frigilux

frigilux

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In the spirit of Jason's lament about his Mom's clothes-washing habits (as chronicled in the "I Love and Hate My New Elites" thread over at Deluxe), I'd like to launch a thread about what drives us nuts about the way other people do their laundry. We're more in-tune and exacting in our use of laundry appliances than the average person, so I know there must be plenty of grist for the mill.

I'll start us off: I hate it when people throw detergent carelessly into a toploader and some of it lands on top of the agitator. They don't bother to clean it off and the resulting crud builds up and encrusts over time. Back in the '60s, several of our neighbors had Kenmores with scrubber caps atop the agitator. They were notorious for holding on to errant detergent. I used to rinse off the scrubber cap on our 1960 Kenmore all the time. It was one of my pet peeves.
 
1. Putting detergent in the softener dispenser.

2. Not following washing instructions on special fabrics. (My mom ruined so many of my rayon shirts by refusing to use cold water or gentle action)

3. OVERLOADING!
 
My SO is notorious for overloading the washer and pays no attention to the cycle selector switch. I bought a box of Tide Coldwater two weeks ago for us to try out, standing right in front of the washer I pointed out to leave the temp selector on cold wash but within two days I go down and the warm wash button is pressed, so much for that.
When it comes to the dryer it's just as bad. In the roughly 15 years we've owned this one I have done 99% of my drying on the auto cycle, turn the dial to the dot and press start, so simple, works perfectly every time. Not for him, the dial is cranked either over to the furthest reaches of the "more dry" or barely into the "less dry" if not that, he's selected the time dry for about 5 minutes and clothes are left in the dryer sopping wet. I've given up because and I don't understand it. LOL
 
Not measuring detergent.

Powdered detergent thrown all over the machine.

Adding detergent until suds appear due to the misconception that enough has not been used if there are no suds.

Pouring detergent on top of the clothes.

Starting a pay washing machine to let the water and detergent "mix" before adding clothes, cutting down on wash time.

Refusal to learn and utilize other than the most basic of features/options.
 
- Over dryed towels! I hate scratchy towels. What the sense of spending good money on soft towels and then over dry them to the point of being scratchy.
- I agree with Gansky regarding Bounce. What's up with dryer sheets anyway? Don't they just leave a film on your clothes. I have never used them and never will without a court order.
- If you can't get your dish towels clean then throw the damn things out. OOOH, I hate dirty, dingy dish towels. Thank the Lord for Oxi-Clean!
 
I have to say that I am guilty of using dryer sheets. I love the smell of my Snuggle dryer sheets. I grew up watching my mom and grandmother use them, I'm sad to say there is no hope of ever getting me to stop using them... lol

A pet peeve of mine is people who fill up their liquid detergent/softner/stain remover lids so much it over flows onto the machine and they don't bother cleaning it up leaving a gunky residue behind.

Another pet peeve of mine (public use machines) is people who don't mind the time on the washer/dryer and leave their stuff in there all flippin' day.
 
John does most of the laundry, as he is much more particular than I am (although I would never commit some of the faux pas I've read about here). He tends to go a bit overboard with scented fabric softeners, etc. I told him that the general consenus here is that dryer sheets are bad, and his reply was basically "when the guys at the washer site want to come here and do the laundry, they are welcome to leave out the dryer sheets" ;-)
 
My pet peeve is seeing improper use of water levels. I knew someone who would load the washer and not even pay attention to where the water level setting was. A full load on low water level.....not only careless, but will shorten the life of the machine quickly. That really p***** me off!!
 
And...

I told my mom when I moved back with them (not by choice but because of Katrina), I wanted to do my OWN laundry. I need at least one hint of independance while I'm doing time. I have a laundry basket in my room that I keep my dirty clothes. A few days later, it's empty and wet clothes are hanging in my closet.

YAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! (That's Cajun for I'm extremely unhappy and I'm about to start doing some really bad things)

If You Had Controlling Parents

Education, resources, and support for adults raised in narcissistic or controlling families.
www.controllingparents.com
 
I hate underwear that smells like bleach. Any load with liquid bleach should get an extra rinse.

Fabric softner in towels? Not in my house!

Most people use too much detergent. Unless your water is amazingly hard you don't need anywhere near as much as reccomended on the bottle.

I'd like to have a word with the guy that invented the fabric softner bottle. It it's less than 1/3 full, it will dribble on the floor when pouring. I pour it over the sink. I suppose detergent bottles are the same, but I use the large Tide bottle with the spiggot so thats not a problem here.

Ken D.
 
how much is too much soap???

I grew up in a house with a water softner...my mother has always used Tide, powder when I was younger, now liquid.
In powdered form, never more than 1/3 cup went in a full washload, and with liquid I would guess she uses maybe 2-3 fluid ounces in a cycle.

I use liquid Tide(mountain spring flavor) and probably use between 1/3 and 1/2 capful per washload. I always try to do full loads.
Too much or too little?
just curious
 
1) You are right and its only recently this has happend but the
Fabric Softener bottles leak like a sieve! They never did that a few years ago. It planned and it always happens after you tip them back then forward again--splurp all over the place.

2) Dried crystalline bleach on the washer tops which is always invisible; so when you set you dark corduroys down they get permanent spots in the MOST visible places

3) In a top loader too high a water level, nothing gets clean and everything just floats around

4) Overloaded front loaders that just ball around and nothing drops free.( The actual perfect load in a Westinghouse slant front is 9 pounds of socks. )

5) Dryer sheets

6) Messy agitators covered in dried on detergent overspill-- NEVER happens in a front loader my friends!

7) I hate boot gunk in a front loader. Its like an unchanged lint filter.

8) When I had roomates who consistently REFUSED to wash their nylons in a bag and TWICE --- YES TWICE they wound up wrapped around the pump impeller! And guess who had to fix it??

I LOVE LOVE LOVE

The smell of bleach with bakelite and rubber.

Bleach washing in a machine

Fabric softener in wool socks

Twice a year Fabric softener in towels

Chaging gears to high speed spin.
 
Too much love

The only good thing about this is all this is done in love, but it's too much. Hardly any privacy, no independance. I can't even cook or do anything without them "helping" (read: doing it for me). And then they get angry when I refuse their help.

I might as well start wearing a diaper, sleep in a crib and cry for my bottle. And they just as well put bars on my window.
 

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