when your doing laundry...

[vintagesearch]

Hi members?

Ok so on laundry day do you guys and gals stay around the laundry room or area pending for the washer and dryer?or, do you load it up and go and return when you remember it (or time it)?

Me, i load it up and leave i come back when its done. i usually forget too that the washer is running! sometimes not always i usually load it up just glance at the settings before i walk away and usually take the dogs out, go online etc. and comeback 30-50 minutes later and its done. between i always use the dispenser for FS our washer never goes off balance then again i know how to load it blah blah, so how about you all?

 

[dj-gabriele]

I keep an eye on my washing machine as it quite often doesn't balance at all, I otherwise can end up with a machine stuck at the first rinse balancing for 20 minutes untill I move this or that item... and so goes for the other rinses.
When it eventually finishes I'm usually there adding one (or two) additional rinses and fabric softener.
I put less detergent than specified on the label of whatever I decide to use but by the last rinse there's still cloudy water! I can't bear a washer that use 40 litres of water for a 5 kg load! Former one used 60 and it rinsed so much better!

 

[laundromat]

I sit or stand there until my washer stops completely. Sometimes,while doing my whites,I will unplug the unit and let the whites soak for anywhere from 2 to 5 hours. Then,I go and drain the old washwater out and procede to a new hot wash/warm rinse cycle.I put fresh detergent in and stay and watch. Then,I either hang the clothes on my line or throw them in the dryer.i mostly hang my wash out. They smell better and don't shrink.

 

[maytagbear]

I don't stand by

my washer and dryer, but I also don't leave the house when they are running, which I think is a reasonable course of action.

As for sometimes forgetting a load in the washer or dryer? Depends on how distracted/distractable I am that day!

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[chuffle]

Pretty much set it and forget it...

Well...not really. I start the laundry, and go and do something else, knowing that the buzzer on the washer and dryer will alert me to a load that is finished.

Of course, once loads start coming out of the dryer, I am in the kitchen folding and ironing (the washer and dryer are in the bathroom, off of the kitchen). I like to have everything laundered, dried, folded, ironed, hung up, and put away by noon on Mondays. Good weather shoots that all to heck however, as I line dry, and that takes longer.

Once things are in the dryer, I stay around the house. If I need to run out, a trip into town, for instance, I stop the dryer.

Joe

 

[pulsator]

I always watch! At the very least until the rinse fill! Even if I have stuff I need to do, I'm stuck there until the rinse fill because a lot of my machines either don't have a softener dispenser, have a really crappy one (**AHEM** Neptune), or their softener dispensers don't hold enough softener! And of course, if I have a new toy, I'm there until the tub comes to a complete and final stop!

 

[vintagesearch]

ohh ok that sounds cool not me, im far more consumed with my ps3 psp and online nonsense stuff and cleaning up after the dogs...but, maybe if we had a HE toploader or frontloader it may be something worth watching for some time.....

 

[autowasherfreak]

A Little of Both

My washer and dryer are in the basement, sometimes I will stay down there with a book or magazine, but in the winter it's to cold, so I usually start it and go back upstairs to tend with other housework--vacuuming, dusting, mopping and so forth.

I never leave the house with the washer, dryer, or dishwasher running unless I go outside for a little while when it nice outside.

The end of cycle alarms on my Frigidaire set suck. I can't hear them at all on the first floor unless their is dead silence in the room, which is very rare.

Now the story would be totally different if I had a top load washer, I would be downstairs watching it continually just as a I did when I was a kid when we had our first Whirlpool in 1972/73.

 

[moonvalleycacti]

Depends whose washing laundry

If i wash clothes, i try to at Night (after 11 pm)..I usualy put the stuff in the washer on Normal wash, warm water and 2nd rinse, which is about 66 minutes.. Using all and borax in the wash and downy free and clear for towels, clothes and the like..Substitue Persil for dark colored clothes and comforters and sheets, and use Gains Apple Mango Tango with Persil on comforters and sheets and some times on the towels (but then they dont absorb as well)

 

[moonvalleycacti]

The at night thing comes from my grams and mom, who firmly believe in using high use electricity items later on at night.. This includes Dishwashers, Dryers, Washers and Water Heaters

 

[jeffg]

One of the advantages of a toploader is, they're fast and there's not a lot of time to kill. Most loads in our Speed Queen take 25-30 minutes, and if we want to do anything special (add softener, a warm water rinse etc) it requires staying close to the washer.

 

[turquoisedude]

I keep an eye on them...

I am still getting used to the '66 Inglis set, so I tend to watch them for at least part of the cycle. I just can't resist watching the washer tub all lit up - beleive or not I had never seen a washer with that feature 'till I got mine.

I haven't started using it much, but I intend to watch the '56 GE front-loader in the kitchen! Who could resist a front-loader with a window??

 

[kenmoreguy64]

As a friend I has told me, I "hover"

I have always been highly amused and entertained by watching the washer, but recently until I found AW, I'd set te machine and more or less go about other stuff, but be aware most of the time of what it was doing.

As luck of the draw, four of the machines I've used in the last few years are large capacity and have only 3 water levels, the medium often being too low, and high being too high. My solution is to set the level switch on high until the water reaches the desired level, then switch it to medium. I have to hang around the machine to do that again in rinse. I am also always listening for a well-balanced spin, so between both of those, I am usually very nearby the washer if not right there at it watching.

 

[newwave1]

Depending on the time i have and which machine i'm using

In my house my washer in the kitchen next to the lounge and i wander in and out to keep an eye and i like to see the rinses *my fav part* If i'm in the garage where my older machines are, i love to see from start to finish, i take all my essentials with me, sit in my chair, listen to music. Great fun. Its my fav hobby so why not enjoy it? Unless i've things to do in which case i'll set one of the machine i'm not too fussed over an leave it to it!

Darren

 

[DADoES]

When I get a new/different machine, I watch intently until I'm familiar with how it all works, the various cycles & options. Then I may watch occasionally, but otherwise just keep an "ear" out that things are going as they should.

 

[dogboy44]

I like to watch

The our washer and dryer both have front windows, it is kind of hypnotic. I will check on them from time to time.

 

[toggleswitch2]

~I sit or stand there until my washer stops completely. Sometimes,while doing my whites,I will unplug the unit and let the whites soak for anywhere from 2 to 5 hours. Then,I go and drain the old washwater out and procede to a new hot wash/warm rinse cycle.I put fresh detergent in and stay and watch.

Detergents can only hold soil in suspension for about 30 minutes. After that amount of time the dirt from the armpits and the inseam areas is merely redeposited over the entire gament, rather than leaving it concentrated in the source areas.

If soaking is desired it is probably best to do a quickie pre-wash first in cold to cool water (as warmer water sets protein stains) and THEN do a soak.

As you mentioned a good spin and then full wash with fresh detergent un-does the "damage" (soil re-deposition)done by an extended soak.

 

[chestermikeuk]

Laundry..

Usually stick a load in before breakfast and then at the next tea break transfer to dryer or washing line!!! would love to "Watch it Wash" more often but always run out of time lately!!!!

Unless I`m testing a repaired oldie or have fellow washerholics visiting!!!Even then they baulk at me putting everything in the MaytAsko for a final rinse & spin...which I do then watch...Lol

 

[mayguy]

I will not allow my partner to do the laundry.. I do them all on my day off from work. (Mondays and Tuesdays)

Monday is when I do the wash, and I am home the whole time I do it. While it's washing, I'll be doing other household chores, then come back and do the next load when it's done.