Thomas:
The problem is that the "workflow" for laundry in Brazil is very different than the one in America. I'm not going to defend or condemn either of them, but let's just say that in US people tend to do an awful lot of laundry on just one day, so cycle length becomes more important than when one does fewer loads per day and spreads the total number of loads through more days. There are multiple ways to change/fix the "problem", but until people's attitudes change, it will be a problem.
NorfolkSouthern (sorry, I can't remember your name and it's not on your profile) and DaveK:
Let me begin by apologizing. I'm sorry, I did not mean to say everyone has to own thousands of dollars in clothes and/or laundry equipment.
That being said, nothing is free. You are paying for stuff one way or another. If you look at total cost of ownership, a vertical axis washer plus all the energy, water and clothes for say, 5 or 10 years, cost more than a horizontal axis with the same clothes. You will just pay way less for detergent, water and energy, and you'll wear out clothes less and fewer clothes. Are there ways to "compensate"? Yes, if you put fewer clothes per cycle, you'll do more cycles and it will cost more, but you'll wear them down less. If you load the washer to capacity (not overload, just to the capacity it was designed for), you'll spend less in energy/water, but you'll wear down the clothes faster.
The thought experiment I'm suggesting is simple and doesn't cost any more than whatever your time is worth. Just go to a place like Target and mentally add up the prices for all the equivalent of the clothes you own. That will remove the "I bought it at Sears" or "at Target" or "Salvation Army" or "for free" or "at Neimann Marcus". Even if you got the stuff for free, they are worth something. Clothes are not free, doing laundry is not free.
If your landlord is paying for all utilities, and you don't feel like a frontloader is going to save you something, remember, they are not giving you the utilities for free, they charge for them in your rent. I'll grant you, you won't see any savings right now if you got a frontloader unless you could convince your landlords that you're using less resources and they should either reduce your rent or not raise it so much on the next lease signing. If you are paying for utilities, like I am, you'll quickly find out that the amount of money you spend with a frontloader is enough lower than with a toploader, that you quickly get your money back in energy and clothes alone, and that's not considering other stuff.
And no one is telling y'all to go and get the most expensive machine available, there are inexpensive frontloaders, and you can probably pick one up for cheap or free, lots of friends here got a few for next to nothing (old stuff found on the streets, for example) that they fixed and added to their collections, and I'm here to tell you they run great.
As for baby stuff? Yes, they grow up fast. But if you're not keeping the clothes for the next baby or exchanging them with other parents, then you are really using an awful lot of money, 'cuz if there's anything that is expensive, it's baby stuff, particularly clothes. The longer they last and the cleaner they look, the more you save -- you'll be able to get something back for them, either other baby stuff, or money or use it for the next baby.
