Laundry fiascos

HOUSEHOLD TIPS

Laundry fiascos

Doing the laundry. How hard can that be? Well, we can probably all generate a list of laundry fiascos that made ‘chuck it in and press Wash’ a recipe for disaster. Here are a few rules – learnt through experience.

Rule Number 1

Check the pockets. I couldn’t work out why my husband’s white sailing shorts and top were a very nice shade of pink, until I found the red paper napkin hidden in the pocket, which rather nicely dyed the clothes. I have kept them in the hope we get to go to a fancy dress or a McGrath Pink Day event. The dreaded ‘tissue-in-the-backpocket’ scenario is all too familiar, necessitating a lot of flapping and picking, or just doing the whole wash again.

Rule Number 2

Read the label. ‘Wash separately first’ is always a good thing to do, so you don’t put the new dark blue trousers in with the normal wash and end

up with swirls of blue through everything. While on holiday in Russia, I sent my clothes – which was, yes, I know, risky – to a local laundry. They came back nice and clean, but one whole size smaller. Apparently ‘Do Not Tumble Dry’ on the label did not translate into Russian.

Rule Number 3

Use the correct machine. My sister’s washing machine was on the blink, she was recovering from an operation, so while waiting for the replacement, she sent her hubby to the local laundromat. He got home within an hour announcing that he “didn’t see why she kept going on about how hard it was.” The clothes smelled nice but bore signs of the powder detergent … so after interrogation it turns out he put the unwashed clothes and powder directly into the dryer. Hm, warm, dry and smelling nice but still unclean.

And I haven’t even mentioned the ‘single sock’ scenario!

Ruth Hickey