Washing

Different people's needs, quite obviously will vary.
Continence, eating, drinking, sweating, will all contribute to someone changing their clothes more, or less.

Harmonypuss How big is your washer to manage one load every 10 days. Sheet, quilt cover, bath and hand towels, dark and light clothing, kitchen cloths - all in one wash?

I dry clean my woollen jumpers kircubbin. Wool can be worn lots of times before it needs washing ...or cleaning. Ìf I have spent quite a lot on a wool item then dry cleaning is the best for me. I don't want shrinkage or spoiling. And I have nowhere to dry things flat and my wash machine has a bit of attitude so rather unreliable.

kircubbin, just stand and watch the wool wash cycle on your machine and if it rocks gently from side to side plus does a spin in one direction ie no agitation then it will be safe. You would need to use a dedicated wool wash detergent and then somewhere to dry flat. I use a leifheit net drying rack on top of my fold up airer. You can also get flat airers for over the bath

I even wash hand spun and hand knitted pure and fragile merino and it comes out in very good condition

To felt wool you need abrupt temperature changes ie hot wash and cold rinse, agitation and a normal wash detergent

I wash even my most delicate woollens in my machine, wool wash, and I turn it down to 20 degrees, never had a problem.

I wash my M&S cashmere in the machine in the wool cycle and it’s fine. I don’t have anywhere flat to dry them, especially if I’ve washed several, but I peg them carefully on the line outside or use an airer by a radiator indoors. Some are now several years old and actually one of them survived Dh accidentally washing it in a normal 40deg cycle!

I do, I live alone and it's amazing just how much washing I get through!

Probably two loads once a week. Only me to manage.

Not much concern about global warning amongst Gransnetters
Or pollution of seas!

Short of taking it down to the river and bashing it on the stones, everyone contributes to the problem, just by the act of "being".

The best thing would be for the human race not to exist anymore.

MissAdventure

Short of taking it down to the river and bashing it on the stones, everyone contributes to the problem, just by the act of "being".

The best thing would be for the human race not to exist anymore.

We call all go off to another planet somewhere and leave the Earth and the wildlife to recover 🙂

All this washing! Surely the next question must be how much ironing goes on after all this?

Very little in this house grammargran 95% is MrJ’s shirts and he does them, in fact he does all the ironing.

I've no idea grammargran
Someone Else does that.

I do a wash twice a week usually for the 2 of us. Sometimes more . We have a very large machine, many years old, so I don’t like just washing a couple of things at a time. The dishwasher I use every day but that is good because it is one of those New Zealand 2 drawer ones so I alternate the drawers.

So we can joke about it, but it doesn’t alter the fact that our thoughtless and selfish behaviour now will affect the lives of our grandchildren and future generations.

Are older people really so complacent?

I suppose those of us who use their machine twice a week offset those using theirs 7 times or more a week. Well a bit anyway. I expect there will come a time in the future, and probably not too distant but when we are all gone, when water is short in the UK and very expensive and washing liquid expensive as well to try and deter over use of resources when our great great grandchildren will wonder what we did with their world.

I don’t think that’s going to happen HelterSkelter1, not the lack of water element anyway.
The Met Office has found that the UK is getting more rain on average over the whole year – about 7 per cent more over the past 30 years, than in the previous 30 years. And five of the 10 wettest years for the UK since 1836 have occurred in the 21st century, the Met Office reported in July.
It feels like it too, in Wales anyway.

MissAdventure

I have what used to be the airing cupboard, with the obsolete tank still in it.
Now that's food for thought.
I wonder if I could sort out the tank being removed and putting a dryer in there?

Yep condenser or heat pump, no condensation off the heat pump dryer

MissAdventure

Thanks Mt61.
Food for thought, definitely.
An investment, I'd say, planning ahead.

For sure😊👍🏻

I bet these MPs aren’t having a discussion on how many washers they have to do a week 🙄 since they are all getting their heating allowance. I bet it all goes to the dry-cleaners

I think it will Casdon with the future forecast of the Med area becoming more like Africa and S England more like the Med. Hose pipes bans more frequent and longer lasting. More people migrating from the Med to the UK because of longer periods of high temperatures which will increase water consumption here.

Farzanah

So we can joke about it, but it doesn’t alter the fact that our thoughtless and selfish behaviour now will affect the lives of our grandchildren and future generations.

Are older people really so complacent?

What are your washing arrangements?

HelterSkelter1

I think it will Casdon with the future forecast of the Med area becoming more like Africa and S England more like the Med. Hose pipes bans more frequent and longer lasting. More people migrating from the Med to the UK because of longer periods of high temperatures which will increase water consumption here.

Warm dry summers and much wetter winters for the UK will be the norm according to the Met Office. I expect Wales and Scotland will be pumping more of our excess to the rest of the UK. We’re also surrounded by water, so in all honesty we aren’t going to run out. I’m not making light of climate change, and I take your point on detergents though.

As much as we don’t want to think about water running out is going to happen without some serious thinking.

www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/01/why-uk-facing-water-shortages-despite-record-rainfall-explainer