Laundry

**PrairieFlowerC** · 01-26-2006, 03:26 PM

1. what is the size of your family?
2. how often do you do laundry

3. what do you wash on? examples-cold, hot or warm? or do you do a mixture of these due to different clothing/household items?

**Darlene** · 01-26-2006, 03:35 PM

1~ 2 usually, sometimes 3 or 4, lol
2~ once a week now
3~ Usually cold and occasionally hot for sheets & whites

What about you?

**canadian gardener** · 01-26-2006, 03:36 PM

Just me and dh. In the last 2 years the kids up and grew up and out of the house. Yay and Yippee and all that.

I used to do laundry daily. Whatever I had a load of. I invented my own little catch phrase; "a load a day keeps the dr away!"

but now it's more like M W and F.

What do I wash on?

Well it's almost always HOT water for the wash cycle, and cold for the rinse.

my reasons are:
dust mites (asthmatic) and dust mites are not killed by warm water, nor are they even fazed by the dryer. Hot water only.

germs-- many household germs that inhabit the body and land on undergarments or sheets and towels, or the germs that cause food poisoning on dishcloths etc aren't fazed by warm water and many survive the laundry and the dryer.

which is why dishcloths and towels go sour right away. There is a community or eco system of bacteria in there ready to go to work and multiply when moisture is available.

I used to work on a medical floor and learnt it was safest to wash in HOT for stopping transmission of anything that came home on my uniforms.

Then finally my education on Hot water washes was completed when there was a lice epidemic at the school my then grade school kids were at. The public health nurse explained that if I washed in Hot from then on, rinsed in cold to save money, that I wouldn't likely get any repeat infections.

Lice and fleas and other parasites such as intestinal worm eggs have a hard waxy shell that protects them from the bleach that kills other things, and the heat of the dryer may kill some, but not all.

So after that, I'm a dedicated hot water wash, cold rinse gal, long after I retired from nursing to homeschool, and long after my kids were out of the dangerous age for picking up lice or worms etc.

I may be frugal but where I sit, that is just protecting me from all kinds of little troubles, from skin infections being passed around to food poisoning bacteria being recycled thru dishrags in the wash. If anyone has a staph infection of the skin or a little fungus problem or even their own pet intestinal worm colony I don't want to share thru the towels.

**canadian gardener** · 01-26-2006, 03:52 PM

Prairie flower don't let my answer scare you off.

I'm the village crank on hot water washing, and I never can resist an opportunity to preach on germs, dust mites and parasites and how the world would be better with hot water laundering.

But I'm otherwise harmless, and the ladies who wash in cold and warm water just sigh and carry on in their frugal ways wondering if I have a special little bee in my bonnet!

Welcome to the village btw! Nice to have you here (and even if you don't wash in hot, I'll still have a virtual coffee with you and swap frugality tales!)

**PrairieFlowerC** · 01-26-2006, 03:58 PM

i am the SAME way!

i have allergies all year round & with 3 children, a hubby, & 2 8 month old kittens (indoors) i need to wash on hot ! thank you for the info. it is good to pass along. nice to meet you as well.

**PrairieFlowerC** · 01-26-2006, 04:04 PM

Originally posted by Darlene
1~ 2 usually, sometimes 3 or 4, lol
2~ once a week now
3~ Usually cold and occasionally hot for sheets & whites

What about you?

i do ALL kitchen & bathroom towels, kitchen items, (pot holders & stuff) bath rugs/mats & bedding in hot & the rest in cold. i usually do 2 loads a week with 5 of us unless its an emergency like illness or something.

**Emerald_Mommy** · 01-26-2006, 04:22 PM

1. 4 of us, including a baby that lives to generate laundry,

2. Once a week, unless we need something specific washed before "laundry" day

3. Mostly cold, except for sheets, towels & underwear which are washed hot with bleach.

**jlxian** · 01-26-2006, 05:32 PM

Originally posted by PrairieFlowerC
1. what is the size of your family?
2. how often do you do laundry

3. what do you wash on? examples-cold, hot or warm? or do you do a mixture of these due to different clothing/household items?

1. 2 adults 2 pre teens (1 boy 1 girl)

2. Nearly every day, and a TON on weekends

3. Cold all loads. I've read that some folks have problems getting powdered detergent to dissolve in cold water, but I haven't run into that. We have a water softener, and I also add a little borax to each load.

I recently put my kids in charge of their own laundry. They are adapting, but DD leaves it until late on Sunday which I'm trying not to let aggravate me. Breaking them of using the dryer is a major undertaking.

**jlxian** · 01-26-2006, 05:34 PM

Originally posted by canadian gardener
Prairie flower don't let my answer scare you off.

I'm the village crank on hot water washing, and I never can resist an opportunity to preach on germs, dust mites and parasites and how the world would be better with hot water laundering.

But I'm otherwise harmless, and the ladies who wash in cold and warm water just sigh and carry on in their frugal ways wondering if I have a special little bee in my bonnet!

Welcome to the village btw! Nice to have you here (and even if you don't wash in hot, I'll still have a virtual coffee with you and swap frugality tales!)

I didn't know dust mites could be controlled with hot water! Thanks for the info!

**baxjul** · 01-26-2006, 08:22 PM

We have three adults (me, dh, and fil) and one 5 yr. old.

I do one load every day (usually.

Everything in cold, except for my nursing scrubs and underwear.
I also line dry everything except for the above.

**Pepper** · 01-26-2006, 08:23 PM

2 of us.
No set day, just whenever there is enough for a load.
Cold, all the time!

**KimSecret** · 01-26-2006, 08:48 PM

4 in my family
Do at least 2 loads a day.
Wash linens and whites in hot water-cold rinse
The rest is in cold water.

**inneedofhope** · 01-26-2006, 09:01 PM

Just 2 of us here! me and ds

I do about once a week, though if I don;t get it all done in one day it tends to space out through the week.

I WAS an all cold girl, but after reading the above I may do some more hot water loads!
DS and I both have sensitive. itchy skin, so maybe the hot water wash will help to reduce some discomfort.

**canadian gardener** · 01-27-2006, 12:19 AM

It may also help if you do a second deep rinse. I have a fair bit of skin allergies too, so I've done that since the kids were born to get rid of any extra detergent. Also allergic families sometimes need to toss a cup of vinegar in the final rinse cycle so that the clothes lose any scratchy feel from minerals in the water that haven't rinsed out all the way. (kind of like hard water spots on the shower walls)

My sympathies with the itchy skin, winter is worse it seems with the dry indoor air.

**homesteadmamma** · 01-27-2006, 12:32 AM

There are 5 of us, 3 adults and 2 teens

I try to wash on MOndays only.

I wash in cold water except for underwear & socks which get washed in hot water.

I don't have a dryer, I line dry everything. Outside in the summer, clothes racks in the winter.

Don't mind Margery, she really doesn't bite.

Oh and btw - even though I wash in cold water, we are seldom sick in our house. I think the cold water kills the germs as well and whether washed in hot or cold they get flushed down the drain either way.