Being a couple

[Howard]

Perhaps buy her more stuff so she doesn't have to wash it more than once a week?

Slarti

I love the implicit - and no doubt unintended - sexism twice in this one sentence!

Watis

Buying her more stuff is just a usual attempt at gaining brownie points and is probably better than suggesting she buy more herself.

She doesn't have to wash it only reflects the situation in my house where Mrs S does the washing, because she doesn't like the way I do it, but can't explain what I do wrong. But it does lead to my assumption that the washing machine is "her" domain.

Slarti

Having read this thread I went into the garden and lit our (movable) bbq. Mrs H came out and said "I'm glad you have moved the bbq away from my washing". This, I should add included roughly half my clothes and half Mrs H's.

So thanks to valuable comments from others on TLF on the horrors of having to do one's own washing, and more than 40 years of wedded bliss, I accepted the praise without comment, and pursued the manly task of tending the bbq.

regards

Howard

[ten0rman]

Reminiscing time...

I remember when yes, one bath a week, no showers - don't think they existed (!). But that was when I was at home with my parents - 60+ years ago. When it wasn't bath night, it was wash as much as possible either in the kitchen sink or in the bathroom sink. But that was thought to be normal, even for a young lad/teenager doing part time work on a farm/ running around with the scouts/ rough & tumble at secy. school etc. And even when I started work.

These days, it's a bath a day, a) because the shower's disabled following a leak; and b) because I have found that the hot bath does my back a power of good (I have ankylosing spondulitis, or is it spondylitis?)

Washing. Well in mummies day, it was once a week using the old gas copper boiler and the mangle. Is it any wonder there were some large women! Later there was the Hoover twin tub - don't remember the wash frequency, and later still an automatic.

As a married couple, initially a twin tub equivalent, then a Bendix Auto washer which lasted all of 5 years. Mind you we did have two young children. And a dog, so I suppose there was a lot to do - I wouldn't know, I was at work. Our next washer was another Bendix which lasted 17 years. Currently we have an 18 year old Bosch washer. Now, did the machine quality improve? Or did we do less washing? I suspect a combination of both as the kids grew up.

These days, being on Economy 7, we run the washer overnight on the cheap rate. Quantity depends on what's going on, eg having just returned from 2 weeks away, it's getting hammered. Occasionally Mrs T gets up through the night to put on a second load. So it's run four times since Sunday and there's still another load to do.

Shopping. Now there's a sore point with me. Mrs T likes to go 13 miles away "because she likes the town". Which is a sore point because there is a Sainsburys 2 miles away. To be fair she does also use Sainsburys - on a daily basis, or so it seems. And anyway, I can see her point about the attractiveness or otherwise of the distant town, but for me speed, ie nearness, trumps everything. We also have a local shop. I doubt Mrs T has ever been inside because "it adds 20 or 30p to everything", yet she ignores the cost of petrol when travelling 13 miles! Or even 2 miles!

Overall then, personal hygiene has improved over the years. Clothes washing has, I think, dropped due to the kids leaving home. Shopping appears to be an excuse to get out and go somewhere regardless of the cost or necessity, there being no real attempt to think of the future and buy enough to last.

Cheers,

ten0rman

ps Isn't it difficult typing when your second finger is all plastered up following an accident with the secateurs!

[Leothebear]

If you like fresh fruit and veg you cannot do a single weekly shop.

If you're buying fruit and veg that doesn't last a week then it wasn't fresh in the first place.


HYD

Bit of a generalisation there. Some fruit and veg last a week+ OK - apples, oranges, spuds, onions etc but strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and salad veg? Don't think so.

[Watis]

Shopping. Now there's a sore point with me. Mrs T likes to go 13 miles away "because she likes the town". Which is a sore point because there is a Sainsburys 2 miles away. To be fair she does also use Sainsburys - on a daily basis, or so it seems. And anyway, I can see her point about the attractiveness or otherwise of the distant town, but for me speed, ie nearness, trumps everything. We also have a local shop. I doubt Mrs T has ever been inside because "it adds 20 or 30p to everything", yet she ignores the cost of petrol when travelling 13 miles! Or even 2 miles!

I think most people ignore the cost of travelling. I think this is because, in our minds, the act of paying for the fuel is divorced from the act of expending it. So journeys appear to be free. It might bring home to people how much it costs to drive anywhere if fuel was free but you had to feed a pound coin into a slot every few miles to keep the car going.

Watis

[Slarti]

Bit of a generalisation there. Some fruit and veg last a week+ OK - apples, oranges, spuds, onions etc but strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and salad veg? Don't think so.

They do in the salad draw of the fridge or on a high shelf in the fridge, as long as you have a piece of kitchen paper in the base of the container to absorb any moisture.

We've currently got 3 types of mushrooms, strawberries & blueberries, 2 types of leaves of some sort on the next to top shelf. Celery, 2 types of tomatoes, cucumber, radishes & peppers in the salad draw. Cauliflower, broccoli, beans, carrots, parsnips & swede in the veg draw. most was bought last Saturday, but some items are from the Saturday before.

Slarti

[TheMotorcycleBoy]

I was *very* alarmed by the washing/shopping frequency. For us, with 2 teenagers, clothes washing probably a few times a week, I do a very small shop, say 40-70 quid each saturday morn, Mel probably does 1 bigger shop per week, and possibly the odd top-up mid-week.

But this...

I should point out that the Mrs is into keep fit big time, whilst i'm the opposite.

She will get up an hour earlier than she needs to, in order to 'go for a run'. I just laugh and spread myself out in the bed with the extra space.

is very very encouraging....a girly very interested in her physique is fantastic! Not that I'm sexist..

I wouldn't change things even if I had a chance. I know when i've hit the jackpot.

Indeed, see my last comment.

Matt (of Mel & Matt fame)

[Itsallaguess]

Mrs S does the washing, because she doesn't like the way I do it, but can't explain what I do wrong.

Aye - but you won't forget what it is though, eh?



Itsallaguess

[Ashfordian]

Indeed. Her argument is that she doesn't want sweaty running/gym wear in the laundry basket for a week.

She has a point I guess, though it doesn't bother me like it bothers her.

When the now Mrs S decided to take on trial, I had terribly smelly feet and my socks were horrible by the end of the working day.
So we got a plastic pedal bin for me to drop them in and applied a stick on air freshener to the inside of the lid. The bin was kept in the spare bedroom, unless we had overnight visitors.

Slarti

Any potential smelly items get left directly in the washing machine ready for when there is next a full load. Not only does the washing machine clean the clothes but also contain and removes any odours that have collected in the machine.

[AndyPandy]

I think most people ignore the cost of travelling. I think this is because, in our minds, the act of paying for the fuel is divorced from the act of expending it. So journeys appear to be free. It might bring home to people how much it costs to drive anywhere if fuel was free but you had to feed a pound coin into a slot every few miles to keep the car going.

Watis

Not a bad idea as I hold down a part-time job as a Parentaxi. I've heard that you can get an App that makes your 'phone look just like a Taxi meter. Might drive home (ha ha) the miles I do and the cost thereof. Last weekend, for example, 12 mile round trip to Slough to futilely ( is that a word Ms Dent?) look for a yellow thermos that Son wants to give to new girlfriend. Has to be yellow.

Washing machines: When single, I used to chuck everything in (whites and coloureds as they'd been washed enough times not to run) once a week

With a daughter that swims 7 times a week, using two towels each time and two sets of teenage clothes in general on top of our clothing, that is but a distant fond memory.


Showers: I can still remember handheld showers that you stuck onto taps. I'm sure my parents' first wall mounted one still had to be fitted to the taps when you wanted to use it.

[stewamax]

Q: How many times a week did you iron previously?
Q: How often do you iron now?
And if not why not.

As a youngster, having seen the palaver of washing clothes outdoors in a washtub (actually two: one for suds and one for rinsing) using a posser/posher, dolly-peg and mangle, with water heated on the gas stove, I can well understand any reluctance of women (the men were above that sort of women's work) to wash clothes too frequently.
And I well remember my father's underpants (changed twice a week) being boiled separately and at length for reasons easily guessable.
But all this seemed normal and commonplace at the time.
I had a live-out nanny. My mother had a char-lady. But my mother still worked a full day keeping the house clean and tidy with no modern aids except a Hoover. The washing machine (and for Winter Wet Mondays the tumbler dryer) had a liberating effect we now hugely underestimate.
Most enlightening is a visit to the National Trust's "Back to Backs" in Birmingham with one boiler and washtub for a row of working-class houses and with lavatories that ... I'll stop there or it will put Snug drinkers off their drinks.

[Howyoudoin]

Q: How many times a week did you iron previously?
Q: How often do you iron now?
And if not why not.

I didn't iron before I was in a relationship and still don't now i'm in one. It gets done by someone else, same as the cleaning.

Though I have been persuaded to vacuum once a week now as the other half doesn't want a cleaner.


HYD

[melonfool]

My ex used to love telling people he did 'all the ironing'. He did. But it was all his. I've not ironed anything for about ten years. The implication of course was that he was doing my ironing, but he didn't. Now and then he would say "have you got anything that needs ironing" and I would say no, but if I do, I'll iron it.

Once we had some friends round for a cuppa and for some odd reason he decided to start doing some ironing in the living room in front of them (rude, if you ask me, when you have guests) and he went upstairs and came down with about three items of mine from my wardrobe. I said "what are you doing with those?", he said "I thought I might iron them". I mean, he had literally taken clean hanging clothes out of my wardrobe to iron in front of guests. Guests he had previously told that he did 'all the ironing'.

I said "well, they don't need ironing, I'll take them back up" and then he got in a grump saying how he just wants to do something nice for me and if I prefer to wear unironed clothes then fine.

I suspect he may actually have been mentally deranged.

We also did our laundry separately because I can't use bio detergents because they make me itch, but he thinks non-bio doesn't wash properly. Ditto I am happy washing everything at 30deg, but he thinks things aren't clean (though he could never show me how any of my clothes were actually dirty) and washed everything at 60deg. So because we had such different views on it, we just each did our own, and he did his son's. His son who suffers from eczema and whose skin also reacted to bio detergents. Every now and then I would find he had gone into my laundry basket, dug something out, thrown it in with his wash and shrunk it. He seemed very intent on digging right to the bottom - where the dry clean only stuff gets left until I go to the dry-cleaners. So, whenever he did this he invariably ruined an expensive item of clothing and no matter how many times I asked him to stop doing it, he would not - again, he was just "trying to do something nice". Lord knows why he couldn't read a care label (well I do know, he's one of those people who thinks life's rules don't apply to him and are all made up to repress us).

I SO prefer being on my own!

Mel

[tjh290633]

My mother-in-law taught me how to iron shirts. She used to iron everything, including socks and underpants.

Nowadays I have enough handkerchiefs and shirts to go at least a month before enough has accumulated to justify running the washing machine. So my habit is to do the ironing while watching cricket or rugby. My record is about 20 shirts in two sessions, plus all the handkerchiefs. That would have been a couple of months worth. My principle is to wait until I am down to 3 or 4 shirts before acting.

TJH

[Itsallaguess]

So my habit is to do the ironing while watching cricket or rugby.

My record is about 20 shirts in two sessions, plus all the handkerchiefs. That would have been a couple of months worth.

My principle is to wait until I am down to 3 or 4 shirts before acting.

Before entering the crease yourself, so to speak?



Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[Lootman]

My mother-in-law taught me how to iron shirts. She used to iron everything, including socks and underpants.

Nowadays I have enough handkerchiefs and shirts to go at least a month before enough has accumulated to justify running the washing machine. So my habit is to do the ironing while watching cricket or rugby. My record is about 20 shirts in two sessions, plus all the handkerchiefs. That would have been a couple of months worth. My principle is to wait until I am down to 3 or 4 shirts before acting.

I used to iron professionally. Sort of. I worked for a cleaning firm and one of the jobs I was regularly sent out to do was a client who did her own laundry, but could not stand to iron.

It took me 2-3 hours a time. She had a lot of clothes but some of them were hard to iron, because she had "fussy" clothes with many buckles, buttons, tassels and whatnot, all of which has to be ironed around. Plus there was a variety of textiles so I had to keep changing the heat setting. Hey, I was a professional.

No doubt partly because of that, I haven't ironed anything in years. Hanging a shirt up in a steamy shower seems to do the trick.

[UncleEbenezer]

My mother-in-law taught me how to iron shirts. She used to iron everything, including socks and underpants.

My dad's like that. If when I'm visiting him I let anything of mine into the washing machine, I have to be there before him if I'm not to end up with fully-ironed underpants, pyjamas, etc.

And that's even now that he's showing his age in other matters, such as never walking far.

[UncleEbenezer]

No doubt partly because of that, I haven't ironed anything in years.

The only thing I ever iron is my formal shirts, for when I'm singing in a concert. It's a chore I find particularly depressing, perhaps in part because it's somewhat associated with when washing was a huge chore, before I had use of a washing machine.

I grew up avoiding all kinds of sport, because I knew that engaging in physical activity generated a need for more washing. I think in my schooldays I changed my shirt twice a week.

[swill453]

Only iron my formal shirt (singular). Only used for weddings and funerals. Running about once per annum at the moment.

Wife doesn't iron anything.

Scott.

[stewamax]

Writing (in 'Lark Rise') of the habits of rural village folk in 1880-1900, Flora Thompson commented that "Hamlet folk were cleanly in their persons. The women would lock their cottage doors for a whole afternoon once a week to have what they called a 'good clean up'. This consisted of stripping to the waist and washing downwards; then stepping into a footbath and washing upwards. 'Well I feel all the better for that said' some woman would say complacently. I've washed up as far as possible and down as far as possible, and the ribald would inquire what poor possible had done that that should not be included."
Quite how often and how thoroughly their menfolk - many who were presumably in dirtier smellier farming jobs - bathed was not recorded, although a proper wash and shave seems to have happened once a week on Sunday morning, a routine followed even by the itinerant Irish harvesters (who of course went to Mass afterwards).

[simsqu]

There appears to be a huge interest in ironing.

Can I suggest to the Powers That Be that The Lemon Fool should have their own Ironing Board?