washing

I've been using my new system of doing the washing in the evening for a few weeks now and I've decided I have mixed feelings on it.

When I have just the one bag it works really well.  I can use one of the smaller machines, which are a bit quicker.  IF I'm one bagging then generally its' clothes only so I can also use the wash and wear setting, which is the quickest.  The small machines on this setting only take about 20 minutes.

The wash and wear setting does require more drying as it leaves the clothes a bit damper, but not spectacularly so.  However, because it's a single bag it's quicker to dry anyway, so this then only takes about 30minutes of drying.

Add in a bit of time for moving stuff about, loading machines, etc, and it therefore takes about 1 hour, which is perfect for me to buy a copy of the Radio Times and my dinner and eat it while it's washing & drying.

If it's a double bagger it's less good.

Generally if I'm double bagging that means I'm washing bed sheets and towels as well as clothes.  That means I have to use the full wash setting, which takes about 40 minutes.  There's also more washing so the drying takes longer - about 40 minutes.  There's also more stuff so the loading, etc, takes longer and the whole thing takes at least 1.5 hours, but more like 1.75 hours.

It's then more difficult at home too - a single bag is foldable and put-awayable in about 20 minutes.  A double bagger takes twice that.

I still think overall I'm happier doing it in the evenings.  There's nothing quite as annoying as your washing doing its final spin with 1 minute to go when someone walks in the door and sticks it in the last of the tumble driers.  Particularly when you've gotten up at 6AM to try to avoid that sort of thing!

I actually tried extending the philosophy to other chores and doing my cleaning in the evening.  This basically fell at the first hurdle because the routine I have for cleaning my bedsit basically requires me to fold my bed up (it's complicated), clean that space and then use it to temporarily store stuff from the bathroom & kitchen.

Well given it takes several hours for the kitchen and bathroom floors to dry it means I can't go to bed until it's done, so that's a non-starter.  I mean, perhaps it would be possible in the summer when it's warm enough to dry quickly, but not now.

However, I think there are things I could move - trimming my hair, for example.  I don't see why I couldn't do that in the evening.