To those who remember that orange, fat cat, what was one of his most common thoughts? I hate Mondays.
Well, I’m finding myself more like Garfield each week.
For me, it’s not because of work. My present job is the most stress-free I’ve ever had. And working from home has its benefits.
No, I have grown to hate Mondays because Monday is wash day. It’s the only day I can rightfully, and guiltlessly, wash my clothes.
First, I should say I’m grateful to be able to wash them once a week. I know many people here in the LOCAC who can only wash every two weeks. Or even worse, I have some friends who can wash this week on Tuesday but in two weeks’ time when it’s their day again, it’s now on Wednesday. Boy, that can really mess up your social schedule. I admire the Swiss for putting up with that.
I usually start washing at 7 a.m., because that’s the earliest I can wash. The sign in the entry says no noise from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. My clothes are sorted on Sunday night, so I get an idea of how many loads I’ll be doing the next day and what temperature the loads need to be.
European machines, on the whole, are different than American ones in that the water is heated inside the machine here. (In the U.S., it usually comes into the machine hot, from a hot water heater.) I find the clothes tend to come out cleaner here if you have four hot loads to do, the water doesn’t go cold by the middle of the second load.
But I had to learn how long it takes for the loads to wash. And boy what a difference the temperature makes! The lowest temperature is 30ºC (86ºF) and that load takes about 30 minutes. Then there’s 40 sport (104ºF), which also takes about 30 minutes. The regular 40 takes 45-50 minutes. The 60ºC (140ºF) takes 75 minutes. The last is a 90ºC (195ºF) but I’ve never used that setting because I just can’t fathom that anything any of us wear needs to be washed at a such a high temperature. I generally only do the clothes for HRH on a 60 temp, to get out any stains.
Generally I do one load on 60 (those for HRH), several loads on regular 40 or 40 sport and one 30 load for the dark colors. It takes me until noon or 1 p.m to finish. And that is if all goes well. The days that I take HRH up and down the three flights of stairs (no elevator) with me or that he doesn’t take a morning nap for a long time, well, that just adds to my washing time.
I do understand that having assigned days insures that at least once a week, the machine is all mine. And that’s not a bad thing. But it would be nice, if I knew that the person who had wash day on Wednesday works outside the home and does not do their clothes until 4 p.m. at the earliest, that I could get a quick load in. But that would require asking the person’s permission and if I did that each week, well, I imagine I could become a pesky neighbor.
So I sigh and think: I hate Mondays!
Sigh,
KC
