March 30 2022
Lots of fairy stories have a magic porridge pot. You know the one – you can eat as much as you like, empty it right down to the bottom and it instantly fills up again.
Our laundry basket’s like that. However often I empty it there are always more dirty shirts socks, pants, threatening to overflow and pour down the stairs.
Except they’re not dirty,. Now what our parents would have called dirty. Not stand-at- the -scrubbing- board -with- a -big-bar of green soap dirty.
So why are we washing them?
Because we can…
Washing clothes has never been easier – easy materials, quick machine wash, quick tumble dry and within not much more than an hour of discarding a shirt you can be wearing it again.
Our poor old grannies had to wash everything by hand. Heavy materials – skirts that had to have the pleats stitched in before washing – or thick cotton, very shrinkable wool, that took ages to dry – especially when draped around the kitchen in winter – and were a pain to iron especially before the days of steam.
A friend’s teenage son has clean black jeans every day for college. Hooray for his personal hygiene. But weren’t jeans the original work wear? Weren’t cowboys virtually moulded into their jeans for weeks on end on the hot and dusty trail? Doesn’t it seem just a little…prissy… not to get at least two days from a pair of jeans?
But now everything’s so easy, why not?
Well, maybe all that water,,,, and the electricity….and all those tiny particles from clothes getting into the water system.
- Not every single thing has to be washed after every single wearing. Put them away neatly and they’ll do for at least another wear
- This doesn’t apply to knickers or socks…
- Use a lower temperature on your machine. Save a proper wash for clothes that are proper dirty.
- …and bedding. Always wash sheets at at least 60C as that kills the dust mites lurking in even the poshest beds.
- Dry outside when you can. Even if only on a city balcony. Clothes still smell sweeter. And it’s free.
Listen to: Frank Sinatra “I’ll hang my tears out to dry.”
The Canny Time Traveller 