Hi y'all,
after Carnival I was off-beat for some time but now I'm back in the blogging-groove. And as I look out of the window of my new office (aka hubby's ex-office) there is sunshine and rain at the same time. April weather although it's March - that's life, I guess.
In case you're wondering what I was engaged in the last days and weeks apart from moving hubby's office stuff into the basement (where there's a large projector and stable Internet connection) and carrying my desk and all my utensils upstairs - I did laundry! Boooooring, you name it. But hubby complained that his allegedly clean t-shirts smelled as if they had languished in a dungeon (with a lot of dragons). Therefore, I sniffed the whole closet (including blankets, towels and bedsheets) and our washing machine had to work extra shifts for two or three days in a row!
We developed several theories regarding the problem:
a) (by hubby): Washer and tumbler are dated, don't work correctly and have to be replaced. I had a quick laugh because they are not that old and we don't want to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut, you know. Nevertheless, I cleaned both devices pretty thoroughly and it worked more or less.
b) (also by hubby): The laundry detergent is a no-name-product and therefore not so effective (btw it was the eco-brand of my favorite drugstore). Again, I had a quick laugh but invested in some expensive brands with detergents for white, black and color. But it didn't solve the problem completely. I changed to some traditional brand heavyduty detergent, intensely scented which improved the situation.
c) (by me): If you only wash with 40 degrees Celsius, there is a chance of bacteria growth in the machine which may cause the smell. Thus I switched to 60 degrees for all washloads. Works well, doesn't harm the fabric, and lights and whites smell pretty nice.
We leave out the dryer for now. Although it lately (and wrongly) claimed to have a full water container. But I found some instructions to perform a deep cleaning program which is intended by the manufacturer but only officially published to service technicians. (Honi soit qui mal y pense...) Since then it works flawless.
Another thing I can definitely opt out is wet laundry staying in the machine for too long. Usually I do the laundry on Friday when I work from home - thus I am there all the time and can throw it in the dryer as soon as it's finished (or hang it on the line outside or my perfectly ventilated scullery).
Lately the problem occurred only with dark or black laundry, and as we tend to have much more darks than lights (which is logical with two dogs) I did some research and came up with my last theory:
d) If the machine is packed too full, there might be not enough detergent and furthermore not enough space in the drum which prevents the machine from working properly. Thus I will put less laundry in the machine in the future.
What I realized: Hubby got tons of t-shirts but there's only a handful he wears regularly. Nevertheless, I still have to deal with the aftermath - which is ironing. And yes, that's a three-seater...
Today another theory struck me: I do my ironing with a steam iron station and if you use a lot of steam the laundry gets slightly humid. If I fold the shirts and tuck and stuff them tightly in hubby's closet that might influence the scent situation. I guess, I have to let the ironed clothing dry for a while before stacking it away in a larger closet compartment. Did I mention that I just enrolled for my master in laundry service?!
Oh, and I came up with the strange idea to count the shirts - after 72 in the closet and two remaining stacks still to be ironed, I stopped counting...
But let's change topics and and talk about something nice: Last week, hubby was on a business trip to Potsdam and Magdeburg and didn't want to visit his hosts/business partners/friends empty-handed. So he kindly requested some presents to be sewn by me... I knew that one of his friends has a four-year-old son and a daughter of ten, but regarding the second couple hubby only knew that there are three children (relatively small), no gender, no age. Well, I thought, teddies it is, they go well with all ages. And so I took action:
Stuffing, loads of stuffing...
Unfilled Teddies from old Jeans and different Jersey fabrics
Like chickens on the roost:
As if that wasn't enough I heard that among my circle of friends little twin girls arrived a bit prematurely on Christmas Eve. Because they are so tiny I sewed very lightweight bunnies which they can grab easily and shimmy around without risking any damage by some heavy plastic parts. Furthermore, I only stuffed the bunnyheads with quilt batting but avoided any crackling foil because I wanted them to be washable and ironable (is that word correct???) on high heat. I should have some experience by now...
Bunny bunch backside...
...and front:
Wish you a good week and Corona only in bottles!
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