Laundary advice please

[lonelybrit]

Because I really am now relying on the FL for most things... Right, so whilst moving to the back of beyond has given me lovely country air and bounteous opportunities to observe gorgeous mother nature, it has also deprived me of the lovely tumble drier (dryer? *eyes spelling*). Which is no biggie. Wash the clothes as normal and then stick them on the rack to dry.

Except that being dried by natural air convection leaves everything stiff and rather harsh on the skin. I am suddenly getting what folks mean when they say 'cardboard jeans'. All the towels are effectively sandpaper for the first few days.

So. Can anyone offer any advice on ways to keep clothes nice and soft? Any particular fabric conditioners/detergents that are particularly recommended or otherwise?

Comments

[way2busymom.livejournal.com]

When we used to hang laundry to dry, clothes came out softer if we were able to hang them outside in a fresh breeze.

When we hung them inside during inclement weather...yeah stiff as a board. What I'd do was roll them up to break the stiffness. That seemed to work just as well as fancy expensive softeners.

Ah...good times...

[flatlanddan.livejournal.com]

If you find anything let me know....I'd love to have soft towels again.

[anyasbuttmonkey.livejournal.com]

I agree with way2busymom, hanging wet clothes inside usually means you'll get the "stiff as a board" response (as opposed to "light as a feather"... Oh yes, I'm not above making a Craft joke!).

[eloise-bright.livejournal.com]

Oh honey. I hate to tell you this, but the only cure for carboard clothes and sandpaper towels is the iron. *sigh*

I used washable terry nappies with Katie, and I didn't have a tumble dryer - so I used to iron her wee nappies. It took me forever. No fabric softener I've ever found cures the problem, but if you iron them, it seems to break up the stiffness. There's probably a wonderful chemical explanation for this phenomenon, but I have no idea what it is.

Hot iron + air-dried towels = softness.

How is it that I have no icon to go with this post? *g*

[lonelybrit]

Well fingers crossed the decent weather will last long enough till I can get the next load of linens out into the garden :) Thanks for the advice, I'll try the rolling thing in the interim!

[lonelybrit]

Hehe, oh your icon is practically perfect on every level =) Apparently a combination of ironing, drying outside, and/or rolling after taking down is the way to go. Ah for those days of bouncy soft towels *sigh*

[lonelybrit]

Excellent, so the next time we get a sunny weekend I can put the clothes out and lounge on the grass with a book on the grounds of having to guard the lines from the local pigeon population, sounds good :)

[anyasbuttmonkey.livejournal.com]

Feel glad it's just pigeons - in Bournemouth, we get seagulls too!

[lonelybrit]

It looks like the towels will be the weekend wash then as I'm out during weekday daylight hours. But it's good to know there is hope at the end of the sandpaper-y scratch-y towel-y tunnel :) I have noticed that the shirts I've had to iron come out better for being ironed - with the exception of the linen ones which stubbornly remain like cardboard no matter what I do to them, evil f**kers.

Hehe, and yes, I know the feeling, why is there never a good housekeeping icon when you need it =)

[lonelybrit]

Eek, seagulls! Heh, I think the worst case we've had here wasn't from the birds but some massive bonfire in the nextdoor field which helpfully deposited ash and soot all over the gardens downwind. There were quite a few pissed-off housewives that day :)

[anyasbuttmonkey.livejournal.com]

massive bonfire in the nextdoor field

Nextdoor *field*?! Where the frak are you living, the Canadian tundra?!

[lonelybrit]

Nope just the friendly English countryside :) I'm listening to the owls at the moment, which is slightly more soothing than the combine harvesters that have been haring up and down the greenery around here. (Have I mentioned there's no mobile reception here? Also no TV reception unless you fix a satellite dish. Oh, and obviously there's no streetlights. Though actually we're only 20 minutes from a dual carriageway.) If you ever get bored, try multimapping PO18 9EZ, we are a bit in the back of beyond :)

[anyasbuttmonkey.livejournal.com]

I remember the no-telly thing from Sunday. I feel your pain - I only managed yesterday to get the Freeview working properly after THREE WEEKS :(

Multimap? GoogleMap is where it at, pet!

*googlemapsyou*

Jesus H! You really *are* in the backend of nowhere!

[esmerelda-t.livejournal.com]

We've always eiher hung clothes out to to dry, or when the weather doesnt permit that, which is often, we put them up on a clothes horse in the house. We use comfort fabric softener, and Ive never, ever experienced that happening to clothes.......maybe the air here's different?

[lonelybrit]

I'm beginning to wonder if it's also down to the water being very soft, hmm. The shop nearby sells Comfort so I'll be sure to try that one when the current bottle runs out. I also blame the bats, creatures that small cute and furry can't be completely harmless *nods*

[esmerelda-t.livejournal.com]

oh yea, Scottish water is much softer than South of England water, which explains it, I was sitting here completly baffled as to what the hell all of you were doing to your washing. :)

[lonelybrit]

Well supposedly our water is also very soft due to stuff being added to it, but I might try and reduce the amount of soap just in case. Hmm, most puzzling...