Sorry, I probably shouldn't have gone down this rabbit hole.

I keep my hands and kitchen comfortably clean but definitely not disinfected; we drink raw milk and eat food past its expirey date; pick carrots out of the ground, wipe them on our jeans, and pop them in our mouths; and the one and only time I've ever used the sanitize feature on my d/w was to clean some very dirty canning jars that came straight out of someone's crawlspace. Our eggs are stored on my counter. Keeping raw meat away from other foods is thankfully common practice now including in my kitchen.

Basic hygiene is very important and saves lives; compulsive attempts to kill the microbiome is not and endangers our health. That is being recognized more and more. I'll keep cooking with my hands and I won't spend all day in latex gloves. It is totally unnecessary in a household setting.

@lindsey The only time I use gloves is when dealing with paint, diesel, gasoline, oils (farm stuff), pulling sticker plants or poisonous ones or I'm cutting up jalopenos or serranos chilis especially if fresh from my garden. :)

@celestinea 89, My mom hated hand-washing dishes. In the 1950's my dad bought her one of the first dishwashers in our neighborhood. It was a countertop height, top-loading machine made basically like a clothes washer, but with a stationary drum and a center agitator. Dish racks lined the walls of the drum, and the center agitator spun around and sprayed soap and scalding hot water on the dishes. I remember standing on a chair and leaning across the dishwasher rim on my belly to reach down inside the machine for plates on the lowest rack.

When we camped, we used a method very similar to one you described in your email: After eating, we would scrape our metal plates, cups, cutlery and cookware. Then we washed them with soap in a plastic wash basin. Next, we loaded all the dishes, etc into "dunk bags" which she had made by sewing together unused dish clothes and making a gathered top which could be pulled closed with a cord. Once the dunk bags were loaded, and closed, they would be dropped into a kettle of boiling water. (with each bag's cord held up by a long metal rod laid across the top of the kettle. After a specified time (I was kid, I didn't pay attention how long, but my mom knew) she would pull up the bags, shake out the water, then hang them on a line to dry. (sometimes, depending on the weather, we opened the bags and dried them with a cloth.)

By the time I was married, I had hardly ever hand washed a dish. My husband's mother was of the "no machine can clean dishes as well as I can" school. She passed that on to him. Our house, which he bought new before we married, came with an under-counter dishwasher. I don't think it was used much until after I moved in. When the original machine broke, he didn't want to replace it. This happened right after our son was born. After a few months of boiling and sterilizing baby bottles, he relented, and we got a new, top-of-the-line Kitchenaid dishwasher. It was one of their very first models with digital controls and was plagued with control panel problems. We replaced it twelve years later with a Bosch which he picked out himself.

Peculiar, but those "boil-in bags" probably kept your mom's family well through those germy little kid years. Good Mom!!! A friend and I share health dept food alerts in email and voluntary recall notices -- so many every day all across the nation! Not just ecoli, but varmints and dozens of allergens (mostly dairy and nuts). We must be a hardy population, there are so many pitfalls and germs just waiting out there to get us . . . not at your house or mine, of course. I just bought a Bosch, too, for my condo! It was good looking, SANITIZES, sleeping baby QUIET, offered for a deep discount and was neatly installed and working inside an hour!!! My previous d'washer had to be 25 years old . . . and I just didn't trust what it was doing inside with all that racket!!!

@Janet Hicks: Your mother's experiences were basically identical to mine. When the folks remodeled, the dishwasher was the first thing on the list wanted. My grandmother hated the idea. She always said something like no machine can clean like a good basin of soapy hot water with a good rinse and air dry. Two entirely different generations. No real arguments though even with the dishwasher. LOL

As an adult used a dishwasher once. I had one in a townhome I purchased in a city. It took me a week to fill it up - used all my dishes, glasses, pots/pans. Gave up on it as I wasn't impressed with how it worked and it was easier to wash my own few dishes - and faster. Got married and continued to wash dishes. My late hubby also washed dishes, so we matched well. LOL

As for camping, everyone I knew who hiked and camped in the '60s on up always boiled water for sanitation. Including the Sierra Club outings I took. Even caught my own fish for breakfast aka rainbow trout in the Rockies. In other areas, my friends and I did the dried food thang and added water for a meal. When we found edible foods (mostly berries and mushrooms) along the way, we added them. And sometimes were were lucky fishing in some lake or stream. But we always boiled water to drink as well as clean our small pots and a folding pan we used to make meals as well as soups and so on. No one ever got sick. Those were my backpacking days - carry in - carry out. Some hikes lasted a week or two, others lasted up to about a month. And I always went very light! LOL

I now use a "Grayl" for water these past 8 years when I travel. I still hike in various places but take the easy route now instead of the harder one. LOL

I grew up without a dishwasher. Only got one after I got married and 4 years after buying our first house. It was a top of the line machine, quiet, with a food particle disposal system, electronic controls, sanitize cycle and all the bells and whistles. It was also very expensive at $700 CAD in 1985.

A year later we sold that house and the dishwasher stayed there.

For the next house we bought in 1986 (where we still live now) we bought a much cheaper dishwasher (about half the price), noisier and without a food particle disposal, but quite good otherwise. This latter feature I missed the most. It survived for 30 years. It's been about a year now we are without dishwasher and I rather miss it. It's just 2 of us now and my husband isn't keen on buying a new dishwasher, saying he'll gladly do the dishes. Except he doesn't do them graciously or in a timely manner, so I end up doing quite a bit myself.

I am absolutely planning to get a new dishwasher but am a bit blocked by the uncertainty of whether or not we'll be remodeling the kitchen any time soon, something hubby isn't keen on either LOL

Little does he know what plans I'm concocting for in and out of the house ;)

GOOD GIRL!!! In another 50 years, you'll have that wonderful guy in great shape!

@los6tkayaker - That sounds like fun. How close are you to a river, preferably one with some large flat stones on its bank?

@lostkayaker, isn't it dangerous to dig so deep when you're so near a major body of water? Your basement could end up below the level of the lake and then it would be in danger of being infiltrated.

@lostkayaker - Traditional style outdoor laundry on the rocky shores of Lake Superior would be brutal. (grin) No wonder your wife wants to add a basement.

@lostkayaker: Basements are below a home - all or part. What you are describing is an additional room to be built on the side of your house. It will probably not be a cellar or basement below ground, but an additional entry to the house - sorta like a closed in porch/deck.

Now this makes sense :)

I so enjoy all these exchanges -- so many experiences, suggestions and points of view!!! If we live long enough,* we'll see developers, home designers/architects and the furniture and equipment industries actually asking us and paying attention to what our needs and wants are. Well, here it is Monday, my traditional laundry day. Gotta go attack last week's accumulation of laundry -- shussing my very efficient, quiet, 2-year-old washer-on-wheels out of the "L" that some anonymous, mid-century designer figured we'd use as a dining room, through my impossibly narrow condo kitchen with a generous half-inch clearance on either side, past my wonderful new silent dishwasher, to the sink hookup, for a few enjoyable hours' of cleansing fabric care. Downstairs on the first floor of my high-rise condo, there's a perfectly functional, spacious, well-maintained laundry room that I could get to if I wanted to haul my assembly of dirty clothes and linens down the hall, through one of our 4 elevators (sometimes shared with neighbors appropriately dressed for work or in formal clothes on their way to the opera or dinner/theatre, etc.). I've always had laundry machines, side-by-sides or up-and-down stackers, both full and apartment size, in my own larger unit in other buildings, but now, in smaller digs, I make do. Living in a cosmopolitan, tightly packed, nearly 500-unit building, and considering the very real specter of, dare I say, bedbugs? (now rampant in our DDT-free environment), I happily sacrifice my dining "L" to serve as my laundry parking lot. As to the choice for a laundry in an inconvenient garage or inconvenient basement, I'm looking to my nearly 5-year-old great-granddaughter* to pursue a career in architecture to figure it all out.

I can't believe they make the new top loaders with no agitators anymore, they certainly do not seem suitable for a family with growing children. I really like the front loaders because they seem like they clean the best because they can break down the dirt, mud, grass stains (I have 2 boys) much better with the churning. Maybe the ones without agitators are for people who have a lot of really nice designer clothing?

My son got one of those with no agitator in the hope he could more easily wash his hockey equipment which only fits in a very large washer and has to let the agitator go through its middle. It worked for that OK, but generally the washer wore out quickly and barely a month after the 2-year warranty expired it also expired.

Our first home had an extension added from the previous owners it was so slim I could not fit through it pregnant! The water heater was all the way on the other side and we had no other option but to get stacked washer and dryer and my husband thankfully installed a slide door.

But now that we are where we are going to stay I really want something nice this time because my laundry room is also the mud room to the back door here so hopefully I can finish it soon but we finally got some nice front loaders!

Webada, see and that is what they told us when we were shopping around that those without agitators were suppose to be able to handle large loads, but I passed even for my family of 5.

Neither!!!

@Mon,

My son got that one because it was big and with no agitator, else he'd have continued to come to our house to wash his hockey gear in outr big washer with agitator. I was always scared it would break down when he put those huge shells of hockey pants on top of the agitator.

My 2 y/o GE washer has no agitator -- I missed it at first, but the tub has fins that really move the water. The top of the machine is clear so I can watch what's going on in there, a good idea! Gotta say I'm not convinced that my deep narrow (full size) tub holds as much as the parade of agitator machines I've grown old with. Crowding a load wears out linens -- I can comfortably do a set of full-size bed sheets okay, but I change pillow cases every other day, so I end up putting them all in their own load. I know that front loader machines use less water, which is the reason they were designed years ago. I'm thinking that it'd be terrific if manufacturers would put out literature that would help us made intelligent decisions about such important purchases. Who'da thunk a simple question of laundry placement in the home would bring out so many comments? How smart we all are!!!

My husband doesn't understand why in the world I want a clothes line so bad, but everybody says how your clothes smell so much fresher this way, that is something very important to me. Something about the process just seems like it would add a bit of comfort in life, taking time to hang dry some laundry out in the crisp sunshine sometimes as opposed to the rush of in and out of the machines. We've always had a dishwasher but I do them by hand on occasion, it always reminds me of my grandma, with her apron, they got her a dishwasher but by then she was in her 60's and never used it, she was in the kitchen all day with her soapy water always filled and fresh dough always prepared for fresh tortillas for my grandpa with his stove top coffee from the percolator! My husband loves his coffee from the percolator so we got one to use it when he is home in the mornings on the weekends.

If you hang them outside any more you get pollutants in the air plus pollen!

also dry hard compared to dryer! Just my opinion.... Bonnie

@Mon, I remember some years ago going to the Caribbean where we have relatives. I did my laundry there and hung it out to dry. I wasn't aware that their house was downwind from a poultry plant and the plant would release a lot of smell at night. Or the wind blew that way at night.

The next day my clean clothes stank of poultry stench. My sister in law told me too late that I should have done my laundry in the morning and hang stuff out then, so the nightly stench wouldn't get to it. Duh!

They don't have dryers because 1) electricity is expensive 2) houses are not wired for this much electrical load and 3) it's always hot and sunny so drying on the line is sort of natural. Except when there's a poultry plant nearby ....

Since I moved to the US in 88 I had a dryer and quite honestly I hated it. Back home in England my mum and gran always hung our washing out and I certainly don't recall anything being hard. After my husband died 3 years ago and I moved to my new/old house last year I decided I would hang out my washing on the line that was already there and I love doing it. I have no problems with it being hard, even towels, when I bring it indoors. I have not got around to buying a dryer and probably won't. I love being able to save on electricity too especially being on SS.

Maybe it's something they are putting in the chemicals nowadays causing the fabric hardness, or the machines not rinsing properly, the industry really needs to address that! When my old dryer broke before I had to hang dry laundry inside, awful crunchy towels, ouch! I would really like to line dry sometimes without the fear of that happening.

No, I remember from my childhood that in order clothes, towels, sheets to be soft Mom had to iron everything. We didn't even have a washing machine until I was well into my teens, so she'd handwash clothes and bois sheets and towels in big vats with washing soda and rinse in multiple basinfuls of water. Wringing was difficult but that where dad came in/ Drying was outside on a line. She had to iron everything else it would be rough and misshapen.

Ironing is absolutely not something I want to do for linen, towels and such. Ok for a cotton or silk shirt, but not a cotton t-shirt or jeans.

What I learned in my textiles classes is that we just plain use too much detergent and the detergent companies tell us to do that. One test that a consumer goods reporter once said was to run all of your laundry through at least one or two cycles per month with no added detergent. If you have the patience to stand and watch the rinse water you'll see suds come out. If you've got the glass-lid washer you'll see it. I have done it and yes, even though I hardly use any detergent since we're all adults here in my house and we really don't get dirty, I saw suds. With the dish cloths and towels it's the same. My dishcloths are absorbing the dish liquid. Why add more detergent? Just wash in hot water and they're clean.

Susan Schutz is right - people tend to use more detergent than necessary. You can cut back to half or even to 1/4 of amount of detergent listed in the directions. Many people eyeball or guess what the amount is. It ends up being too much. That alone will not really clean laundry, nor allow it to dry and soften.

1. Use white vinegar in the rinse cycle to soften. Even if you air dry outside, it will soften laundry.

2. Throw in a clean tennie shoe in the dryer instead of more chemical softener "rags" you spend money on.

3. Front end loaders clean nicely as long as you don't overload or put in extra detergent.

4. Top loader non-agitators clean well, too. Cut back on detergent and for really soiled clothing, try to add a bit of borax. It works for me and I do laundry for horses and dogs, too. Trust me, they are filthy.

5. Pre-treat laundry if you need to do so, even if it's an old stain. Try a paste of 1 tbsp baking soda, 4 tbsp of soap (I use castile), 8 Tbsp hydrogen peroxide. Apply to stain, rub gently with finger, clean fabric or old toothbrush (soft). Let it sit for about 15 minutes to an hour depending on how bad the stain is. Wash. Cost is about 10 cents.

Other things you can use for stain removers include oxygen bleach (more expensive than hydrogen peroxide), lemon juice, Fels Naptha if you are old school, baking soda, white vinegar and the sun. Experiment with combinations.

Going over my stain removing recipes I keep in a 2 x 5 card box - here are some specifics:

1. Paint or ink: soak rubbing alcohol for 30-40 minutes

2. Tea stains (works on coffee too): pour boiling water over it until it's gone. If already set - use past of borax and water - scrub and wash.

3. Grass/mud (lots of this on the ranch!): castile or 50/50 water/hyrdogen peroxide - scrub

4. Tomato: white vinegar on stain - wash

5. Old sweat stains, dingy whites: soak mix 50/50 hydrogen peroxide & water- 30 minutes, add 1 cup hydrogen peroxide in wash. Tougher older stuff - past of 3% hydrogen peroxide & baking soda - rub into stain - leave for 5-10 min. Wash. Can also use sun to help.

6. Grease/oil stuff (yeah, the ranch again): sprinkle with baking soda that absorbs oil/grease. Brush off loose stuff. Then soak in straight white vinegar for 16 - 20 minutes - rinse and scrub with soap of choice (Fels Naptha, Dish soap, castile) then wash.

If you want to go get a stronger product. I use Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds - 1/4 cup with 1&3/4 cup water in a spray bottle. I get my Sal Suds in a dollar store.

I have a top loader with no agitator and it does the job. I hang wash outside on sunny days - no problems - smells nice and really isn't stiff since I use white vinegar in final rinse cycle. With a dryer, I throw in a couple old soft balls. Does the trick nicely. I've seen dryer balls on the market in dollar stores but never spent the money because I had these soft balls around.

In my neck of the woods (Houston) there aren't really basements. This is due to a number of factors, not the least of which is the fact that the city is built on a swamp.

But I'm familiar with other areas that have basements. I would just think having the laundry room in the basement would be a pain in the neck. Carrying loads down and up and then up ANOTHER level if its a two story house. Seems like it might be cool designwise but would become a pain practically. At least if you're naturally lazy like me. :)

I stopped using powder detergent many years ago and switched to liquid. Then a couple of years ago I switched to those little bubbles of liquid detergent (pods??) and always use just one per load and I do big loads, since the washer is very large. I always use a double rinse setting. But then we don't have a meter for water, it's a flat annual tax of $200 per house (higher if you have a pool). It's very humid in Montreal, a lot of rain and snow, so water shortage doesn't happen unless the city discovers a problem with either the filtration plant or leaky pipes so they lose 80% of the treated water and then they issue an order to cut back on unnecessary water consumption like lawn watering or washing cars. With all the rain we have we have no need to water the lawn and car washing is a very rare event. I usually go to a hand-car-wash about once per month in the summer, where they do a very good job including cleaning the interior.

GREAT IDEA!!! I use 1 T of washing soda (borax), no soap, in each load and it works!!! Mother would have been 106 this year. I can still hear her saying, "You don't know how easy you have it." I still have a small crackled B&W photo of her mom as a young farm woman in bib overalls standing beside an outdoor washtub on legs with a modern built-in scrub board on a sunny day in 1911 Colorado. Her strong soapy hand shaded her eyes as she looked at the camera and into the future . . .

I got through one baby washing cloth diapers and hanging them dry, was forced to get a dryer for the second one. Borax kept the diapers white and soft but might have contributed to them wearing out after 3.5 years of use. Maybe I should try it on my laundry?

Current setup is close to ideal for hanging laundry, I walk through kitchen door into the garage where washer is then walk out the side door to the clothesline. Previous house not so much. Washer in garage, out to front door, through house and to backyard.

I love hanging laundry. To add to the cons, rain. To add to the pluses, no more laundry mountain as you have a limited number of loads you can do a day. This winter it's been scary how dry some days have been, wash has dried in 2 hours, perhaps I could have done 3 loads on those horrible days. Some areas forbid hanging laundry as well.

Stinky laundry would be low on the list of my issues living downwind from a poultry processing plant.

THANKS, KATHY -- I'll bet my washing soda is the reason my "best quality" crisp white cotton sheets and p'cases wear out so fast! My whites are really white!!! I leave lots of room and don't overload the machine. For light soil loads, I can choose a fast wash cycle that really saves time. In Florida, many decades ago, mother siphoned the washer's rinse water onto the lawn. Were we the only family with a clothes line that was neatly camouflaged up under our patio table's square umbrella? Goofy to picture today, but it worked back then. I'm thinking that using rinse water twice was the reason there were double tubs where they had basements. Makes sense . . . in those days, with wringer washers, laundry demanded a lot of "hands on" attention, still way better than my Colorado granma's outdoor boiler and washboard. I just ordered a new set of sheets and extra pillow cases -- I'll keep track of how long they last using soap pods rather than washing soda. Thanks again! PS: I'll bet we'll live long enough to regret we'd been so careless with our use of clean, fresh water!

@cdeblakke - Another place to find water for the lawn is water condensed by air conditioning units. The exit hose for our central air cracked, and for a couple of days, we collected the water in a 40 gallon plastic trash can which we had just bought.

Our AC runs day & night in DC's humid summer heat. We were filling the 40 gallon container with water in less than a day. After two of us struggling to empty that much water all at once, we started emptying the can 2 to 3 times a day so it wouldn't be so heavy.

Many jurisdictions don't allow AC condensation to be spilled into the household sewer. It usually gets vented into storm drainage. In my opinion, that's a big waste of water. It could easily be saved in a cistern and used for gardens and car washing.

What about a siphon hose for the air conditioner water? I have a 180 gallon aquarium and dump water changes in the garden. The 1/2" hose takes 30 minutes or so with only about a 3' drop. I wouldn't have so large a tank without one.

Oo, scary about the sheets. I've worn out sateen but usually get rid of percale because I'm tired of the pattern.

Borax: Borax is sodium tetraborate - a boron mineral and salt. It is mined from the ground and it is ALKALINE. It is NOT boric acid. It is sometimes listed as sodium borate which is not really correct. It should be listed as sodium tetraborate.

Boric acid is produced when borax is reacted with an acid such as hydrochloric or sulfuric. It becomes an ACID rather than an ALKALINE. Boric acid and Borax can be mined together, especially in volcanic areas. Both are naturally found as compounds in seawater. Make sure the label of your borax reads "sodium tetraborate" or "anhydrous pure powdered sodium borate with no additives or preservatives."

If it just says borax, it could be partly boric acid which will in time cause wear of materials faster than normal. Make sure you store it in a resealable bag or container to preserve freshness. Keep away from light, heat and humidity for longer shelf life.

Borax is neither safe nor toxic. There are very few concerns about major damage unless consumed in high quantities according to TOXNET studies on NIH. According to Material Safety Data Sheet, borax is listed as health hazard #1 which is the same as baking soda and salt.

FDA did ban borax as food additive and European Chemicals Agency has it listed a high concern do to ongoing debate if excess boron in the soil harms crops. Borax is classified as non-carcinogenic and a mild skin irritant probably due to the high alkalinity just as excessive baking soda would cause irritation.

Yet boron is an essential mineral the body needs for immune & brain function and bone building. Plants require it to grow. As with anything else, it's good in small moderation - just like salt.

As to cotton sheets wearing out due to borax - I use borax if I need to due to stains. My cotton (egyptian, prima, supima - long fiber) sheets are 10 years old and except for a couple small holes one of my dogs made on the pillow case, they are going strong.

Sateen sheets have a higher portion of vertical threads. Although soft, the finish is more apt to pill and tear or wear than plain weave - such as percale. Most all sheets are finished with chemicals including chlorine, formalidehyde and silicon to keep them from shrinking, sloing their shape and wrinkling. Treated with alkalis will produce a sheen. Dyes, patterns and colours applied after the sheets are woven can effect the fabric. Better sheets are ones woven from coloured yarns.

High thread counts doesn't always mean a better or softer sheet. They are more expensive and tend to wear a lot faster. And some have multi - ply yarns which are cheaper but boost up the thread count. The sheets also won't last.

There are a number of reasons why cotton sheets don't last. #1 buying the wrong type - make sure it's 100% cotton and not a blend. Woven sheets are better than knitted. If you must have a thread count - anywhere between 200-800 works nicely. Mine are about 300-400. As to finishes - that's a personal choice. I prefer non-chemical.

#2 - how the sheet is washed and dried. Too much detergent or booster will wear a sheet out faster. Drying should be on moderate temperature, not high which will also wear out the sheet. Washing a sheet in the wrong temperature will also affect the life of a cotton sheet.

#3 - Do you read labels? If not, you should. The manufacturers will state how to wash and dry your sheet for maximum benefit.

#4 - And as I stated, overuse of detergents, even additives will shorten the life of many fabrics. Moderation is the key. Detergents: cut in half the amount used. Softeners will kill many fabrics in time, too. Moderation is the key.

Whichever has the fewest steps and is closest to the bedrooms.

I have spent the winter doing laundry in the garage of our temporary home. Hard to keep area clean to protect dropped laundry. Needed to put on a jacket to check on the dryer. No sink nearby. I can hardly wait to move back to my house with a proper laundry room.

We've come to think of laundry as a chore we're stuck with. Could laundry time be time for ourselves. Not every home has room or water connections to remove our laundry from the rest of the place, but look at the picture at the top of this bog . . . efficient and attractive . . . how special! Time's long gone for this important part of life to be stuck in the least welcoming part of our homes. Architects and builders need a heads up -- don't we need a bright, attractive, multi-use laundry room? And why aren't there laundry machines with remotes? At a glance, your remote could tell you how much longer until a load is finished, it could add another rinse before the final spin and change the heat temp to higher or cool down -- you could add more minutes to the dryer on a different temp and cut down on most of the running and checking. It also could add at least $250 to the purchase price, until the laundry industry catches up with technology . . . hint-hint-hint.

@cedblake: Why do you think laundry is a chore unless you think it is? It is a routine task just like cooking dinner or dusting or any other routine household item. Anyone can do it. Male, female, adult, teen. - so why the negative?

I don't consider any "chore" to be negative. To me it's positive to have clean clothes and fresh clean sheets to sleep on, fresh clean towels to dry myself after a bath or shower. How can that be negative?

Do you really need an architect or builder to make an area or room "bright and attractive"? A trip to a box store, selection of a fav colour, perhaps a change of lighting from incandescent to fun LED will make things brighter for you.

Do you really need a smart laundry machine? Don't you know your own machine based on what setting you chose? I know if I do a normal setting, it'll take 46 minutes with the final rinse about 38 minutes. I do have a watch.

And yes, anything that goes smart - $250.00 additional price is for a cheap smart machine because there is a whole lot more that goes on to make a machine smart. Then there is the higher costs of getting someone knowledgeable to fix it when something ain't so smart anymore. :)

If laundry is a negative chore - take a break. Ask someone else in the household to do it for a week. Let go for a bit. And go down to your box store and pick up a can of paint.

As for me, I look forward to doing my farm wash and mine. I like clean fresh clothes and my horses feel good with a clean blanket on instead of one with stickers and twigs when I put the saddle on top.

I was speaking figuratively . . . read some of the preceding comments -- most are negative. Doing my laundry is my new hobby; I enjoy it, but most don't. I live alone and have only my needs to see to. I've been retired for eons, so I have the time for every little thing. But, I can see there's improvement needed to help mostly women out of the doldrums of housework and home chores. I have a feeling that if more of us had the open life of a farm and the companionship of horses, we'd be kinder, more philosophical beings -- and the laundry could wait till the cows came home.

Of all the chores, laundry I really don't mind. I even don't mind folding (except for fitted sheets LOL).

Cooking however is most annoying for me followed by washing dishes (pots and pans would still need to be washed by hand even when you have a dishwasher which I don't).

Doing the groceries is somewhere in between. Not the actual going to the store and buying of things, but carrying them to my car pushing the cart through snow or rain. Loading the car and unloading at home and putting everything away....

Because I hate doing groceries I go as rarely as possible and then I buy loads of stuff and then it's even harder to carry... a vicious circle LOL

Luckily I have been banned by hubby from doing the groceries (seems I buy too much!) so mostly he does it. Not always all I want and need ... But I'm stuck with unloading and putting away ... Can't have everything ;) Fortunately he also cooks most of the time :)

I'll admit I'm a little territorial of my laundry and some other household to dos (husband makes the bed, the horror) and although the tasks are something I don't really mind, when I can take my time. But nowadays you have the ability for these giant loads so you end up really needing the time to fold the massive load and get it all just right, I think before they really had to focus on one article at a time wash, hang dry, iron, fold.

I really appreciate my very large capacity washer and dryer. I can get most washing done in one load (unless I have to separate whites from dark colors specifically). Most of the time the laundry gets done in 1.5 hours (wash + dry). Much better than when we had a regular size washer which required 2-3 loads every time. That was a 5 hour+ project.

We currently have our laundry in the garage and I despise it. The garage gets dirty almost defeating the purpose of clean laundry, it's too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter.

MEL, just before you fall asleep, spend a few seconds rethinking your living space. I live in a one BR condo designed by some myopic architect from a distant century. I repurposed my dining area to become my laundry. I kissed the dining area goodbye and put in a stationary dryer + a washer on a wheeled platform to shimmy it over to kitchen sink through my impossibly narrow joke kitchen (1/2" on either side). I researched the best lint filter I could find for the ventless dryer and the easily-moved wheeled cart for under the washer. I bought a decorative screen (forest painting) to camouflage the full size machines. What a pleasure to do laundry when I feel like it, in the comfort of my home, not outside in the heap every garage is doomed to evolve into -- too hot or too cold (or dirty). Think about saving up for a full-size stacking W/D if you have room in the kitchen. Move your stove or fridge to somewhere else to accommodate the machines. I expect it'll take another 500 years before home designers figure out HOW WE ACTUALLY LIVE and adjust their layouts (that only work in brochures and magazines). All best.

Cdeblake it sounds more like your dining room became the storage room for your washer and dryer and not exactly a laundry room.

SO true, mamapinky0 . . . I'm 80, long-retired, live alone with a cute little dog in a 500-unit apartment building designed and built as an affordable, attractive state-of-the-art mid-century modern building with a great views of the river, a charming park and a picturesque marina right our my 35' wall of glass -- rare in a major metro city. My entertaining (cooking and dining in) days are happily behind me. I treat when I take younger friends out for dinner. I've had time to figure out what I need most to comfortably live well into the rest of this century. It wasn't a snap decision to sacrifice my dining room for in house laundry facilities. Otherwise, I'd be hauling soiled linens and dirty clothes through the halls, down elevators and then more halls to get to the clean, well-equipped laundry on the first floor. Whoever designed this place did a good job for the times, but . . . well, we adjust as we mature. Newer apartments have such great amenities -- walk in closets, walk in showers, on site storage, laundry, etc, but oh, the costs. I'm good here, in my make-do palace.