How do you survive without a washer/dryer????

amother

Tue, Jun 05 2012, 4:58 pm

I dont mean to complain, BH for all the amazing things I do have, but how on earth do you survive without a w/d?? I am married almost 2 yrs already without one, but with a baby who throws up on a regular basis, its NO fun! Every night I if she vomits, I rinse her clothes, and hang them, then they are damp, sometimes mold, and have spots when I do wash them and I have to throw them out. Its getting really annoying:( Where I live we do have those machines with quarters in the basements but I cant bring myself to use them:( And we are not allowed to put in our own. So we do laundry about once a week by my mother in law, this past sunday I was there for 8 hours doing laundry!! Anyway, BH for all the good things in life, I just wish I had my own machines!!! How do you deal with this??

mommy24

Tue, Jun 05 2012, 5:18 pm

I know how you feel, we lived like that for 10 years, 5 kids. It was not easy, but I couldnot use public machines and we weren't allowed to put machines where we lived. BH we had family close by who was willing to help us. Like you, I spent one day a week doing laundry. I made sure htat kids had enough clothes to last the week. I would then spend the day by the house we did laundry at and had my babies play while I spent hte day doing laundry. MY biggest problem was the schlepping,I had to schlepp laundry and kids by myself. I was constantly losing stuff, and ppl would find it in the streets or left in the house only to be seen a few weeks later. At some point I gave up, and would do it over a few days, being by my parents house for a few hours everyother day. Truth is I was lucky, my mother would often help, she would come to my house at nite when she finished work, pick up the laundries, sort them, wash them, dry them, and then fold and re-sort and drop it off hte follwoing morning. I only had to do our personal laundry.

Is there any way for you to go through out the week? If you don't work, maybe 2 hrs during day, 3x a week?

Sorry I can't really give you any real advise, but you did make me realize that I really need to thank my mother for all those years of help.

mommy24

Tue, Jun 05 2012, 5:33 pm

maybe cuz its expensive and lots of ppl dont like to use public machines. If I was in her place I would wash the stuff that is soiled from vomit in the basement or at least dry it htere once I washed it in my bathroom, so she wouldn't need to keep throwing things out.

turca

Tue, Jun 05 2012, 5:59 pm

Before I got a w/d, I used to go to a public machine and I always did an empty cycle before washing my things. I used to go twice a week (I think I spent about $10 each time , it was some money and at that point I had nothing but it kept me sane) and I had one child at that point. She wasn't a spiter at all but when she got dirty I washed that spot in the sink and let it hang till I was able to get to the laundry place.

The Happy Wife

Tue, Jun 05 2012, 6:48 pm

I don't know where you're living, but see if there's a laundry service available near you. It may seem like a luxury but if you don't have a place you can easily do laundry, it's worth it. Maybe you could just do some laundry with a laundry service, enough to get by with until you go to your MIL.

mha3484

Tue, Jun 05 2012, 7:17 pm

For two years I did laundry at my dads apartment. He has a machine in his unit. I have no objection to public machines there just were not enough for the building. It was no biggie when pregnant and when ds was not mobile. It became a big hassle as DS got bigger. BH we moved and our apartment came with a washer in the basement. It is really a bracha.

Hashem_Yaazor

Tue, Jun 05 2012, 8:08 pm

For 7 years, with 4.5 kids, I shlepped every single Sunday to my in-laws (sans husband) and did all the laundry then, save for the last 2 years when I gave an additional laundry bag in the middle of the week for my mother in law to do of the kids' clothing because I just couldn't do 5 loads every week.

The worst part is needing to own so much clothing and needing to store so much clothing!!

We used the basement machines 2 or 3 times when my in-laws' machines were broken or we were snowed in. (I think once my in-laws picked up the laundry but I didn't give them my laundry to do because it was just too personal...)

If vomiting was happening that often, I'd either use the machines in the basement or see if you could do a mid-week load at your in-laws.

(((HUGS))) It's not easy. And that's an understatement Wink

People who knew me knew how crazy I went with my living situation at a certain point.

chocolate chips

Tue, Jun 05 2012, 9:03 pm

If you hang the stuff out to dry it should not go moldy!

I often hand wash in the sink, sometimes I soak ds dirty stuff in there for a few days at a time then rinse and hang, it really never goes moldy!

abby1776

Tue, Jun 05 2012, 9:05 pm

I think it depends where you live - whether things hung to dry get moldy. I never had a problem hanging things out to dry when I lived in Monsey, but in Baltimore - you hang things to dry and mold grows immeidatly.