Washing and drying bed linens

Having been out of town for much of the past three weeks, I discovered that our laundry had really accumulated upon our return from Paris. Ah, welcome home. Still, how much laundry can two people really generate? Well, not that much, but remember that for me one load of laundry can take 3 hours to wash/dry, that the unit is a combo unit so I can’t multi-task by washing a load and drying a different load at the same time, and that the maximum washing load is about 10 pounds/maximum drying load is about 6 pounds. If you have been reading the blog, then you already know this.

No…today my tale moves to a different aspect of laundry…washing and drying the bedlinens. This should not even be a blog topic. However, I have learned to take nothing for granted, and this is one of those topics.

First, a little background: As you may not recall, Buddy and I were required to purchase a bed frame and mattress is Germany, as we did not take our own bed with us to Taiwan (so there was nothing to ship to Germany). Simply put, European beds are a different size, so the sheets we have from the US can not fit a German mattress. OK, that required the purchase of a new bed frame, mattress, and bedlinens (I’ll get to the issue of the mattress another time, but they have no box springs). Right now, we have the bed the equivalent size of something a little larger than a double bed but not as large as a queen size. So, to wash the linens, I have to break the sheets into two piles because the size of the washer/dryer can’t accommodate all the bedlinens in one load.

“Why don’t you just put them all in at one time anyway?” Several reasons but the two main ones are: (1) if the machine is too overloaded, it won’t work, and (2) the items in the machine will not wash and dry properly (i.e. damp linens, or worse yet, wet towels and sheets). So, you break it down into two loads. Time required: minimum 6 hours.

Again, you say “That should not be an issue.” Can’t you just put in a load of clothes, bedlinens, or towels, start the machine, go run some errands or hit a movie, and come back to take your dry items out of the washer/dryer? No, you can’t. Rationale: If you leave the items in even 5 minutes after the drying cycle finishes, they come out one wrinkled mess. I have tried different drying strategies, different washing and drying temperatures, reviewed the English operating manual that Buddy pulled off the internet, but we can’t seem to figure that out. For most items, you better get them out of the dryer quickly, and folded or hung on hangars ASAP.

So…now on to the bedlinens. Everywhere I look, bedlinens are made of 100% cotton. I love a good Egyptian cotton sheet, with a 300+ thread count. No cotton/polyester for me! They are scratchy, not soft, and are usually in some garish color or pattern (orange being a favorite of Germans I have noticed). With soft sheets, you pay the price! Upon removal from the dryer, I have never seen a more wrinkled set of linens in my life. I mean, they are beyond wrinkled. We have even tried to leave the linens a bit damp but they are still wrinkled. So, I am now pressing my sheets….and when I say sheets, I really mean a fitted sheet and a duvet cover because there is no such thing as a flat sheet in Continental Europe.

Welcome to my world….