Mucky Mold

Let’s talk about mold for a moment.

When we moved into our apartment, it was clear that the previous tenants had no idea how to take care of a front-loading washer. The interior smelled horrible, and the rubber gasket was black with mold. Even after cleaning it thoroughly (Good Housekeeping has an excellent how-to guide), the smell remained until we replaced the gasket completely. Now we have no problem with mold or smell, as long as we run a cleaning cycle monthly (and wash out the detergent drawer), wipe the gasket dry after each session, and leave the front door open almost all of the time. (We closed it when we were fostering kittens, and when company is here.)

A lot of people don’t seem to know how these simple steps keep your washer clean, and instead use scented detergent products.

In the detergent drawer:
The little tab in the back is for liquid detergent
Left is for detergent, bleach, and stain removers
Center is for fabric softener
Right is for pre-wash detergent

So Many Settings

There are SO MANY different settings on a typical EU washer. And it is completely normal and deeply un-intuitive for a wash cycle to run 2.5-3 hours, which is typically a pre-wash, main wash, and three rinses. The clothes spend a longer time tumbling in the water which means you can use a fairly gentle cycle and your clothes will get clean.

We have a Bosch machine, so most of our settings should be similar to what other EU brands show. Fingers crossed!

Around the dial, starting at 1 o’clock:
Resistentes/ Algod. — Cottons, 90°C, hottest water, duration of 2:12h
Color eco/ Cor eco — Cottons, 60°C, hot water, duration of 2:15h
Sinteticos — Easy care textiles, like polyesters, 60°C, duration of 1:12h
Mix — mixed textiles, 40°C, duration of 2:12
Delicado/ Seda — Delicates, like silk, 40°C, duration of 0:40h
An image of a basin full of water — extra rinse setting, with spin
Centrif. adicional with an image of a spiral — a gentle spin, 0:12h
An image of a basin with an arrow going down — water will drain, but there won’t be a spin
Lana/ La with an image of a basin with a ball of yarn in it — wool, 20°C, coldest temperature, a particularly gentle cycle with fabric resting in water for longest periods with no agitation, duration of 0:36h
Ropa oscura/ Roupa escura — dark textiles, 40°C
Power wash 60′ — 60°C, for cottons or cotton-blends, shorter cycle (60 minutes)
Rapido 15′ — Super quick cycle, 40°C (15 minutes)
Sport with an image of a Tshirt with a 9 — textiles made of microfibers, 40°C
Clinic Wash with an image of a plus in a square — 60°C, for especially sensitive skin, includes increased water level, additional rinse cycle, and extended washing time

Additional Functions:
An image of a Tshirt — Wash Plus, extends the washing time
Prelav. — Prewash, adds a cold water rinse and spin before the regular cycle
Facil with an image of an iron — Reduced Ironing, adds a spin cycle with subsequent fluffing and higher moisture to reduce wrinkles if removed promptly
Skin Care — Aqua Plus, adds increased water level, additional rinse cycle, and extended washing time

Option Buttons
(Thermometer) Temperature — ranging from a snowflake (cold) to 90°C,
(Clock) Time — Cycle will complete in X minutes.
(Spiral) Spin — Select spin speed. (Some cycles have pre-programmed spin times)

Mais Simbols!

In the previous post there was an image of basins with numbers, dots, and lines. All of those change how the garment needs to be cared for, and its pretty logical once you know how it was put together. These are found in the garment itself.

Here’s a better version.

The numbers refer to optimum water temperature (go colder rather than hotter, if in doubt). If there are dots instead of numbers, one dot means cold water (20°C to 30°C), two dots mean warm water (40°C to 60°C), and three dots mean hot water (90°C or more).

Lines below the basin indicate which washing machine cycle to use. One line indicates a normal wash cycle. Two lines indicates the need for a gentle cycle.

Here’s a good chart of laundry symbols:

So, in the above image, we see that this item is best washed normally in hot water (60°C), no bleach (the crossed out triangle), tumble dry medium, and to not iron or dry clean.

I hope this is useful!

A few notes about laundry in general:

• Most washers are eco-conscious and front loading.
• Wash cycles can take hours.
• There is rarely a powered dryer.
• Mold is a big issue.
• Doing a smaller load is important.

Funny thing: most (all?) detergents and laundry products don’t come with a measuring cup, which is universal in the US. Look for the cups in the laundry aisle. Having everything in another language just adds a level of complexity to a much-needed household activity.

Water Temperature

The higher the temperature, the most expensive a load of laundry will be, but not all fabrics tolerate the same temperatures — high and low.

Since 2013, all washers must have a 20°C (68°F) cycle, to help save energy. This setting is best for very lightly soiled garments that may just need freshening up or very delicate items like silk, dresses, or bras.

• A 30°C (86°F) cycle preserves color and is good for a wide range of common fabrics. However, the detergent must be good to get the most cleaning.
• 40° (104°F) is better for everyday clothing and household linens. It is the best all around temperature and most modern detergents work well.
• Some like the 50°C (122°F) setting for removing stains from fabric that can withstand the higher heat.
• Running a cycle at 60°C (140°F) is good for killing bacteria on heavily soiled or sweaty items, like workout clothing. Some like it best for household linens like towels and bedlinens.
• Some machines have a 90°C (194°F) cycle, which I think is best for routine ‘maintenance washes’ on your machine. It might also brighten whites on fabric that can tolerate the heat.

Cold water (20°C or 30°C) is the best setting for dark or bright colored fabrics. There are some who say you need to use more detergent the lower the temperature, but modern detergents seem designed to work well at lower temperatures. If your clothing is regularly heavily soiled (such as when gardening or toddlers’ clothing) or sweat-stained, you might want to pre-soak the fabric to ensure the effectiveness when washing in cold water.

Warm water (40°C or 50°C) is usually the best setting for household linens as the increased temperature kills more bacteria and dust mites. If you wear a lot of white clothing, an occasional warm water wash can brighten them.

Hot water (60°C or more) is best for heavily soiled items, like diapers, or grease-stained fabrics. If the fabric can take it, you might want to run your towels and other household linens through a cycle once a quarter to refresh them.

Don’t know which temperature to use? Your garment will have a laundry label that can guide you. We’ll get to specific symbols a bit later.

Detergent

Let’s look at cleaning products.

Most of us probably grew up with powder detergents, and remember when there was a big push to get phosphates out of cleaning products because it was harmful to the environment (or was that just a US thing?).

Nowadays (and for several years), all detergents — liquid, powder, gel, capsule, and strip — are tested on the same variety of stains including grass, chocolate, soda, oil, red wine, and blood. They are also much more concentrated and designed to work effectively at lower temperatures. Capsules are convenient, no need to measure. Strips are the most environmentally effective.

A few chemicals to avoid are:
Benzaldehyde — Irritant
Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid — Reproductive and developmental effects found
Diethanolamine — Irritant
Quaternium-15 — Contains formaldehyde
Ethyl acetate — Neurotoxin
Petroleum distillates — Carciongen (also called naphthas)

Which means: use what you like.

For us, we use unscented strips that we buy in bulk in the U.S. (Tru Earth brand, to be specific). Strips are available in the EU, though not easily in Portugal. But most products here are scented and we really don’t like that at all. So we make an extra effort. As a bonus, the strips make laundry while traveling so much easier.

Size Matters

It turns out that keeping your loads on the smaller side makes a big difference in how clean your laundry gets — the detergent needs room to dissolve and the rinse water needs to get everywhere.

This has been a big adjustment for us. While we were only two humans back in the States, we regularly washed our dogs’ bedding and other household items to keep the cat hair minimized. We had big capacity machines in their very own room. The washer in our apartment is roughly half the size of what we used to have — a set of sheets fills it right to its capacity, and I would never wash our down comforter in it. Nor a pair of pillows.

To get an idea of washing machine capacity, think of it like this:

• 1 kg of capacity is equivalent to 5 t-shirts.
• 5 kg of capacity is enough for a set of bedsheets.
• 6kg would be 8 lightweight tops, 2 pr of trousers, and 10 pairs of socks, or a duvet cover.
• 7 kg is the right size for a set of towels for a family of 4.
• 9kg of capacity can wash a whole king size duvet and is the best option for large families.

Next week we’ll talk about dealing with mold and what the darn all of those symbols mean.

It’s the fifth day of our trip and you know what that means, right? Right? …. c’mon, at least guess? Fine, be that way. It’s laundry day! Long ago we decided that we would rather do laundry occasionally rather than haul large pieces of luggage over uncertain terrain. Actually, “long ago” makes it sound vaguely in the past. There’s nothing vague about it. It was December 30th, 2008, late in the evening, in Paris, France. We came up out of the subway stop, having used the train to get in to the city from the airport. It was freezing cold, slushy if not outright snowy, and we each had a giant duffel bag – they were so big that they had wheels and a retracting handle just like a classic roller bag. Just, you know, giant duffel size. We rolled those damned things over cobblestones, through the darkness, for what felt like an hour. And then and there, we swore we would do anything we could to avoid big luggage. It’s always a work in progress, but we try. So, anyway. Laundry day!

I mean, it’s not only laundry day. It didn’t take more than an hour to drop off the laundry, round trip, and wouldn’t have taken that long if google wasn’t drunk. Have we told you that google day-drinks? Stories for another time, probably. The pace of the day (i.e. we sleep in blessedly late right now) meant that after laundry the next order of business was lunch; hubba hubba.

We had a reservation at Casa Bleve, which Lisa had found on one of the many blogs she peruses during her travel research phase. Billed as a refined restaurant, the big draw for us (other than the food) was that it was in a 16th-century palazzo. It didn’t disappoint, providing not only excellent food in gorgeous surroundings, but fantastic people-watching all throughout our meal.

Overall, Casa Bleve’s menu is Italian, but they bring an interesting flavor profile that elevates every dish. We shared the burrata starter (of course it’s on the menu, right?). Here they source it from Puglia (instead of down the coast) and serve it with a fruit compote. Rich flavors, perfectly balanced. We practically licked the plate it was so good. That said, we were drawn to (but passed on) the roasted (sweet) red peppers are rolled with a pate made of tuna, anchovies, and capers. Other options were the catch of the day fish offered both as carpaccio and tartare and sea anchovies offered with sweet butter and toasted bread.

We then shared the tonnarello pasta with artichokes, pork cheek bacon, and Pecorino cheese. This dish was exquisitely prepared and perfectly delicious, the pasta having the perfect “bite” to it with a slight earthy umami from the artichoke offsetting the intense flavor of the bacon and cheese.

Our mains were the fish of the day with yellow tomatoes for John, and braised beef cheek with mashed potatoes for me. My beef cheek was meltingly tender and rich; his fish was perfectly cooked and the tomatoes were roasted just a bit, bringing out the best of their flavor here in the off season. We had just enough room to split a dessert of Millefeuille with vanilla cream and berries. The meal (appetizer, pasta, 2 mains, dessert, several bottles of water, bread service, and a bottle of wine) came to 151eu.

After lunch, we had a vague agenda of finding the reputed leather goods district of Rome, with a plan to meander there and catch random sights. In this case, the random sight to see was the Pantheon, which is a beautiful building just on the outside – which is good, because we realized we were a little low energy so we didn’t fight the crowds to go inside. Instead we made it to the “leather goods district” which, if we’re being honest (and why wouldn’t we?) was a huge disappointment. Maybe covid smacked the place around or something, but there were maybe four shops, three of which were clearly just reselling commercial merchandise; only one of them had any pretense of crafting their goods locally. We made a desultory purchase of a coin purse – brighter and bigger than John’s last two, so here’s hoping he doesn’t lose this one(!) – and then made our way back to our hotel. (For your reference, this is the article that led to us thinking it was such a great place. It’s not.) In our opinion, Massimmo’s in Florence is a MUCH MUCH better collection of leather, produced in Italy, with fantastic prices. (Here’s a link to the day we spent there.)

With our big fancy lunch we just made do with light snackage for dinner. John scooted back to the laundromat to get our suitcase full of clean clothes, and we got ourselves packed up for our travel day tomorrow. We wanted to hit the ground running in Venice, so we got ourselves all prepped and turned in for a good night’s sleep. Venice awaits!