Handwash clothes?

Question

I had a load of mine and my girlfriend's dirty laundry to do. I live with my family and my sister sleeps in the same room as the washer and dryer (odd, i know, but that's the space we have.) i come with the hamper and see the lights are off and the door is locked. i knock and she calls from her bed that shes sleeping. it is late. i go back and tell my girlfriend that i cant do laundry tonight. she says she needs her clothes for work and school. i offered to handwash them and hang them to dry. she said she was scared they would shrink. id never heard of that so i looked it up and couldn't find anything on it, as well as looking up all the things to be careful about when handwashing clothing. i told her i didn't think they would shrink and id be careful, and asked her what she needed washed. she got pretty upset and wouldn't give me any other explanation why i cant handwash she clothes. she still wants me to wake up my sister to do laundry, and wake her up again ever later to move the clothes from washer to dryer. i think my sister should be able to sleep and its not her fault she shares a room with the washer. what do i do? i dont understand why i cant handwash clothes. am i missing something?

? · Answer

Assuming the clothing is washable, you can get some Woolite and hand wash them in COLD water.
GENTLY wring out excess water and hang over a towel rack (or back of a chair if no place else.

No 24 hour laundrymats around you?

Clothes do not normally shrink unless they are tossed in a hot dryer or washed in hot water.

If they do, just tell her she is getting fat and needs to go on a diet! LOL

Poor planning on you and your G/F part. Always do laundry BEFORE you run out.
Here's a thought - just go out and buy her a new outfit.

Anonymous · Answer

you better do it before your family gets mad!!! I hope you got it done by now!!

Anonymous · Answer

Are you a slave? Didn't think so. If "dabitch" don't want to wash her stuff THAT IS HER PROBLEM (NOT YOURS) She can go to work naked. You don't care. In otherwords, get her asss out of bed and hand wash HER schit.

Sorry, been through a war, so she has no idea what "hard times" really was.

A Hunch · Answer

As the others have said, handwashing would result in less likely to shrink.

However, if your girlfriend needs them by tomorrow, they probably don't have time to dry.
Your girlfriend needs to plan better.
So tomorrow she will just have to wear dirty clothes or go to the laundromat herself ( you can go with her).

Karen L · Answer

If they don't shrink in a washing machine, they definitely won't shrink with handwashing.

Anonymous · Answer

No, handwashing clothes will not cause them to shrink. If anything, they're better off being hand-washed and line dried to prevent shrinkage. The dryer and the hot setting causes clothes to shrink. As for your situation, you guys will have to come up with other solutions for your laundry, especially your girlfriend. She should be grateful you've offered to hand wash her clothes.  If she needed her clothes for work and school, then she should have gone to a laundromat, or, she could have easily hand washed them herself.

drip · Answer

Hand washing clothes will not shrink them, unless they are dry clean only.
Hot water and hot tumbling dry clothes is what shrinks clothes.  Hot.

With your living arrangements you need to plan out when you wash your clothes. Your sister should have a cut off time for when others can be in her space to wash and dry clothes.

Anonymous · Answer

Hand washing would be less likely to cause shrinkage than machine washing, but it probably would not dry by the next day (synthetics which don't shrink dry faster than natural fibres that do). In this scenario the thing to do would be wear something else and then do the laundry at a time convenient to everyone.

Handwash clothes?

8 Answers