It is a lovely afternoon and I have the washing line full of billowing clothes. I've been waiting for a dry day to get through lots of the washing. I tried to do some earlier in the week but the rain stopped me doing more than just the one load. I hate washing just hanging around in the house when there is no heat on. It doesn't dry quickly and then goes a bit smelly. Yuk! And I love the smell of sheets and towels that have been dried outside. And it is environmentally friendly too.

I've been trying to cut down on the amount of washing powder that I've been using. A friend had a problem with her washing machine and the repair man said that she was using too much powder. Our water here is very soft and he said we only needed to use a third to a half of what it said on the packet, depending on how dirty the clothes are. Now that is good news for the family coffers as well as for the environment. So I've cut back to between a quarter to a third of what it says on the pack and been careful about measuring the amount I use. One quarter for normal soil and one third for heavy soil. And the clothes are fine. So I'm happy.

I only use fabric conditioner if there are a lot of clothes in the load which are made of polyester. So a bottle of that lasts me for many months. Some of my more respectable clothes for work are polyester. I prefer cotton but it does crease and that is fine for eveything else but not for still looking smart at the end of a working day. But I will cut back a bit on the fabric conditioner and see how that works too.