In everyday life with my adolescent children I always feel transported back to when they were little. For example, they need to be fed again every two hours or they moan around all the time without saying specifically what they actually want. And there are always mountains of laundry in the bathroom, the washing machine and dryer are in use almost daily. There is no good reason for the latter – after all, they now go to the toilet and no longer constantly puke on their clothes.
So it’s time to re-educate my kids about washing – or at least give them something to think about. After all, according to Eva Geilinger, a specialist for energy-efficient appliances at the Federal Office of Energy, we waste more than half a kWh of energy for every unnecessary wash. And every wash where one of the two teens throws loose clothes in the machine because they absolutely have to wear them the next day or because they forgot they still need a clean black shirt, is not necessary.
I announce the new rules: Pants and sweaters are only thrown in the wash when they are dirty or sweaty. Anything that does not meet these criteria will not be washed. Individual washes are only possible in the most urgent cases and require my approval. (“Really? Do you want me to ask you when I do something around the house?” Yes, child, I never thought it possible either, but special situations call for special measures.)
It follows that a minimum of thinking is required: if you have to go to work in a black shirt on Monday, you will not wear your last clean black shirt to football the Sunday before.
It’s not quite going the way I imagined. The ban on one-on-one washing has given washing machines a kind of appeal – almost like smoking weed. I’ve come home more than once and the machine was running. Only hard measures can help: pocket money withheld if I catch someone. Suddenly it works. And suddenly child two only wears white shirts on Sundays.
For the second “project” I have to stick to my nose: according to the expert, the tumble dryer needs two to three kWh of energy to dry an eight kg load of laundry. My goal would be to run him only half as often as before. So laundry that I can hang outside to dry without going into crisis should go in every second wash cycle. The latter is especially true for socks and underpants, which I still tumble myself. The whole thing takes a bit of time – not just hanging the laundry, but sorting it beforehand – but it’s worth it. After failing the alcohol-technical Dry January, I’m well on my way to getting February dry in terms of my laundry drying energy balance. Another reason to be proud of me.
When it comes to showering, the recommended temperature is around 37 degrees, ie body temperature. And the duration: “The shorter, the better,” says Lukas Trümpi, construction specialist at the Bundesamt für Energie. It’s also worth turning off the shower while washing your hair. Well, I don’t have the time or inclination to check what temperature and how long my kids shower at, let alone turn off the shower while they wash their hair. I just tell them that you can save a lot of energy that way, you have to make do with that. I especially try to limit the duration a bit. I’ve been turning off the water thing when shampooing for a long time – for practical reasons: the stuff doesn’t run into your eyes while you’re massaging the shampoo.
My biggest challenge: swimming. A full bathtub uses up to three times as much energy as a long shower, about three to four kWh, says expert Lukas Trümpi. The problem is that showering and bathing do not serve the same purpose. The former is for cleansing, the latter for relaxation. I love to laze in the bath with a good book and do this 2-3 times a week in the winter. I try to go without at least once a week and instead go to bed with my book freshly showered. Well, it’s not quite the same. But not bad either. The downside is that in my bedroom I didn’t set my sights on the washing machine in the bathroom. But even if someone did an “in-between wash” without permission, I still saved energy by not taking a bath.
Some things aren’t as hard as they seem, like tumbling and bathing less. And when it comes to teens, there’s nothing the threat of pocket money cuts can’t fix.
