Doing Laundry

So let’s actually go through a real example of how someone might describe doing laundry.

One very very common household chore I’m sure we’ve all done laundry at some point.

We have to be clear.

But again we’re going to try to make it a little bit more interesting and not totally boring.

OK.

My clothes are always strewn around my room remember strewn means strewn means all over on the floor on the chair.

OK.

So when I need to do laundry I have to get them all in a pile and then sort them into two smaller piles colours and whites colors and whites.

These are the two piles that I make.

OK.

I’m a bit picky like that.

What does that mean.

Picky.

I don’t like to just get everything all together and throw it in.

I’m a little bit picky and that means I like to have this this way and this this way I like to have this thing in this pile.

The whites over here the colors over here maybe even blue there and yellow there maybe.

Probably not.

But this is a way to make it a little more interesting.

I’m adding something about myself I’m a bit picky like that.

I have to separate laundry baskets and I always wash colors separately.

OK so not everybody has two laundry baskets.

This person has two laundry baskets which kind of shows how picky he or she is.

OK let’s go on.

My family’s washing machine is in the bathroom and it has a dial with settings for different temperatures times and load sizes.

OK.

So if there’s another machine it’s probably the dryer.

That’s the one that’s usually the same size.

They often come in a set in America.

They come in a set usually and after you take things out of the washer or washing machine you put them in the dryer.

It’s not as common to hang clothes up although some people do.

OK my family’s washing machine is in the bathroom and it has a dial with settings for different temperatures.

OK.

Dial is a circle.

And there’s another circle in the middle that maybe it’s called a knob a knob and then it has different things around the outside.

And you can turn this knob and get the right settings the settings the settings are the things you change usually for something that has electronics in it an electronic device for example your cell phone you have a settings menu and you can change different things on your phone or about your phone in settings so a dial with settings for different temperatures times and load sizes.

Temperatures would probably be cold water warm water and hot water.

By the way sometimes people use Luke which mine is my name lukewarm anyway.

Then we have then we have temperatures times which would be maybe 30 minutes.

So I guess you could say one group of clothes is called a load.

We use the word load one load of laundry a load of laundry and load sizes would probably be no small and maybe medium large and what that probably means but it usually means is how much water is going to be added to it if you only have a few things and you put that in there.

It’s a small load size.

Maybe the machine only needs to use a little water if you have a huge load of laundry put that in it needs to add more water.

So you would choose something like that.

A large load or sometimes a heavy heavy load sometimes it depends on the machine.

Temperatures times in load sizes.

I do the colors first and then do whites in the second load in the second load.

OK so first colors and then whites.

These are the two groups of clothes although we don’t usually use groups here.

I actually hand wash a lot of my linens or anything delicate.

OK so linens are usually very light clothes.

That means they’re not very heavy.

And if you put them in with other other clothes they might be broken or damaged or anything delicate.

So for example underwear maybe underwear would be considered delicate and we can sometimes call those delicate.

My mom yells at me if I put delicate in the machine my mom yells at me if I put delegates in the machine.

So if I put maybe underwear in the machine she yells at me again I’m trying to make the story a little more interesting.

I’m describing a process but I’m trying to add a little bit of interesting hopefully personal detail.

OK.

Last piece of this laundry story I add detergent according to the measurement line.

So if there is a cup that we use to measure remember that detergent is the soap that we use.

There’s a line here maybe for small and in line here for a heavier load.

So maybe I will fill up the cup to the measurement line.

OK.

I add detergent according to the measurement line on the cap of the bottle.

OK.

So this little cup actually goes on to the detergent the detergent bottle.

It’s used as the measuring cup or measuring cap.

Then set the machine for colors and turn the dial remember the dial to thirty five minutes after the final spin cycle finishes.

So the spin cycle is the last thing that happens when you put your laundry in.

It fills up with water.

It gets all soapy.

There are lots of we can say suds mixing around with your clothes and then it goes back and forth Juju.

And it goes through many cycles at the very end.

You want to rinse out your clothes right.

You want to get them rinsed so there’s no soap in them and you want to try to get them as dry as possible.

So usually the machine will spin them very quickly to try to get all that water out and get all maybe the soap out.

If there’s any there this is usually called the spin cycle spin cycle spin cycle.

After the final spin cycle finishes.

I take everything out and air dry my clothes on a clothesline hanger drying rack.

All of these are ok clothesline hanger drying rack in the summer it takes forever for things to dry.

So again I’m trying to add something interesting not just specific details I’m trying to fit it all together in to something continuous.

Give all of the key words I need to give.

Make sure the process is clear but also add a little bit of interesting detail.

There’s no need to say in the summer it takes forever to dry.

But I add it just to make it a little bit more interesting and you can do that when you’re describing instructions or any kind of process that you may need to describe.