washload worries

I faced and conquered a Herculean task today -- I ran my very first washload ever!

To be honest, I felt like a total idiot pretty much the entire time. I have never used a washing machine befor. I knew NOTHING, and was desperately wishing I had observed my mum more carefully during washing-machine operations at my parents' home. (But of course, I must have been reading/surfing the internet/talking on the phone or going out with friends. Present Me is shaking her head at Past Me!)

Anyhow, right from how many clothes it was okay to put in and whether I could put all kinds of stuff in together, to what kind of detergent to buy and where to put it...the process was a deep mystery. 

The machine? A top-loading Toshiba. The product booklet was NO HELP AT ALL. The English section had obviously been translated from Japanese by someone with a very rudimentary knowledge of the English language -- it made no sense half the time and contradicted itself in a million places.

Anyway, by perusing each line of booklet text closely, calling up hazy memories of washloads at home, applying some common sense, and staring at the machine long enough, I finally managed to get it right :) 

I used a liquid detergent (Dynamo, the pink one), figuring out that I had to put it in the little bleach container on the side. I put in the clothes firmly but loosely -- although I think my load had one pair of jeans too many. I left out 2-3 delicates and 1 shirt that looked like it would probably run a bit of colour. I set the water level accordingly and chose the regular wash-rinse-dry cycle.

And, voila! In half an hour, I was the proud take-outer of a ton of freshly washed, gorgeously clean, damp, fragrant clothes!

(Has anyone in the history of the universe ever been this excited about washing clothes? I THINK NOT.)