I made a purchase last weekend. It was a direct result of reading this blog post by Alice at More Than Toast.
Alice wrote about her winter washing woes. She admitted to loving washing fresh off the line in the summer but hating the crinkly, cardboard feel of clothes dried on a radiator, or the musty smell of clothes finished in a tumble drier in the winter.
As much as I like to think of myself as a very serious journalist and writer interested in the important issues of the day, Alice’s post had me riveted. I caught myself nodding along in agreement as she wrote about her washing – my 20 year old self would have been incredulous.
But there’s no escaping it. Washing takes on a whole new level of importance when you have kids. Gone are the days you can get away with one or two loads a week, if that. Factor muddy toddler play into a week of work outfits and stinky shirts and you’re dealing with a different beast altogether.
Washing in the summer isn’t a big deal for me. I can chuck a load on before I go to bed, leave it in the washing machine the following morning and hang it up on the line when I get home. The NLM can bring it in before he goes to bed and it’s job done. The winter is a bit more tricky though. We have no central heating in our cottage and wet knickers don’t dry on storage heaters. We have little space and everything ends up being strung around our freezing cold, tiny dining room. It takes at least 5 days to dry and means we’re often left without clean clothes for the week.
Family meals become uncomfortable experiences, sitting on the floor of the living room, crouched around the cofee table. If we need to get to the front door (which we rarely use) we have to negotiate an obstacle course of laundry.
Last weekend I’d had enough. After a week of working hard with more work thrown in during the weekend evenings, I wanted to spend my spare time with my toddler, not negotiating the huge pile of washing that had built up next to my overflowing laundry basket. But with nowhere to dry the washing – the last weekend’s efforts had not yet dried – I was stuck. My only option was to leave the washing or spend the afternoon in the launderette in a town 10 miles away.
It was then that I stumbled upon Alice’s post. I believed her. It wasn’t a glossy advert in a magazine or on the TV. It was written by a real mum, facing the same washing woes as me. It was funny, honest and to the point. It was the equivalent of my friend ringing me up to tell me about a solution to my lack of clean clothes.
The heated clothes rack from Lakeland Plastics sang to me. It promised to change my life and make all my problems go away. I needed to have it. So I put away the “I’m only working to save, I’m not allowed to buy anything” mentality and spent £84.99 on a three tier heated clothes tower.
It’s the best £84.99 I’ve ever spent. I’ve done NO washing this weekend. Not a jot. All the washing has been done and the basket is empty, because a load dries in around 5 hours with this beauty. Our clothes are warm, smell lovely and there’s no cardboard crustiness in sight.
We’re all wearing clean clothes, I have a full store of clean pants in the drawer and Frog can wear her favourite cardigan again.
So, if you’re a PR for a brand and are yet to be persuaded of the benefit of working with bloggers, please take note. I wouldn’t have bought this product or spent that £84.99 if it wasn’t for Alice’s blog post. I would have laughed at the TV advert, flicked over from the magazine advert and ignored the newspaper advert. But I believed Alice’s post. And that’s why I spent my money.
Some stuff you might want to know:
- Alice’s post wasn’t a sponsored one or a paid review, by the way. She just wrote about the product because she genuinely liked it and wanted to share the love. Which is exactly what I’m doing right now. This is NOT a sponsored post.
- The heated clothes rack is also available in a two tier version which costs £69.99.
- It costs 5p per hour to run and folds up flat.
My mummy has been going on about buying me this exact thing recently!!! Great minds Mol, great minds!!!
It’s BRILLIANT Alice! x
I will get on it!!! Currently drying Rhys’ school uniform in the tumble dryer as I forgot to do it yesterday! Bad mummy!!
Ha – you’re anything BUT a bad mummy! Yummy mummy, fun mummy, chatty mummy, mad mummy… but certainly not BAD mummy! xxx
I have one and am not sure about it. I find only the top rail dries in that time and only if I throw a sheet over the whole thing. But yes, blogger recommendations are very weighty for me too.
Oh dear, I guess it just goes to show how different people have different experiences with products. I like the sheet tip though, I wasn’t aware of that until now!
This is a genius idea! (fellow sufferer of no space and limited radiators!)
It’s great, we’ve found it REALLY useful!
This. This is what we must point PRs to when they say “we don’t have a budget”. Get a sodding budget if you want to ask bloggers to do something! It works.
I have blogged about all sorts of stuff that I know people have gone on to buy and it makes me cross that PRs just seen to want the back link for £20 and not give away a few things or £100 for a blogger to basically sell their product.
This looks amazing. I want one. But I have a tumble drier so I wont be allowed one
It really is great. And I absolutely know what you mean about the benefits of blogger outreach compared with (or alongside) other types of campaigns. I think it’s something many PRs in this country are still learning, although there are many who twigged long ago to the ways bloggers connect with an audience and how that can help their brand.
Ha! I’ve been meaning to write a post like this for a while now – my mum gave us money last Christmas to get ours, and it’s been the best thing (after the coffee maker and breadmaker) that we’ve ever owned – and we’re in the same boat.
I have to say though, this year it triggered off my asthma again, so we’ve had to move it into the spare room – but still, dry clothes within a day – you can’t beat that!!
Also – your clothes will dry quicker if you put a sheet over the top!
Ooh really? Will have to try that one out.
Yep – or even just open up a double or kingsize duvet cover – both work – even better if you’ve just washed it as everything gets dry!
I might have to get my post up soon too, I’ve been procrastinating for too long.
We have one of those airers that you hoist up and down from the ceiling on rope pulleys. Brilliant, but I guess you’ll need to wait till you expand into that new house one day.
Yet another reason why you and my mother are made for each other. She has one of those too. It’s the dream I aspire to; a house big enough for a rope pulley clothes airer. I don’t ask for much.
My poor tumble dryer is on almost constantly and that is with only one child, this looks fab! *runs off to check bank balance*
We don’t have room for a tumble drier, plus they’re pretty expensive to run aren’t they? I really love this and, for us, it’s definitely been a worthwhile investment!
I completely agree Molly – I have bought so much after seeing blog posts – I think my largest purchases were a Brabantia Wallfix washing line & a Black & Decker steam mop….we’re suckers for all the washing & cleaning gadgets aren’t we!
*Runs off to look up steam mop* We really need to get out more…
my mum’s sent me an email asking if there’s anything I want/need from Lakeland. I always want the whole shop but I’m wondering whether this is going to be on my list, along with a new cake tin, a couple of spatulas etc. Lakeland were brilliant about our Bake It for Babies campaign, I hope you’re sharing the positivity with them too! x
I’ve yet to email the link (it’s been a hugely manic day) but I will do. It’s the first product I’ve ever blogged about off the cuff and – as cringe as I feel blogging about washing – I wanted to share the love!
I’m above Alice’s mummy – have been trying to buy it for her for ages! Maybe she’ll listen to me now and won’t be a ‘bad mummy’ and Rhys will get dry uniform!
Buy it for her anyway – it’s a brilliant product!
Oh my gosh, I NEED one of these, I’ve had the same load of washing on the clothes horse for the last TWO DAYS and it’s still bloody damp. We have no space for a tumble drier so it’s my only option and we already have mould growing on the walls because of the extra moisture in the house.
Then you definitely should consider one! We have exactly the same issue with wet washing in the winter. It never dries because the house is freezing, so we end up with no clean clothes and a damp and musty house. This has really worked for us – for me, it was definitely worth the cash.
I read Alice’s post and thought exactly the same thing. I must get myself to Lakeland!
Wow…. This looks really good! We had a clothes horse for ages till it broke. Now I wash and place clothes all over the radiators or get fed up and just have the dryer on overnight. This would be fantastic!
Looks very useful indeed!
So true, so true.
We have an aga, so our clothes drying is in reverse. Brilliant in Winter, but whenever it’s turned off in the summer, clothes drying is a nightmare. It’s too open and windy to dry clothes on a clothes horse outside, my rotating clothesline won’t stay in the ground, and my lovely length of clothes line won’t stay in the wall. We do have lots of room though so having 2 clothes horses up for a few days isn’t too much of a nightmare spacewise, but it does make the place untidy
My parents have an aga – it’s what I aspire to!