Check the sink before you wash your jeans.

When you move into a place that does not have a plumbed in washing machine, and you will, please remember this.

The pipe to take the dirty water out from the machine will be hooked by various and ingenious ways so that it feeds directly into the sink.  Please make sure the sink is empty BEFORE you load the machine.  There is a reasonably high risk that:

• a towel has been used to soak up a spill and the sink was the obvious place to put it, but no one thinks it’s their job to take it out.
• a sock or piece of underwear has fallen off the makeshift line above the sink without anyone noticing.
• something has fallen in from a nearby shelf or the top of the washing machine which is communal, so no one can be bothered picking it up.
• muddy sports clothes have been left to ‘soak’ and forgotten.
• something is defrosting – try and get rid of that flatmate.
• a piece of cloth has purposely been shoved into the plughole as no one can find the plug.

It is for this reason that you should always check the sink before you wash your pair of jeans –  the ones that you want urgently clean for a date in half an hour- as any of the above will block the plughole and cause the sink to overfill and flood the room.  It is a very common and expensive mistake to make.  Be warned, and always have a pile of old newspapers in a bag, by the tub, as this will happen at some point and the mop will be in the garden sitting in a bucket brown water from the last incident.