You haven’t even really lived until you’ve sat in front of your washing machine crying and trying (and failing) to google European laundry symbols.
Here’s a quick and easy guide to anybody else who has to do this ever:
You’re supposed to use this to select fabric type and whatever water temperature. It’s a trap. Don’t think about it. Just do “Easy-Care” and 30. Throw away any clothes which this doesn’t work for. It’s just not worth it. I assume you could change it to maybe like 40 or 60 if you spilled red wine on your clothes.
The column on the right: This is the thing for spin speed. The higher the spin speed, the more water the washer squeezes out of your clothes, and the faster they subsequently are able to dry on your clothes rack. Supposedly higher speeds wear out your clothes faster. Who cares. You’re already living without a dryer, yolo.
The column on the left: I have no idea what this column is. The Russian-language manual says that it’s optional. Ignore it. Too stressful. Why bother.
This is the loading rack for detergent. Fuck the loading rack for detergent. I got liquid detergent and just put some amount of it directly into the washer. It worked fine and seemed easier than actually understanding which of the sections are which.
All of this seemed to wash my clothes, I guess. Mission accomplished. Maybe even accomplished better than trying to buy bedsheets for my “furnished” apartment.
Fun fact: Beds have two “standard size” mattresses on them. I figured that since I plan to be sleeping alone and generally don’t move when I sleep, I would rather spend $12 on a thing that I would only use for approximately the next month rather than $24. Or, like, I could have kept on sleeping on the mattress cover-like thing that was supposed to be a sheet. Gross.
Anastasia Kolobrodova 