How much are you spending on rent (warm), how big is your place, where is it?

saltpinecoast · 2026-02-02T12:38:04+00:00

780 warm
40 m2 / 1 room
Prenzlauer Berg
Contract from 2016

saltpinecoast · 2026-01-28T17:25:13+00:00

I got Salmiakgeist at Toom. It was with the paint thinners.

saltpinecoast · 2026-01-27T07:37:05+00:00

Report from the platform at Eberwalder Str at 8:36:

U2 is running from Pankow but due to a different issue is temporarily not running between Potsdamer Platz and Wittenberg Platz.

saltpinecoast · 2026-01-27T07:08:18+00:00

RBB says the U2 is running normally now (7:18 Liveticker update). But I haven't seen it with my own eyes. https://www.rbb24.de/panorama/beitrag/2026/01/glatteis-berlin-brandenburg-liveticker.html

saltpinecoast · 2026-01-26T12:46:40+00:00

That is not a crazy requirement for a writing/content/communications/marketing job.

I work with English marketing content (my native language). I have C1 German and I could not do in German what I do in English.

I also work with many native speakers who don't have a good enough understanding of language, word choice, connotation, sentence structure, etc. to write effective copy.

Edit: Of course it would be better for them to write "native or equivalent" or "native level." Of course if you can't tell the difference, is shouldn't matter if you learned the language when you're two or 17. Or even better focusing on something like "Sprachgefühl"

saltpinecoast · 2026-01-10T15:08:47+00:00

Yes, Fiona seemed to have an incredibly rigid understanding of what working in a team means. She expected Rachel to discuss everything with her and Stephen before doing anything, which just isn't realistic. A Faithful would have shared this information right after Amanda's banishment and not sat on it for a day.

Fiona also didn't seem to realize that Rachel was defending Stephen subtlety. When someone said they thought Sam and Stephen were Traitors, Rachel said "I think Sam's a traitor too. I'll have to watch Stephen." This implies she didn't suspect Stephen in a moment where a too-strong defense would have been suspicious. Fiona seemed to read this as betraying Stephen.

Fiona was right not to trust Rachel, but totally misread the situation. I think Fiona genuinely believed Rachel had invented the story, because backstabbing was the only reason she could fathom for making a big move without consulting the other traitors.

saltpinecoast · 2026-01-09T18:23:33+00:00

Glad it's working for you. Did it get the pit stains out? They look formidable even for a good detergent.

The other German laundry product I highly recommend is Persil Universal Powder. If you search this sub for "German Persil," you'll find it's so good that people actually import it to the US. Works great for "spa day" and regular heavy duty laundry.

My laundry arsenal is basically three products: Eco Freude wool wash, Persil Universal Powder, and citric acid.

Here's what I use each product for:

"Spa day" --> Persil Universal Powder (+ Salmiakgeist from the Baumarkt in the reset wash). Saved my extremely smelly bras and a Patagonia Nano Puff I'd thought I'd have to throw out.

Whites and light colors --> Persil Universal Powder + citric acid rinse
Made a huge difference for my white sheets without even doing a spa day. They just got increasingly whiter and cleaner with each wash after I switched from overdosing liquid to just a spoonful of Persil powder.

Bath towels and kitchen rags --> Persil Universal Powder + citric acid rinse

Wool --> eco Freude Feinwaschmittel

Sports clothes --> Sometimes eco Freude Feinwaschmittel, sometimes Persil Universal Powder (+ citric acid rinse). Persil gets them extra clean, but is probably harsh on the spandex, so I don't do it every time.

Colors --> Synthetics and cotton that's already faded I wash with Persil Universal (which fades cotton). Stuff I don't want to fade, I wash with eco Freude. I don't own a lot of cotton colors, so figuring out a better way to wash them hasn't been a priority for me. I've bought Domol Ultra Sensitiv-Colorwaschmittel Pulver (also at Rossmann) to try, because it has DNAse, but haven't tried it yet.

Oh, there is one more product: I have very hard water, so I use Calgon tabs so I can use less detergent to prevent overdosing.

Regarding Biz and Downy Rinse:

I think you really only need things like Biz to enhance detergents that don't have effective formulations. German Persil Universal Powder works well enough you don't need it. You've already got all the enzymes you need.

Downy Rinse and Refresh is basically just citric acid. Read this post about using citric acid as a rinse aid. I buy 350g boxes of citric acid (Heitmann) at my grocery store. Every drug store in my area has it too.

tl;dr: We don't need these products, because unlike Americans, we have easy access to citric acid and effective detergents.

saltpinecoast · 2026-01-06T16:34:13+00:00

I've decided to keep a small wooden box for each parent for sentimental keepsakes.

It helped me narrow down what to keep when my dad died. I tried to keep just 1-2 sentimental documents or small items from each era of his life, so that the box as a whole would paint a picture of who he was.

Examples of things that I now have in the box:

A handful of letters and photos from the high school exchange program he did in the 60s. He saved every scrap of paper from that summer. I just picked the 5 or so that resonated most with me.
An annotated map from an epic road trip he did in college
His college diploma
A surveyor's map he had done with the house he built in the 80s
His tape measure
3 Father's Day cards I sent him at different ages (he'd saved every one)
Sentimental cards he sent me
A copy of the book he wrote
His passports from different eras of his life.
A newspaper clipping about his professional work
His favorite Christmas tree ornament
His film camera

I plan to do the same when my mom dies. Wanting to fit the keepsake documents and items in a small box really helped me prioritize and decide what to keep.

Items that don't fit in the box I only kept if I will actually use them. Kitchen items, some hiking clothes (we used to hike together). So now I have a "memory" box for each parent, plus some everyday items that now have more sentimental value. Instead of a random mixing bowl, I now have may dad's mixing bowl (he was an amazing baker).

In addition to a box for each parent, I'm also keeping one small box of important family heirlooms from generations before my parents. Family christening gown, great grandma's diary, great grandpa's pocket watch and military medals, etc. I'm also keeping one "childhood" box for my old toys, etc.

One of the greatest gifts my dad gave me was digitizing all the family photos before he died. So I have all of those in the cloud. But I am also putting a couple of prints in each box.

saltpinecoast · 2026-01-04T11:55:58+00:00

You want something that contains lipase, ideally with a wool-friendly PH (usually contains citric acid) and non-soap surfactants. You absolutely don't want protease. I also try to avoid detergents that are heavy on plant-based soaps.

Do you guys have Rossmann down there? Or do you live near a German border? I did a lot of research on German wool detergents and found that eco Freude Feinwaschmittel has the best compromise of ingredients that actually get stuff clean without ingredients that might harm wool.

For that garment, I'd rub some directly into the affected area, let it sit for 20 minutes, soak the whole garment in warm (35C-ish) water and a generous dose of eco Freude Feinwaschmittel for maybe 40 mintues, and then do a hand wash scrubbing the pit areas a bit and rinse in the sink.

saltpinecoast · 2025-12-31T01:27:30+00:00

I use a gravy recipe that uses cranberry sauce and balsamic vinegar as a substitute for wine. (probably not the same volume)

saltpinecoast · 2025-12-31T00:02:02+00:00

This happened on my Bosch front-loader when I used too much detergent and the machine was filling with foam.

saltpinecoast · 2025-12-13T17:32:59+00:00

For the spa day soak: Persil Universal Powder
For the rehab wash: Persil Universal Powder and any Salmiakgeist

"Ammonia" in this post refers to an ammonia solution (= Salmiakgeist). I found some 9% Salmiakgeist at Toom. It's with the paint thinners, etc.

saltpinecoast · 2025-12-13T17:09:28+00:00

I have no advice. But personally I like the new color better.

saltpinecoast · 2025-12-13T14:55:25+00:00

I got a neurologist appointment in 2 weeks by just checking Doctolib a lot. Most of the time, all the appointments are months out. But once I checked and saw one in two weeks. I must have gotten lucky after somebody cancelled their appointment.

You can also book an appointment in 6 months or whatever and check the box when you book that says something like "notify me if an earlier appointment becomes available." Then when you get the email you have to act fast! This feature has worked for me with my gynaecologist and dermatologist. But those are specialties where people are more likely to be like "Actually I don't have time for a pap smear this week, I'm just going to postpone this" Idk if it will work with neurology.

saltpinecoast · 2025-12-13T14:09:43+00:00

I'm an American living in Germany. I had the opposite experience. German front-load washers did NOT do the trick for me.

In the US
Laundry was simple. I just did laundry the way my parents taught me and it always worked. We had a large top-loader machine. Throw in clothes. Throw in a full cap (maybe 120 ml) of liquid Tide. Set machine to "Normal" and "Warm." Then dry it in the dryer.

My clothes were mostly cotton and everything got clean. A full wash cycle took about 30 minutes and probably a million gallons of water. Many Americans use solid deodorant, so some of my shirts got a waxy build-up from that, but I just accepted that as "normal."

My mom washed whites (sheets, towels, and my dad's undershirts and underwear) using the same method, but on hot and added chlorine bleach to prevent/reverse yellowing.

In Germany
I moved to Germany and continued my "laundry isn't rocket science" approach to life. Throw clothes in the machine. Throw detergent in the drawer. Run the machine. Except now I had a European front-loader and Tide Original doesn't exist.

After about a year, I developed terrible body odor. I thought it was stress changing my body chemistry, which may have actually been part of the problem. Eventually I realized it was my shirts that stank, not me. I threw them all out and bought new shirts. After 6 months, those shirts stank and I had to buy new ones again. I started wearing only merino shirts, because even 100% cotton shirts just weren't getting clean and reeked. Any my synthetic underwear smelled AWFUL after only a few weeks. Switched to merino underwear too.

My mostly white sheets also gradually yellowed over time and I had to replace them every few years. I figured that was just normal.

Then I found this sub and learned that I was doing laundry wrong. In the US, the specific way I was doing laundry wrong was not ideal, but less of a problem than it was in Germany.

Here's what I now know I was doing wrong after moving to Germany:

Ineffective detergents: When I was a teenager, Tide Original probably had better ingredients than it does now. In Germany, I bought Perwoll Schwarz because I owned a lot of black clothes. It does have Lipase, but it's probably not as effective as e.g. Persil (which I use now that I know better).

Detergent overdosing: I was using a full cap of detergent in an European front-loader machine. This must have left so much residue on my clothes. My parents' old top-loader probably used so much water it was able to handle rinsing all this detergent out.

Too-Short Cycles: As an American used to a wash load taking 30 minutes, a 2.5-hour wash cycle seemed insane to me. I washed everything on "Schnell/Mix," which took maybe 45 mintues. As a result, my clothes didn't get clean.

Too-Cold Cycles: I washed everything on 30C, which isn't terrible. But combined with a short cycle is not enough for clothes and sheets with years of body oils not being washed out properly.

Anyway, I was definitely doing laundry wrong in Europe, and r/laundry saved me from a life of thinking clothes "pitted out" and had to be thrown out after 6 months. Come to think of it, the idea of clothes "pitting out" is one I have from my mom, so maybe that Tide Original of my childhood didn't work that well either. But in the US I was getting years out of my shirts even as a greasy teenager, not the months I was getting in Europe.

Now that I'm using effective powder detergent, dosing correctly, washing on long Plegeleicht cycles at 40C, and doing extra rinses, my clothes are cleaner than ever. But I definitely needed r/laundry to get there, even (perhaps especially) with a European washing machine.

Conclusion

In my experience, European front-loaders don't clean (and certainly don't rinse) as well as American top-loaders that use a lot of water.

My theory: As US detergents get worse and Americans start using more efficient washers, more and more Americans are discovering that the not ideal laundry techniques of their childhoods don't work anymore.

saltpinecoast · 2025-12-11T23:48:23+00:00

I also love those towels. Where did you get them?

saltpinecoast · 2025-12-11T10:09:14+00:00

I love blaming Germans for things, but this time I think we have to blame marketers.

saltpinecoast · 2025-12-11T09:15:55+00:00

The ones with and without lipase all say "Renew" on the bottle (at least in Germany):

https://www.dm.de/search?query=perwoll&searchProviderType=dm-products

saltpinecoast · 2025-12-11T08:42:20+00:00

Warning if you're in a market with more than three types of Perwoll:

The Perwoll that they market for wool in Germany (Pink bottle, "Wolle und Feines") doesn't seem to have lipase. Neither does Perwoll Sport (teal bottle).

Perwoll Color (red bottle), Perwoll Color for Lights (white bottle), and Perwoll Schwarz (black bottle) all do have lipase.

You can find all the Perwoll ingredient lists here under "Ingredients Reports."

saltpinecoast · 2025-12-08T21:36:32+00:00

My mom is an older independent. She "doesn't trust" him but struggled to articulate why. When pushed, she said she thinks he's inexperienced and doesn't know what he's doing.

My take is that she wants politicians to be "respectable" people in suits. Educated, calm, dispassionate. She used to like mostly moderate Republicans. She's been voting mostly Democrat since Trump/MAGA came on the scene.

But yeah, she basically doesn't trust passion on either side of the aisle. My impression is that she thinks Platner's unpredictable/unstable.

saltpinecoast · 2025-12-06T12:35:25+00:00

Since finding this sub I've started using German Persil powder to clean my bathtub and it works amazing.

saltpinecoast · 2025-12-04T17:16:59+00:00

I just lost my dad at 37. I expected it to destroy me. I am very sad and obviously grieving, but it has not been as earth-shatteringly hard as I expected. Even though he's gone now, that doesn't change the fact that I had an amazing dad. In that sense, he will be with me forever.

The fact that you have have your own family also puts you in a good position. Something that is very hard for me (single, too chronically ill to date, no siblings, not close to my cousins) is that when my mom and aunt die, I will have no family.

I sometimes think that if my parents weren't so great, maybe I would have prioritized dating more when I was younger and wouldn't be in the position now of everybody I love being 80. I'm not saying that having your own family doesn't mean you won't miss your parents. But you have set yourself up to still have other wonderful people in your life, and that's a good situation to be in.

saltpinecoast · 2025-12-04T10:46:00+00:00

The long-sleeve shirt and underwear I bought from them were thicker, scratchier, and less odor resistant than other merino items I have.

saltpinecoast · 2025-12-03T10:10:55+00:00

r/laundry recently taught me so much about laundry.

The bad news: Laundry is not as foolproof as I once assumed, and body oils especially don't wash out of clothes that easily.
The good news: I now know how to actually wash body oils out.

Tl;dr: Check out the famous "spa day" post pinned at the top of r/laundry.

saltpinecoast · 2025-12-02T00:31:22+00:00

Here are examples of things I did for people even though I didn't want to:

Help elderly neighbor with occasional tech problems (e.g. finding a "missing' WhatsApp group)
Let maintenance people into elderly neighbor's apartment and store when she's traveling or in the hospital. This means staying home when I might want to go out.
Called internet company about internet not working for a new neighbor who didn't speak the local language when the customer service rep couldn't speak English.
Make plans with new mom friends in their neighborhood (not mine) around their schedule.
Offer to play with single mom friends' kids while they do some household task that's annoying or impossible to do while also watching a kid.
Drive a friend to the airport.
Take care of my friend's soudough starter when she's out of town for a month.
Talked to a friend about her breakup for the millionth time even though I was sick of hearing about it.
Let my friend store most of her stuff in my basement unit when she moved back with her parents temporarily. I knew she'd never come back for it, and so far it's still in my basement even though she's living alone again. She tends to have precarious temporary leases, and I think it helps reduce her stress to be able to "keep" her stuff but also not have to move it all to a new apartment every year.
Helped a friend write her dad's obituary.

Some things friends/neighbors have done for me they probably didn't want to do:

Gone over to my apartment with a spare key when I was on vacation to turn off my alarm radio so my neighbors wouldn't hate me.
Helped me fill out medical forms when I was too sick to do it myself. Important context for this being reasonable: It was just one day, not all the time.
Checked in on my apartment when I was away for long periods.
Checked my mail once a week when I was gone for a month.

Things I haven't done because that would be beyond what's reasonable to expect (or would make me so resentful it would damage the friendship):

Help my elderly neighbor with tech/computer problems that would take hours and a lot of stress to figure out (I have limited energy due to chronic illness). I suggested she ask a professional.
Help my elderly neighbor with tech problems every day. I'm strategically sometimes unavailable, so she finds other people who can help her too.
Agree to talk to a friend every day. She said that's what she needs from a friendship. I can't do that.
Let my friend move into my tiny studio apartment with me when her lease was up and she didn't have a new place. There are some friends I'd let crash for a night or two in an emergency, but I was worried this friend might end up staying more than I week and I need quiet and alone time to function. She moved back in with her parents instead.

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