axis of rotation 11 of the drum 12 fig2 to 4 the flow rate of the treatment liquid through the circulating line 21 is selected or set at the throttleable valve 32 in such a manner that over the course of a treatment operation of the batch of laundry in the relevant chamber 15 the treatment liquid in said chamber 15 is completely circulated at least once and filtered by the filter 22 the method according to the invention is designed in such a manner that it permits a multiple function of the filter 22 accordingly the filter 22 is used in order to carry out different filtering tasks which are illustrated schematically in fig2 to 4 fig2 shows the use of the filter 22 for removing those constituents from the treatment liquid that are lighter than the treatment liquid for example foam in particular foam together with entrained lint the possibly lint containing foam collects on the surface 49 of the treatment liquid in the drum 12 via the outflow 27 which is located in the region of the surface 49 of the treatment liquid the foam containing lint and other lighter constituents is removed together with the treatment liquid located on the surface 49 from the drum 12 and the outer drum 19 and fed to the filter 22 via the first starting part 25 of the circulating line 21 in the process the treatment liquid with the lighter components passes into the upper part 37 of the housing 35 of the filter 22 as a result of the oblique position of the.