Laundry

“Mom, why is the dryer in the dining room?”

“That is a good question, Konner.”

I have not seen a house yet that does not have the washing machine in the kitchen. I’m sure there are some but I haven’t seen them yet. Our washing machine sits right next to the dishwasher, which by the way we are lucky to have both a washer and a dishwasher.

All the European washing machines that I have seen in the stores are front loaders. They are more economic and use much less water and…fit next to the dishwasher in the kitchen.

Doing laundry takes twice as much time because you can only get half the load. The average washer is so small. It will do about 3 pairs of jeans, one towel and maybe a few shirts and some underwear with socks. That would be quite a load actually.

The washing machine has different setting just like ours but some of the settings last 90 minutes. So I mostly choose the fast, daily use setting that only takes 30 minutes.

After washing the clothes, it is time to put the clothes in the dryer. We are very fortunate to have a dryer. Many people do not have dryers. They have these accordion folding racks to pull out and hang clothes on. One guy I talked to described his dryer as more like a wringing machine. The spinning would pull the water out of the clothes and leave it at the bottom in the removable tray. After it has spun a while, you empty the tray of water, put the tray back and then keep it spinning. It does not really dry the clothes but it pulls or wrings the water out.

We are lucky. We have a modern dryer that really dries. But the dryer holds less than the washer really…if you want things to dry completely. Jeans are almost impossible. I dry the jeans for about 20-30 minutes and then I hang them on the accordion folding rack to dry the rest of the way. If I don’t pull the jeans out early, they will be so wrinkled and not completely dried either. Cotton shirts take awhile as well. Sometimes, I will dry the clothes for 30 minutes and then take out the items that are completely dried. This will lighten the load and I can give the cotton shirts another 30 minutes.

I have been here for over a month and I am starting to figure out how to wash and clothes more successfully. The biggest mistake is putting too many clothes in the washer and making the loads too full. Once I started making smaller loads, laundry actually got done quicker. This is because of the drying process. Plus the clothes are not as wrinkled this way.

The other problem is that there is no long tube running from the dryer to go outside. So the hot humid air that would normally travel outside when you dry your clothes. Instead the air is right there in the dinning room. So we have learned that you must keep the window open while doing laundry. At first, I would shut the dining room door so the humidity would not seep into the rest of the house but the window was not giving the air enough relief. So papers sitting on the table would be a bit soggy or warped from the humid room. It would be great if you wanted to have a sauna.

Yes, the dryer is in the dining room. It is so small and light; I can pick it up and take it upstairs to the bedroom if I wanted. That is where it started. But there was little space for it there. I’m thinking of putting a tablecloth over it to make it look like a serving table in the dining room.

I’m learning the tricks to get through the laundry process. But for the most part, I think we are the lucky ones here. It could be worse. We could have no dryer or the wringer dryer. So I am thankful for what we have.

Now, I am all the more thoughtful about throwing that one day, half worn shirt into the dirty laundry hamper. I think I could wear it one more time. I don’t think it is that dirty after all. I wonder if I can teach my boys to do the same.