I have a new sympathy for people who did laundry before washers and dryers. We have a washer but no dryer so I hang our clothes out on the line. I'm amazed at how much longer I have to plan to do laundry this way. Not only does it take longer for the clothes to dry (even after a second spin cycle to get out as much water as I can) but I feel like it takes forever to hang them up and get them down. Then because it takes so long to dry, unless I start a load first thing in the morning I can only do one load a day. Plus, I have to limit the size of the loads so be sure I have room to hang all the clothes. I have had problems with Anna's laundry and running out of rod space.Another frustrating thing is the state of our clothes when they come off the line. I knew the dryer shrunk clothes but I didn't realize how much. It is especially noticeable with Anna's onesies and nightgowns, the necks are all stretched out. One nightgown in particular is so bad she looks like she could be in Flashdance. On the plus side, Anna will take longer to grow out of her clothes because they just keep getting bigger with her. I don't really notice it so much with my clothes, mostly I pretend I'm losing weight (which I may also be doing, there's no way to tell). The clothes also come out a little bit crunchy with the hard water. I haven't seen any fabric softener but the dryer sheets are right out for obvious reasons.
I guess after this experience I will just enjoy my dryer that much more. The mere hour and a half or so (depending on the dryer) it will take to dry the clothes will seem like such a luxury along with the warmth and softness that only a dryer can bring.
2 comments:
You have my sympathy! I will no longer complain about hauling laundry down 2 flights of narrow stairs to a damp basement to put it in the dryer! Thanks for the perspective :)
I think dryers are an American luxury/necessity. We didn't have dryers in Germany. As missionaries, we didn't have a lot of luxuries. But, a lot of people we knew didn't have a dryer either. I remember going down to the laundry room in our apartment in Dortmund and the whole room (it was quite large) was full of sheets drying. It was kind of cool. I also had a sweater that started out about upper thigh length and worked its way down to knee length. I took it to a member who had a dryer to dry it for me. That helped a little. Thanks for the fun memories.
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