I know that all my mom-friends will understand why I feel compelled to share my adventures in laundry--it takes up half our lives in any living situation (the other half is filled with preparing meals, serving meals, cleaning up after meals, ferrying the kids all over the countryside and the occasional cup of coffee, oh, yeah and fetching groceries!). Here the task is a bit more time-consuming due to the lack of a drier. Okay, we actually have a drier but it's quite small, not hooked up, has indecipherable labeling and most likely will generate even more heat than nature has already given us, so it's not being used currently. Above is my cute laundry sink, constructed of some kind of stone. It was difficult to get a good picture, but that small slab on the left side is actually a washing-board with ridges for scrubbing the clothes! I'd only seen one of those in use on Little House in the Prairie until last week when I watched one of my neighbors using hers. Did I mention that all this equipment lives on our balcony, 15 stories up?! I know it's not right, but I just can't keep from looking onto other people's balconies to see what's going on...usually not too much, but I keep looking anyway.
Now for my Chinese drier--I have two retractable bars that can be cranked up and out of the way when not in use or, as seen here, down lower so I can reach. Seems like a lot of people hang their clothes on their bars and then crank the bars back up. This may help the clothes dry faster as they are more in the breeze, but I'm not convinced that the clothing will actually stay on the bars and I really don't want to find out where our underwear would land if it was swept away! Also why I have yet to use the bar that is so close to the edge of the balcony, I stick to smaller loads that can fit closer to the wall. Notice the lime green contraption on the near end--it is a handy-dandy little wrack with dangling clothes pins, meant for drying socks, undies and other small items. I spent many long minutes in the laundry aisle deciding which one to buy. They come in all different colors and configurations, mostly made of very flimsy plastic. I considered a more sturdy looking metal model but decided just to go with the plastic since I knew it would be staying outside in all kinds of weather.
Now for the best part, the cute little washer. How lucky am I to have a "laundry room" with a view? At home I'm stuck in the basement...but have lots of room down there for baskets and such. This machine has two little lint traps inside that I try to remember to empty often. Seems strange to have them in the washer, not the drier as we usually have. Makes me wonder where the lint goes in my washer at home? I decided to go with Tide for the first round of detergent since I knew for certain that it is meant for laundry--reading the labels is quite a challenge! The bottle on the top is for stain removal. Had a fun time in the store pantomiming that one! I should have taken a photo of the controls on the washer...all in Chinese with no translations. One of Gene's coworkers in Michigan is from China and we sent him a photo taken with the phone that he graciously translated for me. He thought it was very funny. Now I'm off to remove the wet clothes and hang them to dry. Takes most of the day for things to dry here, even though it's very hot. I guess the humidity hinders the process. Should be interesting to see how this all goes in the winter months when the temps are in the 50s...maybe we'll hook the electric drier up then.
I know that all my mom-friends will understand why I feel compelled to share my adventures in laundry--it takes up half our lives in any living situation (the other half is filled with preparing meals, serving meals, cleaning up after meals, ferrying the kids all over the countryside and the occasional cup of coffee, oh, yeah and fetching groceries!). Here the task is a bit more time-consuming due to the lack of a drier. Okay, we actually have a drier but it's quite small, not hooked up, has indecipherable labeling and most likely will generate even more heat than nature has already given us, so it's not being used currently. Above is my cute laundry sink, constructed of some kind of stone. It was difficult to get a good picture, but that small slab on the left side is actually a washing-board with ridges for scrubbing the clothes! I'd only seen one of those in use on Little House in the Prairie until last week when I watched one of my neighbors using hers. Did I mention that all this equipment lives on our balcony, 15 stories up?! I know it's not right, but I just can't keep from looking onto other people's balconies to see what's going on...usually not too much, but I keep looking anyway.
Now for my Chinese drier--I have two retractable bars that can be cranked up and out of the way when not in use or, as seen here, down lower so I can reach. Seems like a lot of people hang their clothes on their bars and then crank the bars back up. This may help the clothes dry faster as they are more in the breeze, but I'm not convinced that the clothing will actually stay on the bars and I really don't want to find out where our underwear would land if it was swept away! Also why I have yet to use the bar that is so close to the edge of the balcony, I stick to smaller loads that can fit closer to the wall. Notice the lime green contraption on the near end--it is a handy-dandy little wrack with dangling clothes pins, meant for drying socks, undies and other small items. I spent many long minutes in the laundry aisle deciding which one to buy. They come in all different colors and configurations, mostly made of very flimsy plastic. I considered a more sturdy looking metal model but decided just to go with the plastic since I knew it would be staying outside in all kinds of weather.
Now for the best part, the cute little washer. How lucky am I to have a "laundry room" with a view? At home I'm stuck in the basement...but have lots of room down there for baskets and such. This machine has two little lint traps inside that I try to remember to empty often. Seems strange to have them in the washer, not the drier as we usually have. Makes me wonder where the lint goes in my washer at home? I decided to go with Tide for the first round of detergent since I knew for certain that it is meant for laundry--reading the labels is quite a challenge! The bottle on the top is for stain removal. Had a fun time in the store pantomiming that one! I should have taken a photo of the controls on the washer...all in Chinese with no translations. One of Gene's coworkers in Michigan is from China and we sent him a photo taken with the phone that he graciously translated for me. He thought it was very funny. Now I'm off to remove the wet clothes and hang them to dry. Takes most of the day for things to dry here, even though it's very hot. I guess the humidity hinders the process. Should be interesting to see how this all goes in the winter months when the temps are in the 50s...maybe we'll hook the electric drier up then.
Remembering my mom's wringer washer in the basement...and the dryer where my brother gave the cat a ride once. Do they all do that? It think her first automatic washer came in about 1963. Fun pics!!
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