Now that the excitement of having to worry about removalists, passports and remembering my new phone number has passed, I have a new focus in my life.
The Washing.
Keeping a family of six in clean duds is never a small feat, but I'm having to get used to washing in Wellington. Firstly we all have fewer clothes than we used to thanks to aggressive culling of things that weren't worn often, and only bringing well loved and favourite things and staples. Staples like undies and jeans and t shirts, not staples for a stapler. Of course. So keeping the clothes going through the washing process quickly is important.
Secondly, this weather. Don't get me wrong, Wellington is a great city, I'm loving it here, and I love the wild weather. So far. But it feels a bit like Melbourne, take a sun hat, and umbrella, a jumper and a trolley to cart it all wherever you go. Four seasons in one day and all that. And it's damp. We haven't had so many torrenting with rain days, but lots of drizzly days, which gets in the way of getting stuff dry.
This is what it looks like out of my bedroom window this morning. Sunny right overhead but grey grey grey over the harbour. Blow over drizzle landing on my house. What's a washerwoman to do?
Today I'm taking my chances and hanging the stuff on the line. The sun will come out eventually, and rain wet is better than musty damp stink from sitting in the washing basket for days. This is my clothes line, and the greenery you can see around the line is the edge of the yard. Small yard, but big enough for the washing and that's enough for me.
Note the pegs. The hard core super spring industrial grabby pegs. I have the feeling that namby pamby cheap wooden pegs like I prefer in Canberra would last about 7 seconds when the wind comes up here, and pinch my undies even quicker than the Latham currawongs pinch socks.
I'm resisting buying a dryer, mostly because this is a big house with central heating, and we are paying to heat every bit of it, so we might as well not pay any more to dry the clothes, and double dip into the heat we have and dry the clothes inside. Tight arse hippy that I am.
Inside drying options are (1) the airer which gets parked near a heating vent
(3) the bannister at the top of the stairs (currently airing doonas) (and this is the view over my shoulder since I'm sitting on the stairs writing this).
The final challenge to my happiness and fulfilment in the washing is the machine. Top loaders suck arse. The ones with a go round thingy in the middle bash the clothes, and whack all the fuzzy bits off the towels. This one has an apparently self cleaning lint filter, but I think it saves the effort of self cleaning by just chucking all the lint all over the clothes. Do Not Like. So now I have to do clothes in one load, and fuzzy things like towels in another load. Inconvenient. And darks away from lights. WTF. And defying the laws of physics, it seems to simultaneously bash the fabric, but still leave globs of powder unrinsed. RAGE. I never realised I was taking my lovely gentle low water using low powder using front loader washer that does not bash my stuff or lint it all up so much for granted. I won't take it for granted again, mark my words.
Also the washing machine lives in the gloomy laundry which is in the basement. Down a flight of stairs, which are really slippery when it's wet. Which is three days out of four.
Love from Wellington,
Kate
That washing machine looks similar to ours. A F&P?? Probably newer, though, as ours was a wedding present so will be 10 later this year.
ReplyDeleteMy mum was always anal about separating colours, whites and towels and so I am too scared to try mixing. LOL So, I've never noticed a problem there.
I do get powder and fluff residue when I try to squeeze too much in to the machine. It is almost like there isn't enough room to rinse??
Hope this helps you sort it out!
P.S. You aren't the only hippy who hates using a dryer. Even when we get free firewood over the winter I still don't like to pay to run the dryer. So, our loungeroom turns in to a Chinese Laundry. Lucky there is enough space...