The Laundry

Who'd've thought something so mundane would feature as a transition topic? I mean, if I'd moved to a third world country and had no washing machine, maybe one could see it, but it's just silly how different doing the laundry has been here, and how, every week I still feel like I'm embarking on something out of the ordinary. (OK, OK, maybe it just takes me a pathetically long time to get used to things.)

For starters, the washing machine we bought (second hand)- although a perfectly normal American Whirlpool - is GIGANTIC. I have washed my king sized duvet in it with room to spare, and every week I put all the whites for the four of us in and feel guilty because, as often as not, the machine isn't full.

Then there's the water. We live in a mountain desert - it's absurdly arid, but it does snow in the mountains in the winter, and our water source is melted snow. It is very, very soft and a huge contrast to Kent water. I bought a new electric kettle in September. Six months on the interior looks exactly as it did the day we bought it. There are no water deposits. If you leave a glass to drain by the side of the sink, it will dry quickly and spotlessly. What this means in terms of washing is that, in theory, one should need very little in the way of detergent. The bulk of a box of detergent consists of water softeners, which is why you're instructed to add more in hard water areas. I'm told our water is so soft that we really should only need 1/4 cup (2oz) detergent per load. All well and good, but....

....The machine only washes for a scant 8 minutes on a 'normal' cycle, and I find that things I wouldn't have thought twice about in England (most commonly tea slurped down the front of my shirt) don't come clean here! My AEG in the UK used to wash for 25 minutes with it's 'normal' cycle. So I find that if I select a 'heavy duty' cycle that provides an 18 minute wash, and if I spot treat everything, I generally get satisfying results. So why do Europeans get longer washes? I expect the average American would tell you that it's because they're dirtier and don't wash their clothes as often. H'mmmmm.

The worst thing of all is that I don't yet have a clothes line outside (although I do have one in the garage), but I do have a dryer. And so I end up throwing much of the laundry in the dryer, which is energy anathema to me - but I still do it (electric drying makes clothes really soft, and eliminates the need for ironing. {which, those of you who know me well, was never a real worry for me as I used to 'save electricity' by not using my iron}). At least our HOA (Home Owners Association) doesn't forbid hanging laundry out to dry - as apparently many of them do (although a little cursory research tells me that it is illegal for HOAs to prohibit this harmless and ecologically sound practice). Again, it is so dry here that even in the depths of winter you could hang clothes out to dry, and if they didn't freeze, they'd be dry by nightfall. So the acquisition of a clothes line is high on the agenda.

Laundry. Turns out it's on the "Odd To Be Here" list.