Seewalds 24 - Bought the House from Grandma

[Elvis Presby]

9 minutes ago, JillyO said:

That reminds me. When I was studying abroad in the US during undergrad, I took a class on the Americanization of Europe. Naturally, along with local students, there were quite a few European exchange students in that class (including myself). At some point, we were discussing the fact that dryers are fairly uncommon pretty much anywhere in Europe.

This one American girl raised her hand and asked "So, like, how do your clothes get dry?" She was serious.

When we visited Italy in 2015 I loved how washing my clothes and hanging them to dry wasn't considered "eccentric" like it is here.

[SassyPants]

When my daughter had her baby in 2014 (So America) she was quite sick and hospitalized for the better part of a month. I was the baby nurse and housekeeper. This is the baby who was cloth diapered ,and my daughter had a manuel washing machine, 1 flight of stairs up{ and no dryer}. I don't know how many times I overflowed the rinse cycle and had water all over the damn laundry room floor. When my hub's came down, he promptly went and bought an automatic washing machine. I still had to hang out the diapers, but at least I wasn't dealing with all that water and all those buckets....along with running a nursing baby back and forth to visit her mother in the hospital. 

My 80+ YO parents still line dry- all year around.

[CorruptionInc.]

My washer and dryer are life / time savers.

Anything that can't go in the dryer (not much) goes on the clotheshorse in the family room.

We don't have a clothesline at my place!

[MayMay1123]

I used to hang clothes out in my back yard to dry all the time...until someone stole them...now I have 3 lines inside for the heavy stuff and a dryer for everything else. 

[feministxtian]

No washer & dryer in this apartment  Fortunately, there's a laundromat pretty much across the street. When we lived in AZ, I rarely used my dryer. Wash the clothes and hang them on the top of the pool fence. By the time I got done putting the clothes at the far end of the fence, the ones closer to the house were dry! We're hoping to be able to buy a new washer/dryer once we get our money straight. My old front loader had an onboard hot water heater and a "quick cycle" that took about 30 minutes. I used it for almost everything except comforters. 

[victoriasponge]

2 hours ago, Elvis Presby said:

When we visited Italy in 2015 I loved how washing my clothes and hanging them to dry wasn't considered "eccentric" like it is here.

Can you teach one of my housemates this? I'm British, so drying on lines/airers is pretty common... except for him. He claims he doesn't have the time to wait around for them to dry but seemed a bit confused when I suggested he washed his stuff earlier.

Ah the joy of one housemate (who illegally moved his girlfriend in too, without asking us) costing more in bills than anyone else and my already stretched budget having to cover it. I cannot wait to not be a student anymore. I move into a new house next month that doesn't have a dryer, and as annoying as that'll be for sheets and towels, it'll stop these arguments from ever getting started.

[nvmbr02]

Our power is pretty expensive here so I try to line dry what I can. Only problem is it is pretty humid, even running the dehumidifier all the time. I can turn the a/c down more and that helps things dry faster but doesn't help the power bill any. We also have very limited space. We have two bathrooms but one of the showers doesn't work so I have two bars in there that i can hang clothes on. I have a rack I can set up in our bedroom, that has space to lay some things flat and hang some small stuff. Frequently, if a friend pops over for coffee or something unexpected in the morning I have to move laundry around since I have towels or other laundry laying over our kitchen chairs drying. lol.

We do have a fairly large patio (we have no private yard to hand stuff, we live in a townhouse) but it is covered. I thought it would be great when we moved here, since it rains a lot and figured it would keep the clothes dry while they are drying and give us some outdoor space away from the sun. Well, I was wrong, The roof is fairly leaky so it wont really help much if it is raining and there are little lizards and geckos that are all over the place out there so if you leave anything outside for any length of time it is sure to get lizard poop on it. Fail.

[Fluffy14]

I love love line drying. Our apartmentioned has a large deck and I dry stuff out there all summer. I love hand washing items too,  washed and dried so quickly.

[sansan]

On 8/9/2017 at 4:26 PM, tabitha2 said:

Been in Texas all my life. Only time I ever heard it was in that sappy song.

Me and you both Tabitha2. I have been to my share of schmalzy events and I've never heard it out in public. But being a Texan all my long life I have been reminded more than once that we are not in the South anyway.............

[debdebdebby13]

Spoiler

 

I went on a mission type trip when I was in college circa 2002 (not fundie mission, just run of the mill mission trip). We stayed in Miscolc, Hungary for 4 weeks and lived in a high school dorm/school. We obviously had to do laundry because of the length of our trip and it blew my 19 year old mind. 

We had a "washing machine" which was basically a drum with an agitator. There were no hoses and I remember we had a big pink bowl that we took back and forth from the sink to the washer. Then one guy realized that the bowl was big enough to set carefully at an angle in the sink and turn on the water and place the washer under the sink and the water would overflow the low side of the bowl and stream down into the washer. We'd run the washer after we filled it with clothing and water, just let it agitate until we felt it hand been long enough. Then we'd either hand rinse or dump and rinse through another agitation cycle in the washer.

After the clothes were clean we had to ring them out some by hand and then we had a spinner to get most of the water out. We put the rung out clothes in the spinner and situated it close to the drain in the floor. Then we'd switch it on and quickly sit on top of it lightly because the spinning was so intense it would walk across the floor. Then we'd have to slowly lean over to tip the machine and the rung out water would pour out of a spout on the side.

Then we took them back to our room where we'd strung clotheslines and hang them to dry. Hungary was experiencing an insane heatwave (100+ temps in a place that rarely gets above 80-85) so our clothes dried very quickly.

I came home with a MUCH deeper appreciation for my dorm washers and dryers!

[So-Virgin-It-Hurts]

10 hours ago, catlady said:

as much as community laundry annoyed me, i do remember to be grateful for having access to automatic machines.  throughout the 1970s, my mom had this funky semi-portable washer:  it was small, was on wheels, and was stored in a closet near the kitchen.  on saturdays, she'd push it over to the sink, attach its hose to the faucet, put the drain hose into the sink, and do one very small load at a time. i don't remember exactly how it worked, but the washing cycle was done in one drum, then everything had to be transferred sopping wet to a second drum for the spin cycle.  and everything had to be hung up to dry.

We had this when I was a kid!  Did yours have a wringer attached?

[GoddessOfVictory]

The covenants for the neighborhood I currently live in ban outdoor clotheslines as being "eyesores". We get around it by having a retractable clothesline. It's perfect in the summertime!

Otherwise, we do have a dryer, plus some wooden clothes drying racks, or sometimes the shower curtain rod if I have a lot of clothes that need to hang dry in the winter.

[sawasdee]

I still have a twin tub.....but drying outside takes no time at all, with a clothes horse set in the sun. Big stuff goes to the laundry - sheets,etc - and if I'm feeling lazy, less than $20 a month gets all my clothes washed and ironed. The twin tub is hard work in the heat!

[Carm_88]

I've said it before and I'll say it again but Spurgeon impresses me!  He's pretty good for a not yet two year old and I love my spaghetti too!  

[Daisy0322]

Haha he is so cute!  I hate how much enjoyment I get from Spurgeon and Henry posts, I just think they are the cutest little people. I'm impressed with his fork useage too, I know adults that eat speghetti at about that skill level.... my husband for one 

[nst]

again I don't have kids - but can kids his age hold forks and whatever like that 

or is he gifted and if is gifted how did become so gifted a young age to do this? 

[Bad Wolf]

Mine were manipulating forks well by that age. Someone has spent time with him teaching these skills.

Only snark:  Styrofoam bowl.

[nst]

4 minutes ago, Bad Wolf said:

Mine were manipulating forks well by that age. Someone has spent time with him teaching these skills.

 

Jana

 

[Daisy0322]

20 minutes ago, nst said:

again I don't have kids - but can kids his age hold forks and whatever like that 

or is he gifted and if is gifted how did become so gifted a young age to do this? 

Depends on the kid some wont use them at all atgtgat age (other extreme) he's not really gifted in my opinion, I think it's more someone spent time with him on it and he probably is a little more coordinated than adverage.

so my being impressed is also a little impressed that someone took the time to let him practice enough to be that sufficient.

[Gobbles]

We hang our clothes outside in the summer and we have a indoor cloth line in the laundry room downstairs. We only got a dryer recently when my Grandparents weren't able to continue doing their laundry alone and my mother now has double work. Only underwear and towels go in there. Dryers are not good for the clothes and we tend to wear them for several years so we don't want damages. (You see it with the towels, they get thinner over time.)

[front hugs > duggs]

Y'all please see the above for a video of what I look like while eating spaghetti 

Typically why I opt for penne when out in public....

[Carm_88]

7 minutes ago, front hugs > duggs said:

Y'all please see the above for a video of what I look like while eating spaghetti 

Typically why I opt for penne when out in public....

Same here! And if I'm wearing light clothes, I'm going to end up wearing my food at some point. 

[Scrabblemaster]

I love to do our laundry! We have a dryer but I only use it for bed-sheets, towels and underwear. 

Spurgeon is really cute. I noticed the styrofoam bowl too and my first thought was: he must be at the TTH and Jana must have cooked. 

[ThunderRolls]

18 hours ago, JillyO said:

That reminds me. When I was studying abroad in the US during undergrad, I took a class on the Americanization of Europe. Naturally, along with local students, there were quite a few European exchange students in that class (including myself). At some point, we were discussing the fact that dryers are fairly uncommon pretty much anywhere in Europe.

This one American girl raised her hand and asked "So, like, how do your clothes get dry?" She was serious.

That girl just sounds dumb. I know a lot of subdivisions with home owner associations don't want people to line dry their clothes since it's an "eyesore" or doesn't reflect the wealth of the neighborhood (I know, I know...but I have heard this argument so I'm putting it here). Even if you grew up in a neighborhood like this, I would certainly think she'd have some experience hanging some of her nicer garments or lingerie up to air dry - but maybe not. My neighborhood is older (90% of the homes are 100+ years old) and part of a farming community. We don't have a HOA or any village ordinances against line drying. Many backyards still have these bad boys: 

As soon as the weather gets decent, people around here are pretty quick to put their clothes and linens out to line dry. I don't have the patience or I'd be dumb and not look at the weather report and put my clothes out when it's going to rain later in the day so my dryer gets routinely used. 

[JillyO]

11 minutes ago, ThunderRolls said:

That girl just sounds dumb.

Oh, I know I wasn't trying to say that her silly question was representative of all Americans or something. It was just a funny little anecdote that came into my mind when people started talking about differences in washing and drying clothes around the world.