A day in the life...

of a very small, dual washer and dryer.

I am sure most Americans have heard of a stackable washer and dryer. However, a new concept for me is the dual washer and dryer. That is a single machine that washes and dries clothes...and it is very, very, very small. Doing the laundry is an all day or rather and all week event here in the Kipphut flat and requires a considerable amount of fore thought. I try to do a load every day in an effort to stay on top of things but with traveling back to the states and every day life, I have fallen behind. This is not the first time and I am predicting that it will not be the last. I have gone to the laundry mat ( aka launderette) but this is also an event and costs about 30 pounds to do 5 loads. So today is dedicated to laundry. Here is how it works...

First, I divide the laundry in to the following types of loads... some of which may sound familiar and some may not: whites, mids that can be dried, mids that can not be dried, mids that could be dried in a "normal machine" but turn into a wrinkled disaster when dried in my machine, darks that can be dried, darks that can not be dried, and darks that could be dried in a... you get the point. There is also the white towels, dark towels, dish towels and bathrobe loads. As well as the load of nothing but jeans that can only be dried for 25 minutes and then must be hung on a drying rack... the list goes on...

Second, I wash the first load which is normally whites because Chris is out of undershirts and socks. However, by now it is already 3 o'clock in the afternoon and one load takes about 2 hours so the rest will have to wait til tomorrow! Today is different in that I got up at 6:30 under the disguise of making Chris breakfast. In reality, I just wanted to see if I could do 5 loads of laundry in one day! Okay, I admit that I got a head start by doing 2 loads yesterday but they count because...well, I said so : )

Let me pause to fill everyone in on a piece of information that I omitted... if anyone is still reading this, that is... The fastest wash cycle takes 59 minutes and most full loads take between 50 and 75 minutes to dry. Towels take 90 minutes to dry, sweat shirts take 60 minutes plus about an hour on a hanger in the hall to dry and the bathroom rug never dries!!! Jeans and my pajama trousers can not be left to dry completely in the dryer because they wrinkle to unrecognizable levels. This means that in addition to the several hours in the machine many things spend another 60 to 120 minutes hanging on all available hooks, bars, chair backs, door knobs, etc...

Third, about half way through the drying cycle I remove everything from the machine to check for wrinkling, dampness and to determine how much additional time is needed. This takes about 10 minutes and inevitably ends in me either burning my hand on a hot button or zipper or forgetting to restart the drying cycle after replacing all the wet clothes. Neither scenario is fun.

And finally, after 2 or more hours I remove the clothes from the machine or their respective hanging locations, fold them and put them away... and then start on the next load.

The good news is that it is almost 11 am and I am about to finish up with load #4... maybe I should get up with Chris every morning...nah ; )