Doing the Wash

Today it was 97 degrees. Most of you probably know how I hate hot days. I had plans to go out and do some things, but because of the heat decided instead to go to the grocery store, buy laundry soap and do the wash. We had accumulated enough dirty clothes by now to fill the washer twice. It says it holds 4.5KG which is about 10 pounds or a little less than half of what my washer at home holds.

Monika was kind enough to write the directions for the washer in English. She wrote out the type of clothes for each program or number on the washer dial.
white cotton and flax - 1
dirty white cotton - 2
Colourfast cotton - 3
soft cotton, quick wash - 4
colourfast synthetics - 3
soft synthetics - 5
soft synthetics with no pre-wash - 6
quick wash-36 minutes - 7
wool and silk - 8
rinse & long spin drying normal cloth - A
quick spin drying for soft cloth - B
long spin drying - C
quick spin drying for soft cloth - D

I chose #3 and never did figure out what to do with the letter setting. The wash was quite dry when I took it out. The soap goes in a kind of drawer on the front at the top left. The "drawer" has three sections--softener, regular wash and pre-wash. We think the washer took about 1 1/2 hours to cycle.



Then I got out the drying rack which was folded up and stored in the closet. I could have easily put it in the back bedroom, but I put it here so I could photograph it more easily.

I hung Corwin's shirts on hangers, but everything else fit on the rack. Even though it's hot here today, the humidity is only 35% according to the internet. It must be right because everything dried very quickly.



There are also some nifty rods on the bathroom ceiling that you can lower, hang the clothes on them and raise them again for drying. The first picture shows them down with the towels. And on the picture below that one you can see how high the clothes are when you raise the rod. Because of the high ceilings they are above Corwin's head.



The gizmo that controls the cords that are connected to the rods is on the wall just to the left on the next picture. It has knots in it to regulate how high you can put the rods. This seems to be a pretty good way to keep the wash out of the way. It is also good for indoor drying in the winter.





There are water gauges and shut-off knobs right by every thing that uses water--the washer, the kitchen sink, and each bathroom. Every month the landlord will come to read those meters. He will also read the electric meter that is inside a cupboard near the door to the apartment (bottom picture). They get a bill with this on it too, but it seemed very important for them to also read and record the meter readings. I don't think I've ever read my meter at home.