On things laundry related

At home, we were accustomed to living in houses and all that comes with that, including our own laundry room with a large sink for things non kitchen or bathroom related.  In Bangladesh my maid became my laundry facility, she hand washed everything in my second bathroom and would drape it over the spare bedroom or outside on one of the verandas to dry.  Hand washing is rough on fabric.  At our first place in Baltimore, I used to walk the laundry a couple of blocks down to the school to use their facility.  We felt like kings and queens when we moved to a place with a laundry room within the apartment block.  

In our last place, we needed five quarters each load.  I would buy quarters from the bank, they came in handy for bus fare too.  At this place, we put money on a card.  When I have a machine in the house, I put a load on if I need a particular item of dirty clothing.  This means I might do two or three loads a week.  Here, I make do, and extend it out to every ten days or so.  The biggest hindrance to this was having enough knickers but thanks to the NZ knickers fairy (a.k.a. my mother), that minor issue is under control*. 

The fact that we are sharing machines with other people was harder at the last place as it seemed like the machines were always in use.  The generally accepted method of dealing with this is to move washed laundry to the inside of a neighbouring dryer.  The only thing getting in the way there is my dislike of touching a stranger's wet delicates.  Finding your own laundry moved by a stranger can feel invasive.

If I want to remove a stain, I have to do it at the kitchen sink.  Not having that laundry sink also means that if I need to wash something gardening related, I often do it in the kitchen sink where I worry about spreading garden related germs, or I drip it through the apartment to the bath.  I don't think many people have laundry sinks here, I know a friend of mine recently had hers removed as she felt it was in the way.

 

* I am happy to buy my own, it was just nice to reap the benefits of being a tiny bit babied recently.