The big news I have is that Wim and I have decided to buy a clothes dryer. Yes I know that it's an odd concept for most Americans (including me) that people would have a washer but not a dryer, but that is how most Europeans operate. They hang most of their clothes to dry (yes, even indoors) or occasionally take them to the local launderette to dry as we do. It's a HUGE pain in the ass, especially when you've got cats who barf on things. I've been bitching about it to Wim for the last 5 years. And finally, yesterday when he had to sit for an hour at the launderette with Eastern European immigrants yelling at each other and evil cleaning women shoving him, he saw the light. Praise the lord.
Seriously though, this is a significant problem - especially in the UK. Pretty much any time you visit someone's home in the UK you will see their underpants hanging on the radiator at the very least. Even in relatively well-off homes. There's sort of this sense of "this is how we've always done things". And when you suggest that life might be a bit more manageable with a dryer they cock their head to one side and say, "a tumble dryah??" - then they parrot out a bunch of myths they've heard about dryers mangling buttons and shredding socks. Then you just have to walk away and put up with your roomate's friends stealing your panties off the drying rack in the hallway. It's insane.
Here's why else dryers are good: Lint. European washers don't seem to have the lint traps that American washers have, so when you couple that with 11 cats and no dryer, all your clothes start looking like mohair cable knitwear.
Wim was opposed to the idea of a dryer for a long time on environmental grounds. But I did point out (repeatedly and loudly) that A) It's no less damaging to the environment to use the dryers at the launderette; and B) at home there will be no one standing next to us smoking a cigar and yelling at their kids in Romanian while we fold our fresh laundry. I can't help but think that my nagging must have sunk in a bit.
I am thrilled. I'm going to use our new dryer constantly. And when the polar ice caps melt and sea levels rise engulfing us all in a global panic I won't be bothered at all. Because at least I'll have fluffy towels.
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4 comments:
Jovanka, thanks for the Follow and it's GREAT to meet a fellow comic. My mom, who lives in Paris, has the combo washer dryer in one machine!
Oh, to have a dryer. The joy of it all. You lucky dryer-having gal. ;)
I have dreamed of this combo machine- you don't mean they are stacked? IF they were in the same machines, laundry would be ONE cycle and done....! Wow....
There are such machines! But I am suspicious if them. I am a last-century-gal who prefers my laundry to be washed and dried in separate receptacles.
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