Laundry Hell

Laundry
Originally uploaded by Krista 1366.

As predicted yesterday by the weatherman, the sun did not show it's face today, but, lucky for us the rain has let up and the wind has started to blow. What does that mean? Time to do the laundry.....

What is the big deal you say? You must be an American!

Laundry to an Italian is a whole other basket of dirty knickers (undies). You Americans have no idea how good you have it with your extra capacity, 14 shower size towels in a single load washing machines with super fast cycles. You unload your wet laundry and put it in your super extra capacity hot dryers. Three loads of laundry all done and ready to fold while you watch TV or make dinner for the family. Here in Bella Italia there is a whole other story to be told.

In Italy we have super small front loading very long cycle washing machines. Mind you they are very efficient and save on water and even heat the water to 90 degrees Celsius. Think very clean whitey tighties without bleach. But what we save in water we lose in time. My lavatrice (lets speak in Italian), as I said before, sits on my terrace. Don't worry it is protected and has yet to freeze in the winter. Only problem, it holds about a 1/4 of my old washer in the States, which means I do 4 times as much laundry. Which means 4 times more of my time dedicated to this drudgery.

After the laundry is clean, it is still wet. Do I have a dryer? Nah. I have to hang it up to dry!!!! Very romantic, I know, but when in rains, very inefficient. Yes, I can buy a dryer here and that is one of the most frequently asked questions by American visitors. But the dryers are not like the ones you use in the states - unless you live in a very small apartment in NYC and don't want to use the laundromat. Here in Italy, the dryers only run on electricity, no gas, and do not vent outside. Why is this important? Look at your dryer, you have a tube that somehow finds it's way outside. Meaning the vapors from you drying clothes vent to the great outdoors. Here, the dryers heat to dry, but condense the vapor internally. At the end of the cycle you empty a tray of water. The process is completely different and much longer and adds to the cost of running one of these machines.

All that is fine. I could live with it, but, I do not have enough current in my home to run the darn thing anyway. If I had one and used it. It would have to unplug the refrigerator each time I turned it on. I simply do not have the watts coming through my circuit breaker to operate it. As it stands now, I am stretched to the limit with my dishwasher! If I run that and my fridge cycles at the same time, I trip the circuit breaker anyway and we are in the dark! It happens every time we have a dinner party.

In addition, where would I put a dryer? Certainly not outside with my washer. So what is a homemaker to do? I do what every other casalinghe (homemaker) does, I simply hang my clothes on the line attached to my terrace. Lucky for me, I have the space to hang about 4 loads at a time, a luxury. Way back when I was looking at renting this apartment the laundry lines were a major selling point, a wonderful thing, see, I was the only apartment with such a huge one. I remember snickering when told of how lovely this contraption was, see it even has lines under the terrace above covering the wet laundry and protecting it from the weather!!! How pre war it all seemed, I was a women of the future and I was determined to get me a dryer. I was going to break the mold. I was so naive back then. Today, almost 6 years later.... I am still hanging my knickers on the laundry line in defeat still dreaming of a dryer. But..... When in Rome do as the Romans.

What can I say to all you Yankees reading my blog? Tonight before you go to bed, go give your washer and dryer a big hug for it works hard for you and deserves some love and attention!


A dopo!

Krista