Laundry

Sometimes it is the little changes to life in Oz that tend to be the most noticeable. Laundry is something I never really thought twice about in the States. I did a few loads over the weekend and I didn't mind washing, drying, or folding laundry. Now, however, that has changed!

The first major difference between doing laundry here compared to the U.S. is that the size of washing machines are much smaller. At home I would generally be able to get away with putting a LOT of clothes into one load of laundry, but that does not happen here. Technically the weight capacity of our washing machine is 6 kilograms, which works out to about 13 pounds. Seems like a lot, but the size of the machine is so darn small that it always seems like I cannot get all of our dirty clothes inside the machine. In addition to the size of the machine, it just does not seem to get clothes all that clean, though perhaps that is because I'm still overloading the machine with too many dirty clothes?!

The second and most challenging difference is that we are dryer-less. I realize that many people live life without a dryer (pretty sure my in-laws did for many years), but it seems much more common in Oz to not have a clothes dryer than it is in the States. Nearly every house/apartment here has a built-in clothes drying rack, something that would be rare in the US of A. The issue of not having a dryer comes into play for several reasons. Melbourne has ridiculously unpredictable weather. It will sometimes be a gorgeous sunny morning and then by afternoon it is cold and rainy. Twice now, I've done laundry when the forecast was for nice weather, left clothes out on our clothesline, only to return to find them soaked. A few weeks ago when the days started getting a bit chillier and the daylight hours shorter, I noticed that even on beautiful days, the laundry was just not drying. Enter: indoor clothes drying rack. I started using the indoor rack, which was nice because I did not have to check the weather forecast before putting in a load of laundry. However, the clothes still seemed to take days to dry. The rack is also a bit small, so I literally have clothes hanging in various places all over the house.

A few weekends ago at footy, one of the "moms" on the team told me her strategy for drying clothes. She told me that she puts the clothes on drying racks in one of the small bedrooms, closes the door, and turns up the heat in the house. Many homes here seem to have gas duct heating, and this method of heating warms up the house much quicker than the electric heating we used in the States. According to a few of my Melbournian friends, it is actually not uncommon to have a dedicated "clothes drying room" in the house! Anyway, I did this in one of our bathrooms, and while it helped to dry the clothes a bit faster, it also made the bathroom smell like mildew. Not exactly success. Erik suggested we open the door for a bit, which helped with the smell and the clothes still seemed to benefit from being placed under the heating duct.

Yes, the drying rack is set up in the bathtub!

It does help that many of our clothes are dri-fit material, so they dry rather quickly. On the other hand, I do have to think twice if I'm going to wash a pair of jeans or a sweatshirt, because those items might take 5 days to dry completely! Another thing I miss about having a clothes dryer is the absence of wrinkle release. I am not good with a clothes iron, so previously if my clothes were a bit wrinkly I would just toss them in the dryer for a bit to get the wrinkles out. I believe I've used an iron more times in the last few months than I have in my entire life! We have considered buying a clothes dryer, but now that we have sorted out a few strategies to assist in drying the clothes, I believe that life will go on without one. :) In fact, I think that after this experience of not owning a clothes dryer, we might look at having one in the future as a luxury!