I have come to realize that drying your clothes on a rack the way the Aussies do here isn't as crazy as I had initially thought... It is absolutely necessary to "pre-dry" them as it would take an Australian dryer about 4 days to dry a load straight out of the washer. I like to lay a load out overnight until it is dry and crunchy - then I pop it in the dryer for an hour till it is hot and slightly less crunchy. Ugh.
This is what I am working with - perhaps I should give you an idea of scale... The washer would fit one American towel with room for a few pairs of socks. Thankfully, the towels in our apartment are so thin that I can wash all 4 of them at once! Hooray! I've only done about three loads of laundry since we've arrived - we go through clothes faster than I can clean them. I suppose we will have to start conserving?
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i've gotten used to crunchy clothes and towels. :)
maybe the small washer/dryer are good to keep you obsessing over laundry rather than being homesick? ah, the homesickness is hard, isn't it? i had a hard time when i first moved here. i had to turn to retail therapy. you should try to take a trip to melbourne and we can meet up!
Hopefully when you get a permanent place you'll have a better dryer! I don't have to pre-dry anything, but I sure do miss my big fancy gas dryer in the US. Aussie ovens might actually be worse than Aussie dryers . . .
@ the american... I'm definately planning a trip to Melbourne once we are settled. Well, the homesickness does suck; but on good days I feel great. It's the bad days where the sadness starts to creep in :( I'm not much for shopping so that doesn't do much for me - besides, I'm plus size and there doesn't seem to be many shops for that sort of thing over here...
@ Jenny - I think I had a laundry breakthrough today! I found the manual for the washer and see to be having better luck - the clothes are coming out of the washer dryer and less crunchy; but the cycle takes almost three hours. CRAZY!! Ha!!
Not trying to rain on your parade or anything, but not ALL washers and dryers look like that here!
You can get larger ones. Most front loaders will be on the small side. Australians like to conserve water as much as possible, so go for the water efficiant front loaders, like you have.
I've got your normal top loader, and it's quite large...but not as large as you can get.
I can quite easily fit two sheets and a quilt cover in one load.
As for drying/dryers... I said this to another American friend, we mostly use the sun here. It's free!
Dryers use a heck of a lot of power.
In winter, I use a clothes airer/rack in front of the heater/fire. But mostly let it hang in the shed on the line for a day.
@ Ute - Most of the ones I've seen in the apartments here have been the small ones... I'm ok with it - it is just new and takes some getting used to.
I'll certainly try it again; but so far I haven't been able to get into the line drying thing.
Hi Mimi,
Like Ute said, we rely on the sun over here to dry our washing. I remember when I was in the USA for the first time in January 1971, one couple we stayed with had a HUGE dryer in their basement, and no clothesline at all. I asked why not, and they just looked out the window at the snow...I got the message - lol! I only use my dryer if it rains non stop for more than a few days (and that hasn't happened for years with the drought we've had here). There is only two of us here, and I do three loads of washing a week in my front loader machine.
Me again - I forgot you'll be in a flat (sorry - apartment!) and it will be hard to use a clothesline. Some places don't even have them, and those that do...well, you might be 5 floors up from the ground, and who wants to drag washing up and down stairs or elevators??
Hey Gina,
I've been catching up on laundry - we were out of our house for a few days before we got on our flights so I had a big bag of dirty laundry that traveled with us in our suitcases. Then, we were busy exploring for the first few days so when I got down to it I ended up having about 2 weeks worth of laundry. Took me a while to dig out - and I was using the washer wrong; but I think I am all sorted now!
Well done!
as for the washer, if you need to buy one go with a high efficiency top loader.i think you fit more in them compared to the front loader. when we first got here we bought a second hand 4.5kg regular top loader, it last a month!! i guess it couldn't handle the amount of laundry we have with 3 kids! so we bought a Samsung high efficiency top loader and i love it!! its not the biggest you can get but is a 7.5kg. for the crunchiness get some liquid fabric softener and that should help. I use fluffy, and hang out my clothes 90% of the time. I have found that a lot of things here are much smaller than in the states! The refrigerator, oven, paper towel rolls are much shorter, dryers, and i'm sure there is more.
@ Stacy - I already got a small ront loader, It's the only type that will fit into our little laundry closet.... The clothes aren't crunchy anymore - I was totally using the washer wrong!! I actually had to read the manual! I am such a dork :)
I can't remember if I packed our paper towel holder in the crate or not; but these tiny paper towels will look funny on it if I did :D
I rack and line dried all of my laundry when I lived in England... craziness. I did grow to love all the quirky differences I dealt with... I had a hilarious "lemon in the water" moment there when I asked for a to go box at a restaurant... they don't so much do that where I was and gave me some tinfoil for the rest of my salad. Hilarious.
Miss and love you.
@ Cory - totally, I am already realizing how many things I would miss here if/when we ever moved back to the States. It's funny how quickly you can get used to something and then how quickly it can grow on you.