I amuse myself a lot these days by doing things I never thought about before.
I had my little boring routine in Holton, Kansas, and it served me well since I had no one else in the house to worry about or work around. I cleaned when I wanted, I washed and dried my one or two loads of clothes each week, cooked and baked when I felt moved, slept as long as I desired. It was perfect for one person.
Today, I hung clothes out in the rain. The fact that I actually hang clothes on a huge, rotating station in the back garden ['yard' for you yankees] is something that never crossed my mind in Holton. I just put the clothes in the washer and then the dryer and then put them away like everybody else, I assume. But here, I rarely use the dryer--mostly because not much is that urgent to be dried plus the dryer is in the shed ['garage' for you yankees] because laundry rooms don't usually have outlets for dryers, so it's not exactly convenient. But, since I'm a lady of leisure now, I really don't mind hanging clothes out. The slower pace of life allows for the time it takes and they get that 'fresh' smell to them.
And now I shall explain why I'm not crazy because I hang clothes in the rain.
Rain here is much finer than any I have ever encountered in the States, whether it was Georgia or Kansas. It is so fine that, most of the time, it doesn't even make raindrop puddles in the pond or any sound at all on the plastic sunroom roof. The patio deck being wet is a dead give away, but sometimes, I only know it's raining because I look up at the trees and see it falling against the dark shades of the leaves and I'm amazed at how much rain is really falling without notice. So I find that, even with the rain coming down the clothes will get dry in a few hours.
We do have stormy rain with pelting drops on the odd occasion, but that is usually at night. And thunderstorms are very rare here. I'm told it's all because of the mountain being between us and the ocean, but I will just take their word for that.
6 comments:
Ah, drying clothes! When I lived in Palestine (Ramallah) I hung my clothes to dry on a rack on the balcony. Not only was everything dry in about 10 minutes (desert climate, you know), you could now get double duty out of your laundry. The clothes were rough like sandpaper and the towels -- I kid you not -- were hard as boards and could be used as serving trays.
We bought a dryer.
Now I live in Moldova and again I hang my clothes on a rack on the landing upstairs. Again, they are dry and scratchy, if not as bad as the Holy Land laundry.
I live in a city with construction going on all around our house, and hanging them outside does not seem to be the way to keep them clean, nor a fresh calming,relaxing exercise.
I may just have to invest in another dryer. You can get free standing ones that collect the water in drawer compartment that you need to empty, so they don't need venting outside.
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We're not allowed to have clothes lines in our mobile home park. When I lived in the country, hanging clothes outside brought lovely sunshine smell to the clothes, and shaved away an inch or so from my waist! True the towels weren't soft, but they absorbed the water better.
I call that misting here. I'm surprised your clothes dry in it. Must be that magic touch of yours ;)
We had the same in Holland. Heavy rain and storms with thunder and lightning and indeed that doesn't happen here. We never had lightning or thunder in chch
There's nothing like the smell of line dried clothes. It's lovely that you can hang them out in the rain and they'll still get dry not too much later.
I like crisp dried clothes.. although it depends on the water as much as the air and what's in it. I am looking forward to radiator season again this winter. Drying clothes on the radiator is effective, and add humidity to the dry air!
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