Laundry Day....Daily

I remember laundry day.  The kids, Jason, and I would pile our dirty clothes up all week long (in our oversized bathtub since 1- we are shower people & 2 - the tub is a perfect hamper of course)  and come Sunday I would start the process of sorting, hauling clothes downstairs, washing, drying, hauling upstairs, and repeat.  Only after endless loads of laundry would we attack the pile of clean clothes, sorting and putting away.  (Maybe we would skip the last few steps sometimes, wearing clean clothes out of the pile for a few days...).  Who knew how different such a normal thing could be in Japan?

For starters, we cannot pile our dirty clothes in the tub here.  It has really put a cramp in our lifestyle. : )  Our tub and shower are attached so piling clothes there would lead to all kinds of wetness and who knows what else.  Also, the washing machine here is maybe 1/2 the size of our American one, leading to many more loads to accomplish the same task.  Another problem - maybe the biggest one of all - no dryer.  Now, this is not a personal problem that we experiencing, but rather a nationwide issue.  (Issue to me, normal to everyone here).  Due to small apartments and extremely high energy costs the majority of people in Japan forego having a dryer.  We know a few people with washer/dryer combos - literally one unit that does both jobs.  After the clothes are washed the water drains out and the wash drum turns into a dryer.  Users report that while this is a great idea, there are many conceptual flaws - one being that it takes 4 hours to dry a pair of jeans.  4 hours.  So much for saving on electricity.

Our method?  Line drying.  Everyone line dries their clothes here. Plusses - cheap, eco-friendly, and actually relaxing.  Jason and I have both come to enjoy hanging the clothes.  Downside - it takes forever for clothes to dry in cold or damp weather, and they dry stiff.    We can no longer have a laundry day.  We now have laundry daily.  We have to do a load everyday so that there is room to hang for drying.

Here's what we miss - warm towels straight out of the dryer, soft pj's, jeans that bend at the knees without breaking.  All the luxuries of dryer ownership.  But, I like the whole line drying thing too...maybe this is a lifestyle change that we will adopt permanently.

Above is a pic of our laundry drying on our balcony.  The white thing hanging over the side Jaxon futon. Beyond our balcony is the city of Utazu.

Comments

  1. slowneyMay 5, 2012 at 9:43 PM

    Interesting. Do you use the same brand of detergent or something Japanese?

    How is the kids new school year going?

    Love, Aunt Susan

    ReplyDelete
  2. tawnyaMay 6, 2012 at 7:05 PM

    We use Japanese products. I haven't actually seen any "American" soap here - just fabric softener. But of course, it is 4x the price!

    ReplyDelete

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