Laundry

I remember when I used to have to drag my wash out to a laundromat and would spend hours sitting in some dingy place feeding quarters into the washer and dryer. I was so excited when I moved into an apartment with laundry facilities in the building. But the thrill quickly died as I realized there weren't enough machines in the building for the number of people, and everyone was jockeying for position. More sitting and waiting in the laundry room.

I finally achieved laundry nirvana when I purchased my own home, complete with a washer and a dryer. I could wash my clothes whenever I liked and didn't have to compete with anyone. Sure the laundry sometimes still piled up, but I could even do laundry while I slept if I wanted.

Here in Krakow I do have a washer and dryer in my own apartment and I can still do laundry whenever I like, but the washer and the dryer are combined, which means you can only wash a load, or dry a load, not do both simultaneously. Washing a load takes 90 minutes, and drying takes multiple hours. The entire system seems to work differently than in Canada. Somehow the water is suctioned out of wet clothes (don't ask me how - it is just different) and clothes never get fully dry in the dryer.

Luckily my bathroom, where I hang my clothes to dry, is really warm, thanks to the heated floors and the heated towel rack. I've always hung most of my clothes to dry, but here I end up drying my sheets and towels for close to two hours in the dryer, and then hanging them in the bathroom (I've discovered the shower is the perfect height to dry sheets) to get the dampness out.

I do miss my high powered North American washer and dryer. The wash cycle took 20 minutes and sheets and towels fully dried in less than an hour. What did I do with all that extra time?