Laundry

Laundry. How I loathe doing laundry. So much so that at home I don't bother doing it more than once a month. I guess it's a good thing I'm lucky enough to have enough clothes for that to even be possible. To all my American friends....take a minute right now and appreciate your washer and dryer. I'm serious! Do it.

There is nothing like being able to throw a whole load of laundry in at once and then putting it in to a dryer that also fits all those clothes. Doing laundry out here is much more complicated than that. After my first few weeks out here I soon realized that doing laundry only once a month was not going to be a possibility. For starters, what would be 1 load of laundry at home has to be divided up into 2-3 sometimes 4 loads. Why? Because THIS is the size of our washing machine. At first glance you think "aww how cute!" Or at least that's what I said at first. But after being here for 8 months (WHOA! how did THAT happen?) I now despise laundry more than ever. When I say it's laundry day I literally mean an ENTIRE day must be devoted to all the laundry I have to do. You're probably asking "well Kristin, why don't you do your laundry more often than once a month?" And to that I will sigh and say "I DO." I know, I know, I shouldn't complain because in reality I am very, very lucky to even have a washing machine in my apartment. I maybe know one other person who is as lucky as that but still. Look at how tiny it is!!

The next problem is that this little machine is also the dryer. Yup, you got it. A washer/dryer combo. As you can maybe imagine, my things do not get very dry when the leftover water from the rinse cycle is still spinning through during the dry cycle. After a couple months of playing with the different settings I finally figured out that rather than putting it on the 3 hour dry cycle (no joke. 3 hours is an option) where my clothes come out smelling burnt and gross I have started to hang things up. Now being that I was too cheap to buy a £10 clothes drying rack and also too lazy to carry it back on the bus and home from the store, I hang it from my door way and take over all the chairs in the living room. I'm not sure how my roommates felt about having laundry strewn about all afternoon but hey! you gotta do whatcha gotta do to get those clothes dry and smelling fresh!
Needless to say I am more than anxious to get home and hug my washer and dryer. Literally. I plan on hugging and thanking each one for being so beautiful and large.
On a side note, it is not washing machines and dryers that I despise but rather the general act of doing laundry. The sorting and soap and timing it and then folding it and getting it organized into drawers....ugh. But ask anyone who has been in to Best Buy with me and they can attest to the fact that Washers and Dryers and appliances in general get me SO excited!! I'm such a dork like that but hey, nothing wrong with liking these things. CLICK ME CLICK ME CLICK ME This is the kind of stuff I love sprinting to as soon as I enter Best Buy hahahah I think Javi had thought I'd gone nuts when he first saw me go bug eyed and start playing with all the dials and knobs. And last time I went with my dad he had to tell me NO 100x's before I would leave. *sigh* poor Kristin. hahah just kidding.

Love from London,
Kristin