I've been getting a lot of questions from family and friends about what our home is like here in London. More specifically, how are we getting by without a dryer. Yes, it's true, instead of your conventional washer and dryer we have 2 washers! That's right 2 washing machines.
Just to catch everyone up to speed here, it is not conventional for people to have dryers in their homes in the UK. In fact I believe its considered a luxury item to own one unlike living in Canada. I'm sure there are people here that have them in their homes, particularly more wealthy people, but I have yet to see one in someone's house and believe me, with all the house hunting we did when we first arrived, I saw a slew of different homes. It's also pretty conventional that people have their washing machines installed in the kitchen, but we do have our own laundry room as you can see here.
Back to the 2 washing machines though... because we share a house/flat with 4 other people - yup we have 4 female flatmates - its really essential to have more then 1 washing machine. It's actually pretty great - when everyone is at work, and because I'm not working at the moment, I get to use both washing machines at once which is very efficient. I can do coloured's and white's at the same time, or towels and bedding, you get the idea. I have often thought this would be ideal if you had a baby or a large family as I always hear parents complaining about non-stop laundry.
However, even though time is saved in the washing area, because I have to hang everything, the drying part takes longer. I mean I'm used to hanging clothes to dry - I did that in Canada all the time because I believe the dryer ruins your clothes more often then not, but when it comes to bedding and towels its a little annoying.
I have found a good solution for hanging clothes - our skylights in our room have these excellent bars on them and I can place the hangers there and then open the skylight to get airflow.
Right now its fine because its summer and its fairly warm outside and I can throw the sheets up over the wooden hege thing on our patio, but it still takes a couple hours for them to dry in the sun. On a mild day its takes most of the day for them to dry. I can't imagine what its going to be like in the winter drying them inside the house - I'll have to hang them over the doors or something. Even at that, I will have to start washing them early in the morning for them to dry in time to use them for bed in the evening. Maybe I'll have to buy another set.
I'm sure you know that the sun will bleach your laundry. Of course you already know this, but just in case... had to throw it out there.
wow - i'd think that in london, such a wet place, dryers would be more popular. what are you going to do once fall comes? personally, i'd stop washing things so often. ;)
Yeah, I do know the sun bleaches the laundry, that's why I hang the clothes to dry inside the house - I'm fine with the bedding getting bleached.
Yeah, come fall I think I will be doing less wash. Although if I let it compile too much then I've got a problem on my hands of where do I hang it all to dry when I do wash it?
As for the bedding, I think I may get an extra set for when I wash one set. I'll just get something cheap again - we have better stuff back in Canada anyways.
Haha, this is funny, L'an! This English room mate of mine has never once used the dryer here, and Van is almost as rainy a city as London - he hang dries everything, and then irons it all. To save energy.
Ha. Hey Jess! That is so funny. I hate ironing - especially because I'm doing it more now then I ever had to in the past! I wonder how much energy an iron uses versus a dryer?
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