The washing

One thing that has been a change for me, but a return to normalcy for Gareth, has been the way we dry our clothes. Although tumble dryers do exist in New Zealand, they don't seem to be very popular. Everyone hangs their washing out to dry on a clothesline, or, if it's rainy, on a clothes horse inside. Even if we wanted to buy a tumble dryer, our house doesn't have a space to put one. But we're fitted with a very nice clothes line outside in our garden.

When I told mom that this is how we'd be doing things here, she responded, "oh, you'll never manage with THAT..." thanks for the vote of confidence mom... you'll all be happy to hear that I'm actually coping just fine.

Hanging out the washing is a fact of life here (and, I'm led to believe, in pretty much every place except America). It's the norm. We've started looking at house listings, and had a little chuckle when we read this one:

Comes with a heat pump, a dishwasher, a wall oven, a large pantry, a laundry supertub and a clothesline for the ease of modern living.

If hanging clothes out to dry is the modern way, what's the old way??

The attitude here seems to be one of sustainability. Why would you use electricity to dry clothes when sunshine and fresh air are available for FREE? When we first arrived in Christchurch and checked into a hostel, we were shown around by the lady of the house. She pointed out that there was a washer and dryer available for our use, and added, "but of course on a nice sunny day like today you won't have any need for the dryer..." Right. (I used the dryer.)

Just two months in, and I'm learning to love the washing line. For one, my clothes don't shrink everytime I wash them now. No more wiggling into fresh-out-of-the-dryer jeans. I think our clothes are going to last longer now. And there's something nice about being outside to hang out the washing. It just feels good, like homemade bread.

This subject came up at work last week, and I mentioned that I had never hung clothes out to dry before moving here. They were incredulous. They pointed out further benefits I had not considered. Apparently, the UV rays in the sunshine act as an acti-bacterial and make your clothes even fresher and cleaner. As I can't seem to hang everything up without dropping one or two things on the ground in the process, the UV effect is a lucky bonus.

We kind of shudder to think of all the electricity we wasted by using the tumble dryer during the 6 years we lived in Phoenix. It would be 100 degrees outside, sun blazing, zero humidity. But we would throw our clothes into the dryer and push a button and pull them out 60 minutes later. That just seems like insanity now.