Adventures in Laundry

Clean clothes are important. Unfortunately, for those of us that do not own a washer or dryer, clean clothes are hard to come by. After braving a very confusing aisle of laundry products, powders, tablets, liquid detergent, fabric softener, dryer sheets, other assorted things I don't recognize, I settled on "wasmiddel," thinking it looked the most like detergent. After I confirmed my hunch using my favorite new tool, Google Translate, I began to sort my laundry. Knowing that I have only a small sink and a dry rack to complete this exciting, necessary task, I end up with three piles. I paw through two and a half weeks of laundry, pulling out my favorite articles to wash right away, a pile of underwear and other essentials, and a mound of clothes that will just have to wait. I only have so much space on the dry rack.

I start by washing out the sink thoroughly and filling it with hot water and some detergent. I have no large wooden spoon or serving spoon, so I stir the detergent in with a large spatula. I put in the clothes and stir again with the spatula. I drain the sink, rinse the clothes, and hang them up. After repeating this ritual four times, I have watched all of my "favorite things" and a fair amount of the "necessary articles" pile as well. Though I've rung them out as best I could, they're still quite wet so I decide to place a large towel under the dry rack.

Cue my next attempt at laundry, a few weeks later. After being informed that I can use the all-in-one washer dryer at school, I decided to bring a big bag of dirty clothes with me to work today. I put them in the washer/dryer and couldn't figure out how it worked. There are three different knobs, about eight different buttons... not easy. I called our receptionist and she came and helped me, though she had no idea either. Well, I evidently didn't set a dryer cycle because after two hours of washing, it stopped. I tried to set it to just do a dry cycle. Not happening. I accidently hit a button and it starts a wash cycle again. And the door locks. I see my poor, wet clothes getting sloshed around again, and there is nothing I can do. I helplessly try to turn the machine off. It works, but the door is still locked. I turn it back on. It continues where it left off. I decide I've been defeated, so I set a dryer cycle to follow the wash and leave. Two and a half hours later I go upstairs again. My clothes are still being held hostage. What to do? So I hit a button that I think should shorten the dry cycle and leave. Upon my return fifteen minutes later, the contraption has finally stopped. My clothes are still wet. I haul them out, put them in my bag, carry them home and hang them on my dry rack. Ok, so that took all day.

I think I'll try to wash the other load tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. I just can't let that machine get the better of me.