Doing the Laundry - India Style

It is a whole new world to do laundry here. We paid 10,000 rupees (about $250) for a washer and I opted for semi-automatic. I mean, really, how hard can it be to move the clothes for them to spin, right? well, let me tell you. First of all, the machine is outside. We put ours in the backyard to be closer to the clothesline, but usually they are in a tiny yard on the side of the house. You hook the hose up to a tap in the wall. If you want hot water, the machine will heat it after you fill it. (or you can save time by filling a bucket at the shower - learned that the first week) Turn the knob to "fill", turn on the tap, and stand there until it is as full as you want, then turn off the tap. Add the clothes and detergent (bag says 2 scoops but gives no indication how big a scoop is). Switch the knob to "normal" and set the time you want the clothes to agitate.

When the time is up a buzzer goes and you switch the knob to "drain" and wait for the water to run out a different hose into a drain in the ground. Then you switch the knob to "fill" again and turn the tap on. When the water level is where you want it, switch the knob again and agitate the clothes for a rinse cycle. When the buzzer goes, switch to "drain" and wait. When the water is out, open the lids and put half the dripping clothes into the other side of the machine, put down the lid and set the timer for how long you want them to spin. The spinner works great (unless the clothes aren't balanced, in which case it makes a terrible racket and you stop it and move them a bit and try again) and the clothes are only damp when it is done. Then you hang the clothes on the line while the other half of the load spins. Then you hang that. HURRAY! You just did ONE LOUSY LOAD OF LAUNDRY! and it only took about an hour. bleah. and I thought laundry never ended when I had an automatic washer! When buying, I didn't realize semi-automatic meant that I was the automatic part!

This is how you do it when your husband hasn't put up the clothesline yet! To be fair, we couldn't find a place to buy big nails so Randy strung the rope from the bars on the windows upstairs. It worked but was not nearly long enough. Now I have the width of the yard twice with another one diagonal that is about half that long. And when I do loads of socks and underwear it takes the whole length. In the summer when it was so hot a load would dry in the time it took to wash the next one. Now that it is cooler it doesn't work as well, and they tell me that in winter you have to dry clothes inside on a rack and it takes all day for one load to dry. Not looking forward to that!