How: Rolling with it as a philosophy
Part I: Laundry
One of the things that always appealed to us about France was the slower pace of life and the fact that being there felt, especially in the south, like stepping back in time. As modern as France is as a country, there are also a lot of things that haven’t changed the way they have in the Us. This time warp includes a lot of changes in conveniences we’re used to in the US, changes we want to roll with because in many ways, they are part of the larger reason why we wanted to be here. Roll with it is, indeed, our motto when it comes to this adventure.
Two major changes are laundry and dish washing. Part I of this series will be about laundry; Part II about dishwashing.
We have a smallish washing machine and no dryer. Also, we have no dishwasher and no garbage disposal.We don’t have a garbage disposal at our rental back home either, though we had one for decades before that and I have to admit, even though I know composting is better for the world, I do miss being able to whisk food particles down the drain.
If you were to look for a home here, you could make some of these conveniences deal breakers (although garbage disposals are rare). And we could put in a dishwasher or a dryer at some point, though I don’t see it happening soon. So I thought I’d spend a couple of posts talking about how we’re “rolling” with these changes.
Laundry:
The biggest adjustment to not having a dryer has been that dryers are great for filtering out animal hair (yay lint trap—and those paw-shaped rubber things that grab the rest). Dryers also make your clothes softer, although they are harder on the clothes themselves.
Fortunately, the house comes with excellent indoor and outdoor clotheslines that are sturdy (it seems like they’ve been there for decades) and really well-designed. In the spring and summer, lighter clothes dry in a couple hours, jeans take a little longer, maybe half a day.
In solving the hair and softness issues I immediately turned to the internet. I should say first, that things got much better as soon as we were able to get a powerful Shark stick vacuum after the first week or so—we have one back home and I absolutely love it; vacuuming is so easy with it, it’s almost, well, satisfying. Before we got that, we were constantly sweeping and mopping and at the rate Asuna sheds, this was not cutting it. Vacuuming at least once a day makes a huge difference in this respect. Less hair to end up on our clothes and linens.
But that doesn’t help with getting hair off the things that Asuna directly lays on, like the sheets covering the day bed, sofa etc. Several sources suggested adding washing soda to the wash to help pull away hair. Turns out this really does help. Not as much as a dryer filter but there is decidedly less hair . Finally, when I am putting damp sheets on the line, I find that I’m able to just brush off what little hair that’s left.
Washing soda is highly recommended for softening as well and this also turned out to be true. Here washing soda even comes in little pre-measured packs you can pop in the wash, just like the detergent. And even though clothes and towels might still be a bit stiff at first—especially linen, one of my favorite fabrics—they soften up pretty quickly once you put them on or start using them. I still might take things like sheets and towels to the laundromat around the corner or take up my neighbor’s offer to use her dryer, when we’re expecting guests and I want them to be more comfy. But otherwise, we’ve worked it out.
(Our washing machine, which is in the downstairs bathroom next to the shower. Savon de Marseille detergent packs on the left, washing soda packs on the right.)
Here’s the thing, I’m finding I really like doing laundry here, when it’s one of my least favorite tasks at home. This is because:
You’re forced to do smaller loads more often, which are much easier to deal with (my mom suggested this years ago but I was never able to pull it off, especially when we were a household of four). No more laundry mountains fresh from the dryer that take 45 minutes to fold and sort (and that’s just my clothes, my husband does his own), which I find unbearably boring without a podcast to listen to or someone to chat with.
If you do it right, you’re sorting and folding while you put the clothes up and take them down. Putting them up, I put pairs of things like socks together and just fold them when I take them down. I also sort and fold as I take the rest down and put it in the basket, larger items on the bottom, pants, tops, dresses, and smaller things on top, like underwear and socks. I also smooth out anything that seems particularly wrinkled right when I put it up damp and then it dries barely needing an iron. Each part of this system goes pretty quickly too. No more than five to ten minutes to put up or take down these smaller loads.
The whole thing is very meditative. When the weather’s warm you get to be out in the fresh air, which really does add a freshness to the clothes. And for me personally, the view while I’m doing it is pretty awesome.
