Okay. I hung out the laundry while I was upstairs too. And hanging it out reminded me of my first few months of being a bride.In Japan people don't use dryers very often. It isn't that there aren't dryers. Japan is so technically advanced that there are such things as washers that will even continue after the spin cycle and go into dryer mode. A couple of my friends have these futuristic machines, but they don't use the dryer mode very often they say. In my case, I've had a dryer for nearly 16 years but I use it once or twice a year and for the past four years it has been my storage area for cat food (my cats can open any and all drawers and cupboards). Housewives in Japan hang out their clothes. The fresh air smell is important and just the idea of using electricity to dry clothes when the sun and breeze is out there is unthinkable to them. Japanese friends often are amazed when I tell them that maybe except for farm wives who hang clothes on a line, most American women will use their dryer.
For the first 13 years of marriage we didn't have a dryer at all. When I first got married I had to pull the sopping laundry from the washing part of the machine into the spin part of the machine, then back to the wash part for rinsing, then back to the spin part! Yes, and how old am I? Not THAT old but thirty years ago that was the technology. Japan has come a long way. Now washing machines practically talk to us! All laundry was and is hung out on the small balcony of the apartment. The shirts and sheets and underwear vie for hanging space with the futon and pillows that are airing out there too.
I went at my new housewifely role with gusto. Toodl-ie-do, drag the wet laundry out to the balcony, take a bunch of plastic hangers and clothespins and drape things over the laundry pole (we don't use a line or rope either. It is always a sturdy pole. Actually this is a very good invention. Weight doesn't pull anything to the ground.) But wait! My mother-in-law caught me hanging out laundry and declared that I was doing it the WRONG way. One was supposed to spank the laundry first.
Now I had had no training in house care whatsoever and I had NEVER seen my own mother hang laundry ANYWHERE so mother-in-law must be right. She showed me how to take wet laundry out of the basket, fold it lightly in my hand or my lap (sitting on our knees here) and then SPANK it. Spanking wet laundry drives the wrinkles out of it... Ah.. I think that was what I was trying to do when I SHOOK out the laundry but mother-in-law's laundry did look better than mine. I was also instructed that laundry should always be turned inside out (so the sun doesn't bleach it) and hung upside down (so that the clothespins don't leave marks on the shoulders).
While we lived with my mother-in-law I did it her way. Or else just left it for her to do (bad daughter-in-law!) After 28 years of marriage I am back to lightly shaking and hanging it any ol' way, but on the occasions Tetsu hangs out the laundry for me he does it his mother's way. And it looks much less wrinkled in the end.
The sun is shining. The birds are singing. It's a beautiful day. The futon are airing and the laundry is out. Tetsu is going to look at this post today and think.
"Why on earth is she showing our wet laundry!?"
Hmm. I little wrinkly there I see. I should have spanked it first...
"Why on earth is she showing our wet laundry!?"
Hmm. I little wrinkly there I see. I should have spanked it first...
12 comments:
I used to love the smell of clothes dried outside too. But things change when you live in the woods and also feed the birds. Had to give up outdoor drying 30 years ago when we moved to this house. There are trees around here that have small berries and you can guess what happens to the sheets when the birds fly by!!! Before that I'd dry clothes outside summer and winter. When the clothes are frozen hard as a board alot of the moisture is already out of the fabric. When brought inside, thawed a bit and rolled, everything is the perfect dampness for ironing. Of course that was many years ago when we still ironed EVERYTHING. Sheets, dish towels, boxer shorts etc. etc.
hanging out clothes to dry when one suffers from hayfever can be interesting to say the least -- must admit to using my line off and on in the summer months, but never in the winter (at -40 C the idea of wet and outside are very unwelcome in the same idea....)
I often hang out my clothes on the line but it's not usual here in our development. Just 3 years ago, we left my brother-in-law in charge of the kids for 10 days when we went to bring home another child from overseas. When we returned he'd bought us a dryer. He said he did it for his sanity.
There have been several articles I've read recently concerning laundry. There are many developments where you are not allowed to hang laundry.
I always use my dryer and I could blame it on the fact we live in a townhouse and there's nowhere to hang clothes out but I've always dried them in the dryer.
I have to do laundry tomorrow and clean the house - I'm not looking forward to it but we're having company this weekend too. I've been doing little bits here and there all week but I still have the bulk of the cleaning to do so I doubt I'll get any quilting done tomorrow.
Tanya,
Your laundry had NO wrinkles in it....I don't know how you do it! When I hang mine out in is always wrinkly. I DO NOT iron (except when quilting!) and have been known to run a load of wrinkled clothes again in the dryer with a damp washcloth.
ooh, you used to have two machines just to do the washing? aiyee. definitely lots of the newer places in the US forbid drying clothes outside. Be interesting to see if that changes as people get more concerned about the environment.
I use the solar powered dryer, always have. Around here most of the people are Amish so I fit right in with my laundry on the line. One time last year the wind blew so hard it ripped a sheet and Shreed's shirts were blown into the pasture. They weren't so clean after that.
Your post made me laugh! I shake mine vigourously, before hanging it out. Gom often hangs it for me, & he never shakes it. Sometimes I sneak out to take out some of the wrinkles. He does always fold it when he gets it off the line, so that helps. I hate ironing!!
We have a combined washer/dryer, which is just as well as there'd be no room for two machines in our kitchen. I dry my laundry outside whenever I can in the summer, but this time of year it would never dry, our weather is too unpredictable, and the days are too short. I always shake things before I hang them up - I'd never thought of spanking them though. Seems like a good idea for releasing any frustrations.
My friend in US was amazed to find that we regularly have a function with the washing machine to recycle the left over hot bathtub water afterwards. I always enjoy and learn a lot from your blog how to introduce Japanese culture in English.
Thank you for the woven quilt issue,too.
Always waiting for it updated!
Yumi
I haven't hung out laundry since I was a flat-broke college student! I too had one of those washing machines with separate compartments for the washing/agitating and the removing water/spinning. It had two small tubs in one rectangular case (and was avocado green, so that tells how old it was). It fit in my small bathroom, was cheap, and it and the clothesline saw me through college. I had never seen or heard of another one here. This post took me down memory lane!
Many housing developments here don't allow hanging out laundry. (The snooty ones, usually.)
Sadly, there are so many places here that don't allow laundry to be hung out. But lately there is a backlash against homeowners associations in general and dumb rules like that specifically. Thank goodness.
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