by Joilene Rasmussen

Created on: September 03, 2008

A (Somewhat) Traditional Wash Day

During college, my roommate and I washed our clothes in a large sink on a wooden scrub board, then strung them on a line sagging across the dingy laundry room. We started this weekly ritual out of necessity, as we needed every penny we could scrounge for gas money, but soon came to appreciate the finer points of doing laundry by hand.

First off, we DID save money sometimes enough for an unexpected trip home, or to the nearest mall, an hour away.

Secondly, we did only one or two loads per week, and found ourselves with literally hours more than if we had chosen to squander our time babysitting machines. We managed this by pairing up for double-duty- one of us read a course text aloud, while the other scrubbed undies. After a while, we traded off. In this manner, we managed to care for all our laundry each week in forty-five minutes to an hour, AND get schoolwork done. It took both of us to properly wring out jeans, and sometimes, when we were especially tired, laundry was a chore we would have liked to defer. But our friendship grew, and, in fact, a classmate said we reminded her of Dianne and Anne of Green Gables.

Since then, I have continued the tradition of air-drying my family's laundry, though I mostly use a machine now for washing. In the summer, I usually hang clothes outside, but during the winter, I drape them over lines in my basement, near a wood stove. They still take several hours to dry thoroughly, but I have refined the business almost to an art, to get each load dry its fastest.

First off, beware of your arrangement of articles. If there are air currents to take advantage of, either from a heat register, window, or fan, hang your heaviest items in their direct path- or whichever things you need done first. Secondly, alternate, if you can, "long" lines and "short" lines. Long lines include things like bed sheets, and short lines include things like socks and underwear. This arrangement allows for the best circulation of air. Hang things in single layers if you can, properly, with pins, but if you can't, just drape items evenly on either side of the line, and have patience. Thirdly, beware what is underneath your clothes. Some kinds of flooring do not like to be dripped on. Especially if the floor is not truly yours, be courteous and at least put something down to catch or absorb the drips.

What do you do if you don't have lines, or a drying rack? In most dwellings, you can probably find enough things to drape your laundry over to make do. I have done this in my house in the summer, when we have had three rainy days in a row, and I HAVE to do laundry. The tops of doors are a good choice, as long as they have a finish or paint job that separates the insides of the door from the moisture in your clothes. Otherwise, wooden doors can expand and warp. Door knobs also work in a pinch, and even a T-shirt hung by the neck will eventually dry, provided the atmosphere is not saturated. For this reason, I avoid hanging laundry in my bathroom. Get creative- the backs of chairs, curtain rods, and even oven handles can serve as drying racks.

Know that if the air is damp, either from high humidity or from ground-water issues, like sometimes occurs in my basement, you may not be able to dry clothes fast enough to prevent their smelling musty. When that is the case, either produce heat to dry the air out, or resort to an electric dryer, and hope for less humidity next wash day.

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