You see, when you are a student, money and laundry are both big issues. The washing machine costs £1.80. ( A serious source of annoyance because you have to find a 20p and a 10p. Irritating.) As a student I am faced with an age old dilemma. Do I do a wash each week, stay clean but spend quite a bit of money on washing or save my washing, smell for a few days but save more money in the long run?
I decided neither of those options was so good so bought a few more pairs of socks and tights etc to tide me over for ten days. £1.80 every ten days is much more reasonable!
I didn't however think this through. After stuffing the machine with my laundry and then lugging the clean wet clothes back to my room I stood facing my clothes airer wondering what had got into me?
How on earth was it going to fit?
There was no way ten days of dirty clothes, bedsheets and two towels were going to fit on a small airer and get dry.
After forty five minutes of trying to squeeze socks around my wooly jumpers I had to concede that there was just no way that everything was going to get dry. The bedsheets were hanging over the wardrobe door, the towel was dripping limply on the peg and there was still half a basket full of clothes.
It was then that inspiration dawned.
I had packed string. I had also packed pegs.
Oh hello indoor washing line.
Yes, it may have been a potential hazard and yes I had difficulty getting into bed that night but I had clean, dry laundry and that my friends makes a girl happy!
This story comes from Sian's storytelling Sunday. Do pop on over to Sian's lovely blog to hear stories from around the world.
17 comments:
Good for you! Though, I'd save my pennies and perhaps use the dryer at the laundromat for the bigger items .....
fab story Abi and just goes to show how creative youare! I am so glad you didn't go for the smelly option!
I think Amy may have a solution there,Abi.....but I bet you're glad of the pegs!!
Great ingenuity, Abi - and it'll only be one night in ten that you'll have to dodge the drips :).
I can empathise with you Abi. Here we are not allowed to hang washing outside or it upset the other residents so I have washing dripping everywhere. A. because I can't afford to use the tumble dryer or b. turn on the heating yet,
Jo xxx
Gosh, you just brought memories of the laundry room at our university flooding back! I'm sure we never had to pay, but it was difficult to find the machines free....
Great to see that a bit of forward planning and ingenuity got you through! :)
Inspired! and thank you for all the memories coming flooding back here too. My boyfriend and I started combining loads - we did one white and one coloureds a week between us. Which makes me laugh now - at the time I didn't realise that I'd still be washing his socks all these years later..
It's a brilliant moment to record, I'd love to have a photo of us doing our washing all those years ago. Thanks Abi
LOL! Great story & very inspired of you to think ahead like that!
Inspired indeed - we've never had a dryer as far as the kids can remember, but I will remind Princess to take up an airer for her room to dry her clothes next year.
Glad you shared the story and found a solution!
Well done! My daughter has just gone to uni, and has a clothes airer, but is finding that it isn't quite big enough for a wash, so has ended up draping things over the radiators too!
Very resourceful Abi! So glad you found a practical solution to your dilemma!
Resourceful is what I thought! In my sons room in halls he had a loose ceiling tile which he moved about to give him some metal bars that turned his room into a chinese laundry!
What a great story! It's funny. I have very little recollection of doing laundry in University. Will have to mull that a bit. As a grad student and newly wed, I remember going to the laundromat with Paul (and eating eggplant parmesan sandwiches washed down with beer at the Greek deli next door). But don't remember much at all about what I did when I first started school. . .
Rinda
Well done - glad that you are making your pennies stretch. It's not just the money with a trip to the laundry room ... it's the *time* it takes! I can remember hours wasted because there was often a queue for the next available machine or you'd get back and find some so and so had emptied out your wet washing onto the floor while you had nipped out for a break from the noise.
You were very resourceful packing string and pegs. I wouldn't have wanted the smelly option either, but I may have opted for hand washing the delicates.
I'm trying to remember how we dried our clothes when I was a College...I think there were 'pulley' type racks for us to use in the Laundry room!
Alison xx
A light bulb moment indeed! The smelly option just doesn't work does it x
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