The Lost Art of Drying Clothes

When we moved to America to work with MMS, it was perfectly timed for many reasons. One of those being that another family were just packing up to leave and needed to sell all their furniture and we needed a house full of furniture for when we arrived, to make a home! For a job lot we were able to buy everything from dining-room table and chairs, beds and washing machine to kitchen electrical goods and children's toys. It couldn't have been a more perfect arrangement for either family.

It was an extra special treat for me to know that there was a tumble dryer included in the deal. Tumble dryers aren't as common in England as they are here ... people will often use a washing line outside in the summer months or radiators inside during the winter ... neither of which can be found as easily here in small town America. In fact, most of the time the only people you find who use a clothes line outside are the Amish, as they have no electricity. It's just another one of those cultural differences. 

Since Naomi was born I have become even more attached to my tumble dryer ... I had already become a BIG fan! Where Abigail was quite clean and tidy as a baby, Naomi could projectile vomit with the best of them ... as well as 'poop' through multiple outfits in a day for weeks on end. Cleaning her clothes, mine, blankets, pillows and sofa covers over and over again would have been a nightmare in the house we lived in when Abigail was born! I'm very grateful that God gave me my daughters in the order that he did!

Imagine my surprise and disappointment yesterday when I went to check on some washing in the dryer to find that after 10 minutes it had turned itself off ... never to start again. ARGH! That was just not allowed to happen but it did! After the initial panic (yes, I know ... strong word but that's how I felt!) I called the repair man who will hopefully be here in the next day or two and then realised how grateful I was that I had done two loads the day before so we are good for clothes for the time being!

Then I had to figure out someway to dry the towels and things that were in the machine ... with no radiators or clothes lines I had to get a little creative. Thankfully the weather was warm, sunny and dry so I used the frame of our swing seat for some things and had other stuff dotted strategically around the house hoping grubby little fingers wouldn't make them dirty again before they even had the chance to dry! 'Chinese Laundry' comes to mind! For a few seconds I felt like a total fish out of water, wondering what to do with everything, ridiculous but true ... it just shows how much I've come to rely on something that up until 2 years ago I'd never even had the privilege of owning!