1. Carefully (or regret later) separate clothes by country in which they were manufactured (specifically referring to India & Thailand, and for the latter, namely Thai fishing pants, which are also on my love/hate list) as to avoid tinting all your clothes light green (for a random example). Even Fab India clothing should be kept far away...until it's faded enough (aka after a few washes) to not pose a big risk.
2. Power "on" and then put clothes into left side of "manual" washing machine. Turn knob to "wash" (seemingly minor point, but many minutes and too much water has been wasted because the the drain was open and I was trying to fill the machine.) Turn on the water from the faucet nearby. Add mysterious blue powder soap, that, according to my new roomie, Kunal, "Gets out stains that I had given up on after more than a dozen washes in the States."
4. Cringe. Quickly turn knob to "drain." Drain. Turn knob to "wash." Add water from faucet for next "rinse" cycle (no soap). Rinse. 9ish minutes. Buzzzzz! Open lid, see dirty brown water. Freak out. Repeat 5x.
5. Disgruntled, decide that this is clean enough and move clothes to the right side of the machine into the centrifuge. Load up the heavy, soaking wet clothes in an even fashion as to avoid the loud sound that comes when the machine is unbalanced.
6. Wait 5 minutes (check out yourself in the nearby mirror or dance around to Desi Girl). Remove the clothes which have become almost completely dry (it's actually amazing). Load into a bucket. Walk upstairs to the roof!
8. In the morning, go upstairs and take clothes off the line, experiencing nice smelling and very wrinkly clothing (my favorite step in the process).
7. Walk down the street to the iron wala who charges 4 Rs. per item (1.5 Rs. more than in Delhi, 2.5 Rs. more than in Bhilai) to turn the heap of clothes into a neat, compressed pile of wearable laundry...My friend, I'm now ready to move and shake in Chennai...!
Maybe, instead, a smarter investment is in one of these? It would cut out steps #2-5 and is better for the environment...
Maybe, instead, a smarter investment is in one of these? It would cut out steps #2-5 and is better for the environment...
7 comments:
this post makes me feel bad for piling my laundry up for 3 weeks because im too lazy to do it.
ok ok i know you have an iron wala, but if you fold your clothes while they are wet and then put them in a pile and step on them in your bare (clean) feet, they will also be nice and unwrinkled. a tip from the ko-rea.
bare clean feet? c'mon caro, you've lived in india ;)
isn't there a clothes-wash-walla?
this ain't delhi...!
in the south it's apparently do your own laundry, pick up your own filtered water, pick up/drop off at the iron wala and dry cleaner...aka fend for yourself :(
it's a tough world out here...
takes me right back to mid sixties when we got one of these new wonders.
Even it looks/sound antique nowadays, is was a revolution and a great help for my mother.... (my job was resticted to turn the knobs and plug in the mains.)
I vividly remember the whole thing was hopping around when centrifuging, amazing to watch.
Later we got a front loaded full automatic 'thing' and the hopping - and fun - stopped...
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