Laundry Day

One of my duties as "house husband" is the laundry. My wife seems to revel in the notion that this will be my responsibility exclusively for the remaining 5 months of our stay in France. Honestly, it's not all that bad. My only fear is that I'll destroy one of her shirts.



Our old-school washing machine has 15 different settings. Even Mary Ann admits that she doesn't understand what all the options are for. Once you set the dial and close the door, that's it. You cannot stop mid-cycle and change your mind. As such, we've been afraid of using any setting other than #4 - delicate colors. The washing cycle seems to take forever, I'm guessing 90 minutes. I think our machine at home could do a load in 15 minutes. What gives? I don't think the clothes are coming out 6-times cleaner.



We don't have a dryer, but given the hot arid climate, I'm happy to use the clothesline. I've developed an organized system of grouping the articles of clothing. Socks on the lowest lines, then underwear, then shorts and finally shirts. I only use the very top line when hanging towels and linens. There are even some clothespins that I prefer to use for different purposes. Call me OCD, but I think it's just how an engineer does the laundry.