A Confession: Airing My Dirty Laundry

We moved into our current apartment (flat) about a year and a half ago. From the moment I saw it at the inspection, I loved it. It's not particularly fancy, but it's a great size for us, has wall to wall carpet, a fair sized modern kitchen, plenty of closet space, a balcony, lots of light, an interesting view and is in a a quiet and convenient location. Our landlord has always been very prompt at getting things fixed. I love it here and will be sad to leave this place when we finally get tired of sharing our one-bedroom with a baby.

I just have one spoiled American gripe about life in our flat. My dad was in Ergonomics, so I feel genetically (if not professionally) qualified to discuss these design issues:

Laundry.

When we moved in I was psyched to have laundry in our apartment because our previous building had a shared laundry room. There's a little laundry nook in our bathroom and, because there is technically no outdoor space for us to hang laundry, we are legally entitled to a dryer. We did have to buy a washing machine. First gripe ... because of the size of the space, we needed to get a front loading washer. I know that front loaders are perfectly common and standard the world over, but in my opinion  - a pox on the house of whoever invented front loaders. I hate hunching over to stuff my clothes in and when I remove the clean ones, it's fairly impossible to do without some of them falling on the floor. Long live the top loader!

Then there is our dryer. Where to begin ...

This is as far as I can reach into the dryer. Just. Want. That. Last. Sock ...
See that round thing in the back? Lint trap. Design fail or evil joke?

1. It is mounted so high that I can hardly reach in to make sure I've gotten everything out. The top of my head just barely meets the bottom of the dryer.

2. The lint trap. When we first moved in, I could not find the lint trap. I let it go so long that I became really scared that I was going to set the place on fire with my next load, so I started Googling users manuals and "lint trap location dryer Australia." Turns out the lint trap is all the way in the back and you have to remove the whole round piece, unsnap the back, remove the lint, and then re-snap the back piece back on. It's an awkward operation made absurd by the fact that I can hardly reach into the front of the dryer, let alone all the way in the back. I have to drag out the step stool every time I need to clean the lint trap. 

3. Venting. Or rather, what venting?!? Americans take it for granted that our dryers have vents, making our drying, well, dry. Not my dryer. All that moisture just builds up in the air, turning my bathroom into a steam room. Good for my pores, I suppose. Today, I closed the bathroom door to decrease the dryer noise while I was on the phone, and when I opened it, I got a rain storm on my head from the built up condensation. 

Laundrified mirror.

Laundrified ceiling.

Laundrified wall.

Most Australians don't use the dryer nearly as much as we Americans do. They are much more inclined to dry their clothes in the sunshine. I briefly worked for an energy company here, and I remember our trainer musing in a conversation about high bills that we needed to be aware that there are some people who always use their dryer. People in my class thought that was ridiculous. I said that Americans hardly ever dry their clothes outside, and I got a lot of weird looks and "what? why?"s.

If we had an outdoor space, we'd probably have one of these - a Hills Hoist (cheeky picture of our downstairs neighbor's yard). But, in our complex, we are not supposed to have laundry sit out on our balcony. I honestly did try to get into the Aussie spirit by hanging all my laundry on a drying rack in front of the door and popping them in the dryer at the end on fluff with a dryer sheet, but they just kept ending up so musty smelling that I couldn't stand it and reverted to my old American ways of putting everything in the dryer straight out of the wash. I must admit that, while I completely see the environmental benefits of air drying, this is one Ugly American habit that is going to die hard for me. I think I just have to live with the fact that my laundry space was just not designed for my lifestyle. 

And because I hate to gripe too much here, may I leave you with something about our apartment that's making me quite happy this weekend.

Next to our balcony, we have this great tree that each year suddenly grows these huge gorgeous flowers. They seem to pop up overnight. This was not here Friday, but was on Saturday. Fully open, it will be about the width of my hand. 

I get delighted with the surprise appearance of these dramatic flowers, and am happy to see that there will be at least one more on display tomorrow.