Laundry - From the Swedish Side

So my mother does not have a dryer. She has a small front load washer and while we are here it is in use on a daily basis. 

While we are here my mother spoils us by doing all our laundry...she washes and then hangs it to dry. If the weather permits she will hang the wet clothes outside 

and if it is raining she hangs it in the basement hallway. 

She has several washing lines hung for this purpose. Today she was glad, because even though our weather has been rainy, she somehow managed to time it right and hang a load of laundry outside between rain showers.  With todays strong wind the clothes dried fairly quickly so she had time to hang yet another load which she ended up having to bring in to continue its drying indoors.

My brother Albert has calculated that a load of laundry dries in about 8 hours or so...but not thick materials like jeans. Out of curiosity I asked my brother Albert (who lives in Stockholm, the capitol), if he knows anyone who has a drier. At the top of his head (he had to think about it for a minute) he could only think of two people with a laundry drier. 

I asked my mother the same question, “Do you know anyone that has a drier?”. She had to think for a minute and then she said she believes her neighbor has one because she never sees any laundry hung outside. 

My niece Charlotte, knows one person that has a drier in Sweden.

My nephew Oliver knows two people...his grandmother in town and his father on the island. 

At this point I am curious about this...and I will ask around some more. Why does it matter? Well, it doesn't really, but could you imagine not having one? Everyone that I know in the USA has one. For those that wash at a laundro-mat they also pay for a drier. To hang laundry outside our town-home would be a violation of our condominium rules. 

Here, I have noticed that it is common for homes to have washing lines hung on the outside and it is sort of part of what is expected. It is my belief that many American's today associate laundry hung outside a home as low socioeconomic class or even as an eye sore. This of course varies from city life to rural areas, state to state etc. Culture of course affects how we think about this. 

Personally, I think it is a symbol of home. It looks 'homy' and sort of reminds me of how it probably was a few decades ago where we live now in Washington. It certainly is a better choice for the environment. It also takes more planning as far as making sure you have clean and dry clothes ready for when you need them. A couple of other points are: In Sweden many people love the feeling of the laundry coming from the fresh outdoors rather than the drier. The laundry feels fresh and sometimes sort of stiff. I love to sleep on my mother’s newly cotton washed sheets especially when they have hung outside. 






My niece Charlotte feels that the feeling of the laundry is more fresh and not filled with static electricity at all and now dislikes taking her clothes out of the drier where she lives in Montreal, Canada.