Dear Reader,
Do me a favor. The next time you come across your washer and drier, give them a friendly little pat in thanks for all the hours of labor they save you each week. Washing clothes by hand is A LOT OF WORK. Socks are the worst. I simply hate socks. They’re so little, and there are so damn many of them. And you have to scrub first the outside and then the inside, and then you have to rinse first the outside and then the inside. For every sock! It’s no wonder that Guatemalan women have foregone socks for sandals (although they have to wash their husbands’ and kids’ socks, at least they’re saving themselves some time). And sweatshirts. Don’t even get me started on sweatshirts! You have to keep pouring water and keep sprinkling soap and keep kneading it, over and over, to finally get it nice and sudsy. And then rinsing all that soap out again takes forever!
Although I must say there is no feeling quite so satisfying as, after those hours of scrubbing and rinsing, to see your clean clothes out drying beautifully in the sun… until storm clouds suddenly gather to rain down the “rinse cycle”-- that may or may not finish any time soon.
I know electric washers and driers waste a lot of energy. But they do certainly save a lot of human energy. And if you’re going to use them, just be grateful.
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