…in the last ten years is my White Knight spin dryer – and no, it’s not because they are fun to sit on – please get your mind back up out of the gutter!
I’m not quite sure why this popped into my head as a blogging subject, other than the fact that I have just (hand) washed all the bedlinen and put it through the dryer, and whilst I am waiting for more work to arrive over the interweb thingy I have nothing else to think about.
It saddens me to say this, but yes, this is a domestic appliance that makes me happy every time I use it. In order to appreciate my appreciation, you should understand that I don’t have a washing machine, or a tumble dryer. All — yes ALL — of our laundry, including the big stuff like sheets, towels, and sofa throws, gets washed by hand in two large storage containers which I put in the bath, fill with hot water and washing powder and then lean over and vigorously swish about and scrub, whilst making washing machine noises to encourage the dirt to leave. This stuff then gets left to soak for varying amounts of time, before being rinsed by dint of the shower head running cold water through it all until the powder has followed the dirt (and Elvis) and left the building.
Until recently, I would then have to wring this stuff out by hand and then haul it over to the window where I had to climb on to a piano stool, and then get myself out over the window ledge (which even when I stand on the piano stool is still at my waist level) carrying a collapsible airer. I unfold the airer and then hang the clean laundry out to dry on the airer, on the rooftop. (In a conservation area, did I mention that?) It gives the neighbours something to laugh about.
Of course, if the weather is not conducive to drying, then I had to put the airer up inside the flat, standing it in a photographic tray to catch the copious drips (because the laundry has only been wrung out by hand, remember, and I’m not as butch as I could be), and then wait for a week for everything to dry out.
So, now do you get why I LOVE my White Knight? Never was a product better named. Now I haul the hand wrung laundry out of the bath, throw it straight into the spin dryer, and in three minutes it is very nearly dry! Much more so than it would be with a washing machine. It’s so much easier to get it out on to the roof to dry, and even if I leave it in the flat it’s totally dry in a matter of hours instead of days.
It’s not something that I think about passionately every minute of the day or anything, but every time I use it I get a little warm glow of satisfaction and some irrational gratitude towards it for making life so much easier!
painterswife 