Sunday, October 12, 2008

I Need Some Laundry Advice

After having access to both a washer and dryer my entire adult life, I'm now without a dryer and trying to figure out a few things...

Such as how do you get clothes, especially jeans, to not feel all stiff and rough? I'm using fabric softener in the wash but what else can I do?

Gotta say, I do love the smell of things dried on the line. Quite a heady scent!

Over the past couple days I managed to get six loads washed, dried and put away. Major feat considering the washer takes about 2 hours to do a load. But that's just about enough time to dry a load on the line. On a sunny day.

Which it's not today. We had a storm blow through last night and the rain looks poised to continue off and on all day. So those final three loads will have to wait a day or two. And by then I'll have another one or two. I am so very grateful for the washer!!!

The hubby put his back out helping our friends on Thursday. I think it was wrenching out those fence posts. Anyway, he's had to spend a couple days recuperating from that so we haven't done any heavy duty stuff at the house yet.

He did put together our Poang chairs and they are SO comfortable!

And he's been browsing the papers for used cars, too. After talking to taxi drivers, shop owners, and anyone else he thought to ask, we've decided that a Renault, Peugeot or Fiat would be best since service and parts are readily available for those makes.

For some reason cars do not devalue as much or as rapidly as in the U.S. So while a new Fiat Uno is $26,000 pesos, a 1997 model is still $19,000! Someone explained to us that the wear and tear on an engine is not factored in, but they do count any kind of work they've ever had done on it, even new tires. Seems a bit odd since tires wear out and need to be replaced every few years, but that's the custom.

You can figure on three pesos to the dollar, give or take a little, so that $19,000 is basically $6,300 U.S. dollars. For an eleven year old car that's small and usually doesn't have any bells and whistles but does have lots of miles and the engine requiring an overhaul soon (if it hasn't already been done at least once).

Finding something decent that we can afford now is proving difficult but we continue to pray for God to provide the right car at the right time. Just like He provided our rental house, and allowed us to file all our D.N.I. paperwork in one day, and actually get our container through customs in a week. All of these have been huge blessings and we know He'll provide a car in His time. Meanwhile the hubby is getting quite the education on cars!

My education in Spanish is progressing as well. Some days it seems I can understand more of what is being said and other days I only manage to catch a few words here and there. And talking on the phone? Impossible! But both my hubby and tutor say they see improvement. Yeah!

In the coming week we hope to re-pack and store items we won't be using right away and keep chipping away at scrubbing the floors and painting the walls. Oh, and I'll be looking for the fabric to start making curtains for the living room. We found a store with the hardware we need to hang them up close to the ceiling.

Doing laundry, learning Spanish, buying a car, getting settled...all of it "poco a poco".

6 comments:

Robin Lambright said...

No help here! Sorry, I commend you. I have a washer and a dryer and I can't seem to ever get caught up on my laundry. Last summer we had the opportunity to travel to Copenhagen. It took me a few days before I made the connection of why the towles were so stiff and scratchy at the house we were renting. They were dryed on a cloths line, it is amazing what we take for granted like having a soft bath towle to dry off with.I hope you find a solution.
Blessings
Robin

Kathy said...

I don't have any help either! That is the one thing I found that I missed when I was in Argentina this last year! I did laundry one day and of course hung all of it on the clothes line- I do not like STIFF clothes and that is exactly what I got! I don't like to travel with dirty clothes so I had all the clothes washed and packed for my travel back to USA- but as soon as I got home I re-washed the clothes so they would be soft- silly ugh?
I will ask my mother in law who also lives in Argentina and dries her clothes on the clothes lines to see if she has any suggestions!
Thinking of you both!
Kathy Goossen (your Las Vegas Neice)

Anonymous said...

I say, go around and feel people's jeans. If they feel soft ask them how they do their laundry. (And possibly get arrested for indecent touching?)

Technonana said...

s hoyt is a riot, No? Only suggestion I have is maybe to iron them? It seemed to help when I was a youngthing and my grandmother ironed mine... but who really wants to iron??

riTa Koch said...

Ah, that's why we ironed so much!
I hear we ought to be thinking about drying our clothes outside to save energy. We may need the advice too.

Donna @ Way More Homemade said...

Ironing is a good idea. They need a little heat to soften up. But I would be careful where you hang them... ie not in direct sunlight. The sun is so bleaching. Great for hang drying diapers... not so great on a black shirt. Try to dry them in the shade if you can. just my 2 cents.