Washout

The Laundry Debate

We all agreed, the current laundry set-up, choking a back entry way, was problematic. But where else might the washer/dryer/utility sink go?

The owners bucked for their un-California like basement, a high ceiling-ed space, nearly 300 square feet, with only a furnace and a rusty game table.

"Too far from the bedrooms", the contractor argued, "Inconvenient carrying all those baskets up and down."

"We're talking laundry here folks", I quipped, "not bags of cement."

Outside was considered, and quickly shot down. "Who wants to do laundry when it rains", went the refrain.

"What's that", I sassed, "Fifteen days a year? Besides it'll put you next to the clothes line. Perhaps that's the most convienent option of all."

Their eyes fell upon me. An evesdropping workman unsuccessfully supressed a laugh, the cable installer silently shook his head, Seymour the cat lost interest in my hemp Addidas. I knew what they were thinking: 'how vulgar, how unsophisticated.'

Nobody bothers with a clothes line any more, even my wife likes the towels better out of the dryer, "less coarse", she insists.

"What's wrong with drying and exfoliating," I ask.




Sadly, even in the Eco-hoods no one uses a clothes line. There are some communities in California where they're prohibited altogether. In the projects, the drying greens appear deserted. Some prefer to hang inside, on a clothes horse, so as not to be detected by judgmental neighbors. Only the Chinese immigrants in Alpine Village, with their rotary carousels, seem impervious to the status shaming.

I like using my nerdy rack, and I don't care if it takes longer. It's a little more trouble to separate my garbage into three cans too, but I do that also.