laundry

Recently Rowena posted about hanging laundry in Italy. I commented and she wrote back saying she wanted to see how we hang laundry here.

So, with the help of the big condo across the street, I'll show you a glimpse at how most of us are hanging out our laundry. I usually don't hang our laundry outside because someone in our building likes to smoke out on their lanai, so my nicely washed clothing/towels always smell like someone has been smoking next to them (insert pouty face).

First off, our lanai have these attachments in which you slide your metal poles into. (Not all apartments have these) These attachments are adjustable, they can be put at 90-degrees, or 45-degrees. Then all the way down when you aren't using them.

If you hang something directly onto the poles (like towels), I would recommend wiping down the poles. You wouldn't believe how much black "stuff" is actually in the air.

The poles can be bought from hardware stores or even large supermarkets. These guys are about 3 meters when not expanded but can go to about 5 or 6 meters long.

Imagine Satoshi and I with these poles in a teeny crowded bus lugging them back to our place so that I can hang laundry. Yup, we didn't have a car when we first came to Japan (and still don't because public transportation is that good), so everything we bought was either brought back by ourselves or delivered by the store we bought it from.

The pink gadget at the end of the pole was bought from the 100 yen store. This is to insure that the poles do not free themselves from the attachment with the wind. Especially during typhoon season, you wouldn't want these "pole vaulting poles" to be hurling themselves through the air.

Unlike a clothesline, you need to put your clothes onto a hanger then hang them onto the pole.

Most people have a clip that secures the hanger to the pole. This is to prevent crows from taking the empty hangers to make their nests and to keep the clothes from flying away.

Also, on sunny days many people air out their futon (Japanese comforters). You can hear them beating them with sticks (bam bam bam). This lady was out on her balcony, you may be able to see the stick in her hands. Actually, I don't like the idea of beating them, because you are releasing "stuff" into the air as well as letting your "stuff" go onto the futon/laundry that is airing one floor down...eew.

For me, I don't mind the laundry hanging out, but I do feel that hanging the futons over the side are a bit of an eye sore.

Hope you are enjoying the weekend.