Washing Machine

I was asked by Jamie which cycle on the washing machine was the roughest out of easy care, wool and delicates. The explanation I gave was that easy care wold be the roughest with wool being a cool wash and delicates cool with less spin cycles involved. This at least is how I understand it.

The question made me think about my washing machine. As you do. Cleaning clothes has been quite a different experience since I have been living in Independence street. The house I rent was unfurnished, so I bought a cheap washing machine as I knew that faced with the prospect of washing by hand, I would probably just end up buying new clothes. It cost about 40 pounds, brand new.

Until it was delivered I hadn´t really considered how it would work or where to install it. The house itself is best described as cobbled together. Recently, when thinking about installing some kind of screen on the door to keep flies out, we discovered that the only way they could have put the door in was to hang the door before the roof was put on. It should come as no surprise then, that there are no fittings for a washing machine inside the house.

Once that discovery had been made, it dawned on me that the washing machine itself cannot be installed into any fittings. There are no electric bits or automatic functions. It is an upright cylinder with a beater which sticks up in the centre and twists from side-to-side to bash the clothes around. The amount of time for the bashing is controlled by a wind up timer, but there is no way of controlling the ferocity of the bashing.

Filling it up requires a hose pipe and so the water is always cold. To get the water out you unclip a flexible plastic tube and let it hang down so the water runs out and the plants get a drink. You have to remember to re-clip this tube when you are filling it up or else the water just trickles away. To connect it to the power an extension cable is dangled out of the window, precariously close to the water. There is no spin cycle, so all wringing out is done by hand.

Apart from that, it is bubblegum pink.