You’d think with all of the technological advances surrounding laundry that it would take a lot less time than it did in the “olden days.” Not so when you’re in a Greek house. We buy special laundry machines that have options like “hand wash,” “delicates,” and “wool.” No, we never use the other settings (except “hot” for towels and bedsheets–maybe–it “depends how long you expect those things to last”).
I never thought I was that weird until I went to college and saw how other people do their laundry: darks make up one load, lights make up another load, and, maybe a third load for whites (maybe).
In a Greek house, there are minimum, 10 loads. You first must separate your laundry not only by color, but by fabric type. Is it a sweater? sweatshirt? blouse? jeans? Only like things may be washed with like things. NEVER mix, let’s say, a sweater-like top with a sweatshirt, even if they are the same color. And don’t mix your underwear with your socks, or either of those things with anything else. Jeans get washed with jeans. Sweaters with sweaters. T-shirts with t-shirts. Workout clothes with workout clothes. It still drives me crazy if anyone mixes the loads. We even taught our wonderful housekeeper to do laundry the same way–drying and all.
The dryer itself is the least-used electronic item in the house. The only things that are allowed to go in there are towels, bedsheets, and kitchen towels. And don’t mix kitchen towels with bathroom towels. Ever. I only recently started throwing my sweatshirts in the dryer and that’s just because I’m too lazy to wait 3 days for them to dry in cooler weather.
You know you’ve walked into a Greek house when there is at least one giant drying rack somewhere in the house. You might even find two drying racks (I have two). The most probable place would be in the dining room, since that is the least-used room on a daily basis. If it’s a warm day, all of the laundry is hanging outside in the sun, just like our yiyiades (Greek for grandmothers) used to do it, on hangers and all.
