Monday, July 2, 2012

out the window

One of the things I would consider a deal breaker for any apartment that I wanted to call home would be the lack of a balcony. I have dealt with windowless kitchens and baths, with non eat-in kitchens, with no hallways and small closets, no parking and no A/C. But never no balcony.  Although, this summer we are getting ours re-done, so I have been without one since late April. The first couple of weeks were difficult. I didn't realize how often I would step outside, just to test the weather, or to get a better look at a sunset, or for somewhere to stand while drinking my morning tea. I wouldn't mind so much what size it was - a small patch big enough for a bistro table and chair and I would still be content. In fact, the one I have now is almost too big - very long and narrow. I end up using a portion of it for storage, which is not always pretty. But it is handy for at least important function: drying my laundry. I have a few clothes horses and drying racks that serve to dry pretty much everything I own. Now these are cluttering up my living room and it is a nuisance. Plus I am missing that all important fresh air scent.

It seems to be a universal feeling that nothing can beat the scent of air dried clothes, but the getting of that scent is not so universally accepted. There are whole communities where clothes lines and the drying of clothes naturally are forbidden. Where one can be fined huge amounts of money for being so daring as to show off your freshly laundered linens. It is considered by some to be a blight on the neighbourhood. Personally, I do not mind seeing your washing hanging out on a line strung across your backyard. I find all those big assed recycling and garbage bins we are now forced to buy and use to be far more of an eyesore.

While wandering around Genoa and Palma, one of the common sights that garnered the most comments from us tourists was the laundry hanging out of the windows of the apartments in the narrow streets. I kept rather quiet about it, though I did wonder how often things might fall off the line, which would be a huge nuisance having to climb down all those stairs to the ground to retrieve it.







And they have an advantage of not having to go outside and around the back of the house to hang up their clothes - simply open the window and your line is right there. So far, I have never noticed a distinct smell of fuel on my clothes from the cars below my apartment. Or dirt from the steel mills across the bay. But that was the most common refrain from the other tourists.

Strung across the front of your building was a little eye-catching, and not always the most pleasing of views, but I found it rather quaint. And, in fact, I was rather pleased to see this charming old world custom still being carried out. It was exactly as I would have expected from what I have seen on television and old movies. It is very practical as I imagine there is not much room for a dryer in these apartments located in what is quaintly referred to as the mediaeval quarter. And let's be honest, some of these narrow alleys are also not the prettiest to begin with. And a sign of life is a welcome thing.

17 comments:

  1. That is strange...laundry an eyesore. Nothing smells as good as sundried laundry.

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    1. on some particularly sunny, windy days, I will wash my bed linens whether they need it or not, just to get that fresh scent!

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  2. When we lived in apartments we always hung our laundry on the balcony. Now it's too awkward to get the laundry from the basement to the backyard (I'm too crippled up) but if we were to move back to an apartment I would SO be hanging my laundry outside again.

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    1. I understand - some days I find it a challenge to get the laundry from the basement laundry room upstairs to my apartment and then hung up. It would be so much easier to bung it all into a dryer and go back an hour later.

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  3. What some people find quaint, other people find a necessity. Drying clothes in a dryer is not always the preferred method. I'm like you, I like them air dried on a rack. I hope you get the use of your balcony back soon. I'm sure it's hard to do without it.

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    1. exactly. perhaps I am being a tad snobbish when I say 'quaint'. but why change what has worked so well for so many years? It also would have been nice to be outside watching the fireworks last night, but the view from the window was fine.

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  4. I love those photos! Some places I have seen, Greece maybe, they have poles out of the window, with a line attached underneath, for clothes. And some places have lines right across the road. High up! Quite a job getting the initial line across I would think! And you need friendly neighbours! But I love clothes dried outside. With this awful rain in the UK, its the tumble drier for me, but its not the same!

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    1. I find my clothes shrink a little less when not dried in a dryer. My balcony is covered, so rain or shine it can go outside. Sometimes, even on the coldest days of winter, I partially dry things inside, then drag it all outside for the air. And yes, I was trying for some photos of those lines stretched across the road with laundry hanging.... good relations with your neighbours would be a must.

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  5. I love the laundry hanging out of windows. As far as i'm concerned it's not an eyesore at all

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    1. there are many, many condo boards who would disagree!

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  6. Well, airing your clean laundry is preferable to airing your dirty laundry! :-)

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  7. It is puzzling that there are people whose aesthetic sensibilities are so refined they find the sight of clean washing offensive. get real, I think to them. Often it is the males who carry on like this. I lived in a medium density complex for years, and when it was being built they wanted to prohibit rotary clotheslines. Eventually extended-retractable lines were allowed but they were supposed to be retracted when not in use. Those of us with small children and babies had better things to do and to worry about this, and the world somehow managed to keep on rotating. It is a very selfish attitude to claim that one's sensibilities are more important than the practical matters of washing, etc.

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    1. many of the comments I overheard were along the lines of "how could they think their clothes would be clean in this dirty location with exhaust fumes, etc?" and yet, we were breathing this same air and not suffering profoundly. but then this is also a mindset that thinks every surface should be absolutely free of any hint of dirt or bacteria.

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  8. this looks beautiful, with all the laundry.. :)
    i heard here in the US its not allowed in some places to hang your laundry outside?

    i never had a balcony, but would love one, too! for testing the weather indeed, for enjoying a late evening outside... when i grow up, maybe.. :)

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    1. everyone should have some outdoor space, I think.

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  9. Not sure that tumble driers are exactly free of bacteria...
    We're entirely line-dried in my family, as it were. With our constant wet weather at the moment it's a bit of a challenge, but we have a Victorian pulley airer in the garage.
    My biggest culture shock when we did a house exchange with a family from Los Angeles was finding that there was no clothes line outside for drying clothes. All that sun, and no-one dried clothes outside! Meantime we kept having power brown-outs...

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