Freshly Laundered

I love hanging out the laundry now. It's strange. I used to hate hanging out the laundry for my mom. The bamboo poles were so heavy laden with wet clothes, I could hardly lift them up. And when she asked me to put them outside, I trembled with fear of dropping the whole pole down nine floors or worse, falling off myself. Even up till now, I still shudder at that thought and kept advising my parents, especially now that they're older, to just hang the laundry inside.

When I got married and had my own HDB place, I NEVER hang my laundry outside.I find it dries just as well indoors and there's no hassle of watching out for the rain. It's cleaner too as you never know what your neighbours upstairs will throw out of the window onto your clothes! When I moved into a condominium later, the situation was different. There was no provision for hanging up laundry in the little utility area and I can't even install bamboo pole hooks up on the false ceiling. I cannot believe it, surely not all people living in condominiums use dryers! So for 4 years, we lived with hanging out laundry on foldable racks, one of which even had to be in the dining room due to the limited space behind.

Then when we moved to our first home in Melbourne, we found a laundry line set up in the garage. It was cool. No need to worry about the weather and due to the dry atmosphere, it dried well. However because it was so convenient and so discreet, we often forget and can hang our clothes out there for days!

In this current place, we don't have a closed up garage anymore. I now have to watch the timing and weather when I do my laundry and am 'forced' to use the outdoor laundry rack. Strangely, the additional constraints of the chore were overwritten by the joy I felt hanging up our fresh laundry under the sun and see them flapping like flags in the wind. The laundry rack actually spins so if the wind is blowing, the rows of colourful linens will rotate slowly like a carousel. It's quite a beautiful sight. I actually enjoyed the process so much that I looked forward to the 'beep' at the end of the wash cycle and hoped Hubby doesn't beat me to get the laundry! On a good day, the laundry dries up within 1 hour. Yesterday was one of those fine days. I got out a picnic mat and had a lovely time with XX hanging around the garden watching the laundry and weeding. After lunch however, the dark clouds gathered and as the first drops of rain came, I hurried to collect the last pieces of linen to safety.