Laundry

It is absolutely impossible to escape the mountains of laundry created by small kids, and oh my gosh is that multiplied when a large portion of activities are outside. In the rain. Possibly in the mud. I didn’t realize how good I had it in the U.S. with our gigantic washer and dryer, but they are definitely missed now that we’re in New Zealand. Here’s our U.S. laundry room versus our New Zealand laundry room:

See some differences, right?

Size of the machines: The average size of a washer and dryer in New Zealand is substantially smaller than in the U.S. While it is possible to find some very large machines, most homes don’t have a lot of space for them. In fact, many homes don’t have laundry in the house at all. The laundry is in the garage. Alternatively, we’ve stayed in some houses that have a small washer/dryer combo in the kitchen.

Washers and dryers are measured in kgs here, as in how many kgs of dry clothes the machine can wash or dry properly. Here’s a cheat sheet:

1kg of laundry = 5 shirts or 1 shirt + 1 pair of denim jeans or 2 bath towels

The average front loader in the U.S. is 4.2-4.5 cubic feet and can handle about 18 lbs of laundry. That’s about 8.2 kgs. Our front loader now is 6.5 kg, but will only handle 3 kgs if the wash to be done is “mixed” - meaning no mixing shirts and jeans even if they’re all dark blue!

Our Samsung washer and dryer could easily accommodate our entire family’s whites for a week in one load. Colors for the week could go in one load. All of our towels could go in one load. Laundry was a once-a-week event because the machines were so big. In New Zealand, I run a load of colors every. single. day. Each set of sheets has to be washed separately, and our large, king sized sheets have to be dried individually and that’s because…

Air drying: New Zealanders embrace line drying. Instead of everything going in the wash and everything going in the dryer, only a few select items end up in the dryer and most things go outside on a drying line. I get that it saves energy and is often better for the clothes, but it rains here A LOT and it often isn’t feasible to line dry clothes. Plus, I am not a fan of crispy jeans or sheets.

I admit that there are quite a few items of clothing that I’ve started to line dry regularly. The kids school shirts, my husband’s quick dry boxers, and my workout clothes. These items don’t feel crispy after drying outside and it seems to help the clothes last longer because…

NZ machines aren’t fine tuned like US machines: There aren’t eighty-seven million different cycles for precise types of loads. That isn’t to say there are none - but there aren’t nearly as many. I’ve noticed that clothing tends to pill up a lot faster than in the U.S., and the dryer’s sensors aren’t particularly good at registering when the clothes are dry so they either don’t run long enough, or they fry whatever is in them.

Plus, many Kiwi machines are unvented, meaning the laundry room is covered with a fine, thin layer of lint at pretty much all times. I’ve tried keeping a window open, but I frequently sweep out a giant grey lint ball. And somehow there is a thicker layer inside the bottom cabinets. I have no explanation for this other than lint is magical.

This all sounds pretty negative, right? There is a silver lining that I’m learning to appreciate. Because I do laundry every day and because the kids all wear uniforms to school, we don’t need many clothes. I stocked up on tons of next season, larger clothes for the kids before leaving the States, and the bulk of those items are sitting in their closets with the tags still attached. We really only need about a three day supply of clean items. It makes me feel better about buying fewer, higher quality items for everyone. I think that is something I’ll embrace as we dive into our new Kiwi lives.