Airing out the Family Laundry

I've had to make some slight adjustments to my laundry strategy since moving here. Usually, I'm pretty obsessive about washing ANYTHING that happens to touch the floor. This is because there is constantly dog hair covering the floor due to our dog's MAJOR shedding problem! And dog hair is gross and I HATE it! But nowadays, I'm likely to thoroughly shake the article of clothing from the floor and then give it a smell test. If it doesn't smell, it goes back in the closet. (This works for every member of the family other than Zack. By the end of the day, guaranteed, whatever he was wearing will be totally trashed and need washing).


Thankfully, our vacation rental house has a very nice washing machine. But the machine's load capacity is much less than what I've been used to. So while in the States, I could keep things going doing one load of wash a day...here that same amount of clothes translates to two loads a day. Thus the change in dog-hair-removal-strategy and wear-it-till-it-smells policy.


Other than the size, the length of the washing machine cycle is also an adjustment. I might be exaggerating here, but it feels like it takes three hours for it to finish a load. This is a traumatically endless period of time for a one year old boy who is desperately attached to dragging his blanket with him everywhere!



But the biggest adjustment of all is getting used to no dryer. We air dry/line dry everything. And the owner of this house, who lives next door, and who must have been watching me do all of this laundry actually bought another drying rack for us. So we have two big racks. And because of the weather, it all works wondrously. We seem to have bright sunshine everyday and cool breezes. So while the washing seems to take forever, the drying happens within an hour! The only downside to this...is the ironing! Oh, how I hate ironing. And I used to do it only on the rarest, most special occasions. But with line drying comes the crunchy wrinkles that you can't get away with wearing. So I've given in and taken up a new chore. I know, poor me!
How is that dog who sheds everywhere handling life in the south of France? Scout's adjusted quite well. She can be found sunning herself on the terrace in the morning, and in the warmer afternoons she'll move inside and lay on the cool marble tiles. She would be the perfect dog, (and I would have a lot less laundry to do), if she just didn't shed!