Laundry in Statia

Laundry in Statia is a bit different than back home and a lot more time consuming. We are actually lucky right now and we have a washer AND a dryer. There are only about 7 dryers on the whole island and 2 of them are at our apartment.

The washer has 2 parts to it. One section washes the clothes and the other section spins the clothes. So what I do is take a garden hose and fill up the washer with water and add my detergent. It washes for about 12 minutes and then I take the clothes and ring a bit of water out myself and stick them into the spinner. That is usually about 3 minutes. Then I add my 2nd load into the washer and wash some more clothes....same water. Then I spin those clothes and drain the water out of the washer. I add new water and rinse the clothes about 9 minutes and then they go back in the spinner for 3 minutes. Then I get to hang the clothes to dry. We try not to use our dryer too much since it can be quite expensive to run all the time. So this is what the balcony looks like on laundry day!

Little Caleb hanging out on the tile floor while I try to get all the laundry finished. Right now we are borrowing the drying rack from our neighbors cause we don't have one yet. And with not enough room I hang things off the balcony too. They dry quicker that way anyways. You just have to remember to take them off and fold them before it gets too late in the day (sunset) otherwise the humidity makes them damp again and I leave them up for the sun to re-dry them the next day.