Laundry Day
Laundry day
See you there
Underthings tumbling…
Well, laundry day has quite the meaning in Switzerland. Everyone in my building gets assigned a laundry slot. That is a few hours a week in which you are allowed to use the one washer and one dryer in the entire apartment building. No one is allowed to do laundry on Sundays. And following the trend around here, it is not cheap. So, in these few hours a week that you get assigned, you better hope that you are home. So, let’s look at the day of the average adult. They work from 9 to 6 (8.5 hours plus 0.5 hour lunch break). Let’s also assume they sleep 8 hours a day. There are even restrictions some places on noise during late hours. The chances are, they either have to wake up ridiculously early or miss work to do the laundry. Alternatively, this can force families to have one stay-at-home parent.
On a related note, supermarkets are typically open until 7 pm (and closed on Sundays). So you have one hour to do your groceries each weekday. People also tend to want things fresh, so they need to go often.The working hours and supermarket hours are almost identical. Can somebody explain this to me? Even if there is tradition of leaving evenings and Sundays for time with family, it doesn’t mean that everyone has to make serious compromises for essential errands. At least there could be more washers and dryers in a building…
Luckily, as a student, I have a little more free time during business hours to grocery shop. My weekends have a ‘convenient’ laundry time on Saturday night, which isn’t so great when I plan on doing some traveling.
I’m sorry if this comes off whiny, but this is culture shock!
Originally posted on halfwayaroundtheworld.studentsgoneglobal.com.