When we moved into the building we’ve resided in for 18 months, our landlord said to call the concierge to schedule a time where he can show me how to do laundry. “How to do laundry?” I wondered, “How hard can it be?” Turns out, it was more complex than I imagined.
In Switzerland, our laundry routine is so complicated it’s ridiculous. Maybe it’s because the machines are old and the “régie” (building management) doesn’t want to pay for new machines. Or, it’s rare to own a house and everyone lives in apartment buildings that share a “buanderie” (laundry room.) Either way, it’s progressed into many steps that I will demonstrate later on, with pictures. But first, a word about doing laundry in general.
The scheduling system for laundry varies. I know people that are assigned one day a month to do their laundry. On that day, many Swiss people take the day off work for this occasion. Other people are assigned one morning a week. Sometimes they get to choose this time; other times it is assigned to them when you move in. Our current apartment is first-come-first serve, thank goodness!
Our old apartment building had a sign-up sheet and our machines ran on twenty-cent pieces. I would go to the bank once a month to get a roll of them to power the machines. One twenty-cent piece equaled 5 minutes. If your money ran out in the middle of a cycle, too bad. The wash machine would just power down. It was about 2,50 CHF a load. All in all, wasn’t too bad, you just had to plan ahead. Usually it wasn’t too crowded and you could get your laundry done the next day.
Dryers exist but are less popular. There is a designated room to hang up your laundry. I usually did a mixture of both. People are very tidy and clean up after themselves, generally. People will remove your laundry from the wash if it is their turn.
Here are the steps for how to do laundry. But first, here are the instructions (2 pages!)
Laundry room
First, take the clean cap and filter (not pictured) and insert it into the drain below. Screw on cap. Keep bucket around for later.
Use your “key” on machine on the I and keep pressing until it says, “Start.” Before, it will show how much credit you have on your key, then deduct 5 CHF as a deposit. Later, when you’re finished, you put the key back on and it gives you back 2 CHF. Thus, it’s 3 CHF a load.
Also, turn the left knob from “O” at 9pm to “I,” or noon. For the dryer, follow the same process, only use the “II” and turn the knob on the right to “On” and “Off” when you’re done.
Turn water on.
Now, you may select settings on machine(s) and start. The washer takes 45-60,” the dryer takes about 60-90.”
When you’re through using the wash machine, you must take out the filter underneath, clean it, and set it out to dry, along with the cap. When you take the cap off, watch out, as you need the bucket to catch the dirty water. After, you can dump it in the giant sink.
This is the dryer. Be sure that the lint is cleared out of the door and on the panel to the left.
There is also a hanging room. Like I said, I prefer the dryer to avoid stiffness in clothes (if anyone can tell me how to avoid that, let me know!)
Finally, the sweeper. We are encouraged to sweep up any mess we make.
Happily, I have now mastered the laundry, and it’s really not so bad.
Do any of you have a complicated machine like this or used a machine like this in the past?
swissreynolds 