Laundry Lessons

I have learned a lot about doing laundry in Albania. I mean, I already knew how to wash clothes and stuff before. I even thought I knew how to hang clothes up to dry. But that is where I’ve learned the most. Hanging clothes up to dry.

I’ve learned that you should turn clothes inside out so they don’t fade or turn into multiple awkward shades of the same color.

I’ve learned to make sure you have enough clothespins to go around, you should overlap clothes instead of putting two clothespins with every shirt.

I’ve learned there’s nothing to be embarrassed about when you landlady returns your underwear that blew off the clothesline on the roof from strong winds. It happens to all the foreigners. (This is when you don’t overlap clothes. Use the extra clothespins.)

But recently, I learned yet another valuable lesson about drying clothes. When hanging clothes in the morning during Bayram when the family is working overtime cooking peta, make sure you take your clothes off the line before they start cooking it. Or at least, don’t hang them downwind of the smoke from the stovepipe! Unless you like for your clothes to smell like smoke.

Mine were marinating in this for quite a few hours when I remembered to go up and get them. Technically they are clean. But they smell like smoke…

I already took my clothes down but they were literally hanging right in the smoke
(on the lines you see right above and in front of the smoke).