Litopia

In the first week of this lockdown, our dishwasher, dryer and (electric) shower all died within a day of each other. #youcouldntmakeitup

My mother worked and had 5 children - I was the eldest- At 80 she still won't have a washing machine or a dishwasher. Just won't, though she has a spin dryer. I agree about dishwashers really. Don't like them. Growing up in the 70s we used the bath for washing clothes, spin dryer and washing line. As a teen I used to pound the clothes in the bath with a posser.

My older boys have decided on a rota for themselves and while one washes, the other two hang out in the kitchen chatting and generally dementing each other. There's a lot of laughing and strong language In this instance, the lack of a dishwasher has been a wonderful thing for that (I wouldn't be saying that if I was chief dishwasher, needless to say...!)

And as for dryers... you can't beat line-dried clothes, they smell delicious!

They do smell lovely unless a farmer has spread pig manure nearby. I was rubbish at pegging out shirts By the neck? By the cuffs? By the bottom?

I have not trained my family well. My fault. They never help with the dishes. If we could share the work, I'd happily do without a dishwasher. But they don't and now my back is in agony doing them, and my legs go to sleep. I don't have a dryer and agree that line-dried clothes are the best.

We don't have a garden and in winter it is a pain to dry clothes on our terrace, which tends to be cold and damp at the best of times. But in the summer it is a delight.

We have a polytunnel which works exceptionally well in the summer, but like your terrace, it's damp in the winter. And when life is at normal tilt we have several washes of clothes a day (bloody laundry, takes up half my life) so need a dryer. Thankfully we are mainly living in the same pyjamas clothes these days

As for pegging out shirts @Katie-Ellen Hazeldine ... I have the same quandary... I use the 'close your eyes and feck them at the line' method. I might even dig out the iron if they return to the house in a really bad way (Might).

Once, while staying with a friend, I thought I'd help by hanging out her laundry while she was at work, given it was a lovely sunny day. Her response was, "It's not you, it's me. Sorry. I'll have to do it all again. I need a space of exactly two inches between each item on the line."