LostInTheWoods

I just thought I would discuss something that I noticed prior to moving here, which to British understanding may seem a bit odd.

“An Englishman's home is his castle” someone once said, and if you look at house prices there at the moment, you would think you were buying a castle and not a three bedroom semi-detached. Anyway, the reason I mention this is that here people do not see home ownership as the be all and end all.

Many Swedish people (and me) live in apartments, which are roomy and well maintained. Like most apartments there are things that are communal; parking, open areas, hallways etc, but the one thing that I never came across before was communal clothes washing facilities.

Called a “tvättstuga” (my translation: “small washing house”), these rooms are always in the basement of an apartment block, and often contain drying areas, sinks for hand washing (not the washing of hands, once a big confusion), electric mangles(?!) and other paraphernalia to assist in getting your clothes clean. The centrepiece is communal washing machine. Which has a tough life, as it is used most days by residents in the apartment block. Six people live in our block, so our machine is let off lightly.

In every tvättstuga is a rota, where you write up your name for when you want to use the white box of cleaning magic. All very organised. All very Swedish. But, if you overrun your time, uh oh.... you will be asking for a whole world of trouble..... This doesn't happen much where I live, people are quite laid back and there is little tvättstuga congestion.

The concept of a communal washing machine is totally alien to British people (and maybe to you to), unless you pay to use one in a laundrette. But I think it is a good idea, because if we had one in our flat, it would take up space and it would be redundant for most of the time. Plus, as the cost of the machine is included in the rent, there is no need to spend ready cash on one. I guess we will pay for a quarter of it if we stay here long enough....

That is all.
LostInTheWoods