Zurich - Washing Traumas

Denise's Cat Sitting Next to the Mint

How can the simple task of washing your clothes take up an entire blog, I hear you wonder. Well, you’d be surprised...

In Switzerland, you usually have shared washing machines and dryers in the basement. Each person in the block of flats has to book the time they wish to use them. When I lived here before, my flat, unusually, came with its own washer and dryer, so using communal washing machines is a new experience for me.

I’d heard all kinds of complaints from people who have lived under this system of the difficulty in booking the time you want; however, I have to say, that hasn’t been a problem so far. I’ve kind of settled on every other Saturday morning  (two washing loads are included in one session), and the slot has usually been available.

However, the whole system baffled me a bit, and still does, to be honest.

Denise had showed me how to work it a few times, and there were instructions on the wall, so you would think it would be easy. However, the instructions didn’t say that you first had to switch on the electricity for the machine, and I don’t think Denise mentioned that either.

I’d just assumed that once I put my credit in, the electricity and machines would turn on. I hadn’t noticed the switch to turn the electricity on once credit was there  (even though it was obvious and had “washer” written over the one for the washer and “dryer” over the one for the dryer).

Actually, the switch was a bit scary looking as it looked more like a heavy-duty dial that might switch off the electricity in the whole building (or, indeed, start a bomb). The light to the laundry room had a switch of the same design and I was too scared to try turning it at first in case it set off some kind of alarm. At some point, I plucked up the courage, and all that happened was that the light came on.

Basically, you have to put your card in the control panel, which should switch on your machine, then afterwards you put your card back in the control panel and ask for it to take the money from your account. Simple! But somehow it wasn’t. I was in such a state of confusion that I can’t honestly describe what I did as I just tried many different combinations of things.

Of course, at first the digits I was looking for to show on the control panel when I put my card in didn’t light up because I hadn’t switched the electricity on in the first place. When I finally understood my error and turned the electricity on, the display came up with various error messages. I eventually latched onto the fact that I had to leave the card in the slot for a certain amount of time and only then yank it out again; Anyway, by the time I'd worked out what was happening, my card became no longer functional (the display kindly informed me via another error message). That was 20 CHF lost!

Denise had given me two cards, but the second card had only enough credit for one wash, so I was unable to dry my clothes. In Egypt, I’m used to doing my washing with my own machine, hanging it out on the balcony, and it’s dry within the hour. Here, I hung my clothes out – actually Denise had some very weird clothes pegs that I couldn’t fathom out how to use either (yes, I’m that useless!) and so I ended up just draping them over the line - and then I went off to the gym. Two steps down the road and it started to rain, so I had to go back and take in all the washing again, and hang it in the basement drying room. The drying room turned out to be a bit of a misnomer, because my clothes were still wet the following day.

What a lot of work this washing malarkey is when you’re in Europe!

The second time I did my washing was a little more successful, only I hadn’t realised that to get the second wash in, you had to do it within a given time frame. I spent too much time going up the stairs with my newly-washed items and down the stairs bringing down the next load of dirty washing that I missed my window of opportunity for my second wash, so I had to pay again for the second load. More money wasted!

I thought my third time would be trouble-free. Having learned from the last time, I got my second wash in promptly and without a problem and I busied myself with my other household tasks. When I went back down, an alarm was going off, screeching away to inform the entire building that someone entirely incompetent was doing their washing. Not knowing what to do, and in a considerable panic, I shoved my card in the payment machine and the noise stopped. However, the machine immediately shut down and all my washing was trapped inside. The "open the door" button didn't do a thing. Meanwhile, another person would want to come down and have their washing session soon. I stood and looked at the machine door and my wet washing inside, feeling completely dumbfounded.

I went up to the person in our block who looks after all of this. She was very pleasant and said it was something to do with the machine thinking there wasn’t any money. I think she meant that I had to charge the wash to my card before I could get it out, but I’m still not 100% sure. I thought I’d already done that? I’m also not confident that the card wasn’t charged with another wash to get the electricity to come back on so that I could open the machine door; if I’ve been charged again for the wash, that’s another waste of money. 

I am now less confident that my fourth attempt will be trouble-free since I’m really not sure what’s going on.

Anyway, it’s all pretty traumatising, but maybe one day I will look back on all this and wonder what it was that I found so difficult.