You wouldn't think that owning a dryer would be considered a luxury. Most Americans have grown up with one their entire lives and may use a clothes line in the summer months because it dries quickly and conserves energy. But believe it or not, here in Turkey, owning a dryer is extremely uncommon.
I've passed by streets with homes that sell for over 1 million Turkish liras, and they have drying racks full of laundry sitting on their sea view balconies. Despite having a definite rainy season that lasts for about 2-3 months, people in our area by in large resort to hanging laundry out on clothes lines strung from balconies or on portable drying rack carried daily to a sunny room. Imagine doing that for a family of 4 when it sometimes takes 2 days for clothes to fully dry due to wet and humid weather conditions.
Exhausted from this routine, I broke down and purchased a Turkish dryer about 2 years ago, and I was surprised both by how it works and that more people did not own them.
Unlike the dryers we have in the US, Turkish dryers don't have vents and they don't get terribly warm. They have a water tank in them that you have to empty after every cycle (and usually takes 2 1-hour cycles to fully dry 1 load of laundry). It may seem like a lot, but compared to leaving your laundry on a rack for 2 days all winter long, it's a life saver!
Yet despite only costing around 750TL/$150, most people (aside from possibly the extremely wealthy, I'm not sure) don't have them. It may be because of the space or electricity usage. Or maybe the cost? (750tl is about half a month's rent, maybe slightly more, for many people.) Or maybe just old habits just die hard? I haven't quite figured it out.
But in the meantime, I'll be the only mom in the school yard quietly listening to others complain about how hard it is to do laundry this winter, afraid to sound arrogant, snobbish, or affluent if I mention the convenience a dryer could offer. Meanwhile I also secretly wish it would work like standard US dryer - drying faster and requiring less maintenance. It leads to conflicting feelings: I've been told I should be grateful, but it's sometimes difficult to consider a machine that most would consider a necessity as a luxury. I mean it's a DRYER.
I suppose this is one of many examples of lifestyle changes here that I have yet to full come to terms with. More on that will surely come up in later posts, but for now, I'm off to go empty the water tank and start a second load of laundry drying.