Ah. It was a tad of an adjustment but one I hope we take back to the states with us. This is my washer/dryer. It holds much less. To wash clothes it takes one and a half hours. To dry clothes it takes two. These are government issue so I'll be giving these back when we leave. They differ from Amer. washers/dryers in size, they use much less water and the dryer does not have a dryer hose. Instead I empty water, ever two loads, into a bucket and it is a lot of water. It makes me wonder where the water goes in the Amer. ones. There's no way it's evaporating this much water and, here, my clothes don't sit in a tub of water either. If they took an Amer. dryer apart would they find mold? They did in my washer before we moved.
Garbage! Almost everything gets recycled. I have three trash bins, four if you include where I go with my aluminum and glass. I collect everything organic. Here I'm throwing away remnants from Banana Muffins I made this morning. As you can see my bin is full of veggies. I never feel bad about throwing these things away. I include my tea bags and Shane's coffee grinds. They pick this bin up every two weeks, I only put it out when it's 1/4 full. That'll change in summer. I can't wait for the smell! Then there's paper. Every little bit of paper gets thrown in here. Cardboard, Drake's old homework, cereal boxes, magazines, even scraps of scrapbook paper. I also have a bag where I collect glass, aluminum and plastic bottles. I take this, once a week, on base to a sorter. Lastly my regular trash. Since being here I have gone from putting out a trash bag once a day to once a week. I can't believe the waste from before. I don't ever want to go back. If anything gets mixed up, like trash in the organic bin, they won't take it. They are very strict about it.
Our kitchen water is heated by solar panels and the yard has buckets where it collects water for rain. Speaking of kitchens-they are mobile. You may look at a place, see the cabinets, like it, want it and then move in and they have taken all the cabinets out. You have to request the cabinets be left. lol. Same with light fixtures. Back to water-I can't imagine why we ever thought it was a good idea to use filtered drinking water on our yard and to wash our cars. Kinda ridiculous if you think about it. When the bucket gets full they just empty it onto the yard. I will add though that Germans don't have land like we have land. The country is about the size of Montana? So they can recycle like they do AND they build UP not out. In other words...they've got very small lawns. Lawn care includes street care. If there is trash in the street and it's in front of your house-you pick it up, leaves-you rake it up. They are often sweeping streets and clearing snow by themselves. Everything is very neat and tidy. The refrigerators are
tiny. They don't hold much, they don't get too cold either! We definitely don't keep milk passed the expiration date. Everything has stayed fresh, as far as we know. And kitchens are small, as well. As you can see this kitchen would be considered good size over here.=) When we looked at homes they had tables that pulled out from the cabinets. To eat at. Like we could fit around a tiny table that came out of the cabinet. They are proud of their system and it works for them. Even in the restaurants the tables are very cozy. Not much space for spreading out. So. Could you do it?
Ah. It was a tad of an adjustment but one I hope we take back to the states with us. This is my washer/dryer. It holds much less. To wash clothes it takes one and a half hours. To dry clothes it takes two. These are government issue so I'll be giving these back when we leave. They differ from Amer. washers/dryers in size, they use much less water and the dryer does not have a dryer hose. Instead I empty water, ever two loads, into a bucket and it is a lot of water. It makes me wonder where the water goes in the Amer. ones. There's no way it's evaporating this much water and, here, my clothes don't sit in a tub of water either. If they took an Amer. dryer apart would they find mold? They did in my washer before we moved.
Garbage! Almost everything gets recycled. I have three trash bins, four if you include where I go with my aluminum and glass. I collect everything organic. Here I'm throwing away remnants from Banana Muffins I made this morning. As you can see my bin is full of veggies. I never feel bad about throwing these things away. I include my tea bags and Shane's coffee grinds. They pick this bin up every two weeks, I only put it out when it's 1/4 full. That'll change in summer. I can't wait for the smell! Then there's paper. Every little bit of paper gets thrown in here. Cardboard, Drake's old homework, cereal boxes, magazines, even scraps of scrapbook paper. I also have a bag where I collect glass, aluminum and plastic bottles. I take this, once a week, on base to a sorter. Lastly my regular trash. Since being here I have gone from putting out a trash bag once a day to once a week. I can't believe the waste from before. I don't ever want to go back. If anything gets mixed up, like trash in the organic bin, they won't take it. They are very strict about it.
Our kitchen water is heated by solar panels and the yard has buckets where it collects water for rain. Speaking of kitchens-they are mobile. You may look at a place, see the cabinets, like it, want it and then move in and they have taken all the cabinets out. You have to request the cabinets be left. lol. Same with light fixtures. Back to water-I can't imagine why we ever thought it was a good idea to use filtered drinking water on our yard and to wash our cars. Kinda ridiculous if you think about it. When the bucket gets full they just empty it onto the yard. I will add though that Germans don't have land like we have land. The country is about the size of Montana? So they can recycle like they do AND they build UP not out. In other words...they've got very small lawns. Lawn care includes street care. If there is trash in the street and it's in front of your house-you pick it up, leaves-you rake it up. They are often sweeping streets and clearing snow by themselves. Everything is very neat and tidy. The refrigerators are tiny. They don't hold much, they don't get too cold either! We definitely don't keep milk passed the expiration date. Everything has stayed fresh, as far as we know. And kitchens are small, as well. As you can see this kitchen would be considered good size over here.=) When we looked at homes they had tables that pulled out from the cabinets. To eat at. Like we could fit around a tiny table that came out of the cabinet. They are proud of their system and it works for them. Even in the restaurants the tables are very cozy. Not much space for spreading out. So. Could you do it?
5 comments:
Hahha, Could I do it? For Germany, Hell yeah! LOL. But it is no matter whether or not I feel like I can do it, because I AM GOING TO DO IT! ;)
Though, Germany sounds a lot like here... system wise, small, cramped. LOL. But, sounds good to me. Germany sounds a lot CLEANER!
I totally cannot wait. although, i think we are going to be living on post, as they say that below e5 cannot live off... Who knows though. LOL. I still can't wait!
We already do almost all of that here, except for the washer & dryer. We don't even have a dryer, all our clothes are hung to dry on racks or on the line in the summer. The space thing kind of weirds me out though, I like to have my personal space. It's something I could get used to though.
Wow. It's all so weird. I love hearing about it.
No wonder my exchange student was so freaked out when she came to live with us.
oh my, so so tiny. I don't think I could do it. The cozy cramped part. The down sizing on trash/waste would be manageable.
Is Trish visiting now? Love to you both!! Hope you're raising hell and having FUN!!!!!!!
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