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Joined: Nov 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
Of course here in the tropics we don't need airing cupboards,
What? What? Walk around in soggy clothes do ya? Or are you on a nudist island?
Living in Philippines for a year I learned that the oven (set on warm) was a good place to get the damp out of towels before showers or baths and we left the light on in closets to keep mildew and damp at bay.
Had a heated towel rack in Hawaii which was put to multiple use warming up clothing and linens.
Liked it so much I bought one (Hammacher Schlemmer has them) for here in NE where it is on all winter and used off-and-on when summer weather turns "muggy."
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819
old hand
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OP
old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819 |
We have the amazingly modern technological convenience called the drier.Well, Jazz-O, here on the west coast of the US of A, there's an energy shortage, so the electricity-hungry clothes drier may well give way to something like the airing cupboard. Why waste heat that would otherwise go up the chimney? Oh, I know, NOT wasting resources is very un-American, so I may risk being thrown in jail or censured for thinking that the Brits have a good thing here. When I first saw the term, I thought It must be something to let one vent his grievences!  Maybe we could use the term thusly on this board, i.e. "airing our dirty laundry."
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
something to let one vent his grievences
In the office where I worked we had a "Suggestion Box." After receiving several rude suggestions the Editor changed it to a Gripe Box.
Then it disappeared.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
Dear Bingley:"Of course here in the tropics we don't need airing cupboards", I spent a year in Manila ( In WWII, and Army did not provide either washers or driers.), and during the three month rainy season everything I owned got mildewed and green with mould. What's so different where you are?
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 387 |
How much did they tell you about radar? My Grandfather worked on it so I know it was secret, but you might have had something to do with it.
jimthedog
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addict
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addict
Joined: Feb 2001
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To add just a little to Bingley's post. Airing cupboards are for only the last bit of drying or for keeping a set of sheets ready for the guest bed. They are usually heated by the hot water tank (now usually insulated so not a lot of heat escapes) and some hot water pipes. Mine is also heated by the flue from the central heating boiler passing through. The clean washing is dried on the line, or in the tumble-dryer, or on the radiators, or as a last resort by ironing the wretched things. With the English weather, and the older English building practices, the houses are damp from drying the washing in, so you have to have somewhere to keep the important stuff so it doesn't get damp again!
Of course the cupboard gets full of fermenting wine, hyacinths before Christmas, and all the clothes that you don't have wardrobe or drawer space for.
Having just got our daughter to empty "her" wardrobe of most of her clothes, and using it as our seasonal wardrobe, we now hear she is probably off to Frankfurt for 2 years with her boyfriend, and can she store some stuff back in her room please. My wife says fine, but none of it fits me, or what does fit doesn't really do much for me!
Rod
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veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
U.S. alternative to airing cupboard
In addition to clothes driers, as explained by Jazzoctopus, there is also the fact that nearly every house in the U.S. has central heating, which keeps the entire house free from dampness, at least in the season when the heat is on. In summer, damp is not a great problem except in tropical places like Maryland, S. Carolina, Louisiana and a few others, which rival Calcutta and Central Africa for unbearable heat and humidity. Air conditioning solves this problem.
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
Having just got our daughter to empty "her" wardrobe of most of her clothes, and using it as our seasonal wardrobe, we now hear she is probably off to Frankfurt for 2 years with her boyfriend, and can she store some stuff back in her room please
As the old saying goes : "The children haven't really left home until all their stuff is out of the attic and cellar."
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
And then the "empty nest" syndrome strikes.
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Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
...tropical places like Maryland, S. Carolina, Louisiana and a few others, which rival Calcutta and Central Africa for unbearable heat and humidity.
Thanks, Bob: Cap'n Kiwi didn't believe me when I warned him about the Eastern half of the U.S.
You are right when you say that most houses here have central heating; I feel obligated to point out, however, that there are areas where people still live in, essentially, shacks. One stove for heat (assuming they can get any fuel for it), and of course no A/C. We, the richest country in the world, still allow people to live like this. Shame on us.
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