Laundry in Spain

So I knew doing laundry here would be different than in the US, but I didn't realize how many speedbumps I would run into...here are a couple accounts of my troubles so far.

First, I live on the 10th floor of my apartment building, which is equivalent to the 11th floor of a building in the United States because here there is a Piso/Planta Baja (ground floor) in every building. And since most people in Spain don't have clothes dryers, I have to hang all of my laundry out the window. This made me extremely nervous, because I wouldn't want to lose any of clothing.

For my first attempt at laundry, I decided to handwash some clothes, so that I would only be tackling the clothesline aspect of the process. Plus, some of my clothes are handwash only. That part went pretty well, though I wish I didn't have to do it in our small kitchen sink. And by some miracle, I didn't lose any clothes off of the line.

That was last week. This week, I had to use the washing machine as I was not about to handwash very sweaty t-shirts and a pair of jean shorts. It seemed easy enough, my landlord had posted instructions (in English, though quite broken English) on the front of the washer. I could follow them pretty well, except the last step, "Take out the bottom." I had no idea what this could mean. I figured it couldn't be too important and went ahead and washed my clothes. Well, after the load was done, I waited the recommended 10 minutes to open the automatic lock door. When I did, water came spilling out on the kitchen floor. I quickly shut the door and called for one of my roommates to bring me some more towels. While I sat on the floor mopping up the water, I realized that there was a round cover about the size of a tomato sauce jar lid that I had tried to pry open before. I decided to turn it in place; water again came rushing out onto the floor. At this moment, my roommate remembered that the washing machine somehow had to be drained before the clothes were removed. I attempted, bit by bit, to drain the washing through this cover, but most of the water went on the floor, me, and the towels I had around me. So instead, I hand squeezed all of my laundry and took it out to dry. Then I bailed out the washer from the main portion, hoping this would solve my problems. However, every time I turn the small cover, water again comes pouring out onto the floor.

So I ended up with dry clothes, which I presume are clean but I can't entirely guarantee, sopping wet towels hanging out to dry, a clean kitchen floor (if the water that was draining was clean to begin with), and a missing sock that I lost off the clothesline in my haste to hang everything out to dry. I still haven't exactly figured out how to fix the washing machine for the next time someone needs to wash their clothes, but I plan on sticking to handwashing until then.