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Laundry in Switzerland


redplaydoh wrote: Since so many have posted about their laundry woes I thought I'd add to it and let you know a weird thing about laundry in Switzerland.

Electrcity usage is rated for the time of day, 7am to 7pm is peak time and is twice the price as 7pm to 7am. So it makes it very pricey to do such things as laundry during the day. From 11am to 12 noon the power to the washer/dryer and dishwasher is cut off from the power company during the fall/winter months. They are connected to special outlets that the power company switches off. The reasoning is that during the lunch hour when everyone is home cooking lunch the power usage would double during this time so they conserve the energy by not allowing washing of clothes and dishes. This makes no sense to me... but I live here and have to live with it.

It is HARD keeping up with the laundry by only doing it at night. Weekends you get half price electricity from noon on Saturday until 7am on Monday morning. But weekends here are when you HAVE to get your shopping done because ALL stores close between 4 and 6pm and are all closed on Sunday.

Sunday you're not allowed to use power tools or lawn equipment that would disturb the noise. It is hard to get used to all these little quirks....

mom2my2cuties replied: That is very interesting! I would go nuts, because I like to do my shopping in the evenings.

PrairieMom replied: I would have a really hard time adjusting to that schedule. tongue.gif

Hillbilly Housewife replied: That's actually pretty cool... and something that might make its way to North America, from what I heard on the 11pm news last night concerning Greenhouse gases etc while I was falling asleep and dh was watcing tv...

I throw in my load of laundry for the day around 6am, it's usually finished by 7am anyways... so no big deal... and my dishes get done after lunch, which is usually served around 11:30... so no big deal again... and as for shopping... it's kinda neat that everyone gets meal times off.

Don't you also have to take a number or something for lines to pay?

And don't you also have a "down time" after lunch, like siesta time? It's supposed to increase productivity...

I'd like to have some of those practices around here. blush.gif

gr33n3y3z replied: I really cant see where they save money bc at some point and time everyone is doing the samething at the sametime so how do they save?

my2girls replied: When we lived in California ( also here in Nevada) the power companies let you choose from 3-4 different rate options. One was the hours/day of the week usage that redplaydoh wrote about.
Not alot of people do this option though, we are playing around with it to see if we can adhere to this schedule. So far so good so maybe next month we might sign up for that system.
Redplaydoh..... I recently ran across a book about a American woman who moved to Germany with her family. The book is called ...SAHM I Am: Tales of a Stay-At-Home-Mom in Europe. It is very interesting and talks about the experiences she has had living in Europe. I have read that it is a funny book. I can't wait to read it, I have it on order right now.

redplaydoh replied: I haven't seen anyone here taking numbers to stand in line, I saw that more in the US like at the return desk at Target. I take that back, they do have a take a number and wait your turn thing here at the post office.

Downtime after lunch... kind of, but not really. Lunch breaks are longer here, up to 2 hours. Schools are let out at 11:30 and the students typically go back by 1:30. Stores usually are closed during these times too so the mothers can go home to cook for the kids. Lunch is the large meal here and usually the only "cooked" meal. Dinner is usually a "cold" meal such as deli meats, bread and cheese, or yogurt with fruit. Most people live within a few minutes of their job so they CAN come home during that time, but my DH works about 30 minutes away which to most seems like a l-o-n-g way to drive to and from work.

I really miss evening shopping too... weekdays most stores are closed by 6pm with the different towns having a "late" night in which stores are open until 7 or 8. Here late night is Friday.

I miss having evening and weekend shopping times because on Saturday you run around madly trying to get to all the places you need to before they close since you can't do evening shopping during the week. So it feels like weekends are only one day long... Sunday. Sometimes we need to do things in the house like hang a picture, but spend all our day Saturday shopping and then Sunday comes and you can't use the power tools. Since our construction here is cement/brick with no wood in the walls it takes a drill-hammer to get a silly hook in the wall to hang pictures. So I have a stack of pictures that need to be hung, we just never have the time to do it in the "allowed" time slots. But on the flip side, Sundays are quiet, peaceful, and you don't have that feeling that "I have to go out and do ....."
No yardwork, no shopping, it's just family time. You don't have the annoying neighbor that starts his lawnmower at 6am. Sundays are really stress-free.

Regarding greenhouse gasses... Switzerland is VERY into recycling. Trash is expensive to throw away. All organic matter from cooking or gardening is put into green collection bins and either turned into compost or a fuel for cars called Kompogas. Cardboard/paper of all types is stacked, bound with twine, and collected at curbside once a month. Glass and cans are recycled and PET bottles (bottles like Coke/Pepsi come in) are taken back at the store. Even graves are recycled after 25 years unless the family pays for extra graveyard rental time. We purchase our trash bags from the town, they are about the size of a white tall kitchen trash bag (not that big). Each bag is about $4.00 or so and refuse HAS to be discarded in this. We recycle so much we go through about 6 bags a month and that is with diapers even.

coasterqueen replied: Wow very interesting! Ok, I have two questions. tongue.gif

Recycle graveyard sites? huh.gif Why? So after 25 years, someone else is buried where grandpa was?

And since all stores close down fairly early what is the night life like in Switzerland?

It's interesting you say all this because we have a school friend that moved to Switzerland and married there. He has told us some neat things but never any of this. I do know they are extremely BF friendly.

redplaydoh replied:
Yes, exactly... Switzerland is small, and a very old country. If everyone kept their burial spot there would be no room for people that were alive.

Night life is family time... of course I am speaking from my viewpoint. It's dinner, bath, book and bed for our two, then the two of us adults clean up from the little monkeys and watch a little tv then go to bed. SO exciting... not.

Night life for single, much younger people can be fun. There are a lot of clubs from small to large where the single ones meet up. You can drink from the age of 16 here, at least beer/wine. But you can't drive until you're 18. By that time the getting drunk phase usually has passed, but if not there are trains and buses that run round the clock so you can get anywhere you need to go without driving. DWI is taken very seriously here and you lose your license for 1 year plus pay a hefty fine, if caught again it could be a permanent loss or for 5 years. People generally don't mess with driving intoxicated.

And yes, they are very BF friendly... it is nothing to see a woman bf-ing publicly and nothing is thought about it, even from the younger guys... and as in the US most women take a lot of care to cover properly, but if not, it isn't a big deal. Nudity is viewed much differently here.

TheOaf66 replied: I am all for the no tools and such on Sundays, then you could watch football w/out interruption laugh.gif

CantWait replied: WOW those are a lot of interesting facts, I'm not quite sure about the laundry deal or the graveyard deal. I don't think I could deal with that. Eventually though, when ya think about it, something is going to have to be done about the lack of grave space. I remember an article a couple years back saying that it was better to reserve your space now because cemetary plots were running out.

lisar replied: WOW. I think I would go insane.


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