Chores in Glasgow

Doing your laundry -- throw in a load, toss it into the dryer, throw in the next load. Not so fast. Our washer here takes about two hours to do one small load (much of that time it seems to be resting, soaking the clothes maybe?), which then has to be hung to dry, so don't bother doing another load until tomorrow, since you need to wait for the first load to dry.

Our downstairs bathroom has an ingenious system for drying. There are three racks attached to a rope pulley.

So, you put your clothes on the racks,

hoist on this rope,

and voila, clothes are pulled up to the ceiling to dry -- out of your way and exposed to warm, rising air.

Throwing away your trash -- simple enough -- you put in on the curb on your assigned pick-up day. Not quite in Glasgow. Instead, you toss it in a dumpster, which are sometimes tucked away in alleys, but also are just right on the sidewalks.

Then, there's recycling. Three different kinds of dumpsters -- glass; plastic, cans and newspaper; and cardboard. Not all located together, but sometimes. We have trash dumpsters and plastic, can and newspaper recycling one block away in the same alley (but be careful those green containers which mean glass in other places are just trash here).

Two blocks away are the cardboard and glass dumpsters. Near this cool mural though!

The slower pace of life permeates everything from service in restaurants to doing household chores; people don't rush anything here!