If you ask us what’s our biggest challenge running Saddle Mountain Hostel, our response is likely to be “the laundry”.
Getting the laundry done takes up a large part of every day. Maybe it’s because we’re new to running a hostel and are more accustomed to dealing with laundry for two people. Or because it’s peak season and we’re full most nights. Or because it’s not been the driest summer on record. Or all of the above!
It’s just the two of us and we do everything ourselves with the aid of 2 washing machines, 1 condenser drier, 4 outside clothes lines, 5 clothes horses and lots of clothes pegs.
Our daily laundry mountain consists of up to 24 sets of bed linen (duvet covers, pillow cases and sheets), any towels that have been hired by our guests, bath mats, hand towels and tea towels. That’s about 12 large washing machine loads or, put into time, a full morning’s use of our washing machines.
And getting it washed is easy compared to drying it!
Our preference is to dry things outside but with our weather, particularly this summer, that’s not always possible. Hang it outside and you spend the rest of the day watching the weather, looking for raindrops appearing on the window. And then it’s the inevitable mad dash to bring it all inside and hang it up again, only for it to be sunny again a little while later. It’s like choosing which till to queue at in the supermarket. You always seem to pick the one that’s moving slowest and instead of sticking with it, you move and it ends up taking even longer!
Don’t feel too sorry for us though; we do have two complete sets of everything for getting the hostel ready for the next set of guests. But that’s another story!