A friend of mine was riding through Amish country when she saw that it was laundry day. Countless farms had their dark colored pants and skirts hanging in the sunshine to dry. She relayed this to me with the point being that the Amish laundry day reminded her of me. I laughed because that comparison was pretty accurate.
When we moved to the farm, appliances were not included in the sale. We splurged on a clothes washer and borrowed an older refrigerator from a friend. This was a temporary solution until we found the right appliances. We lived like that for six weeks.
My husband strung up a clothes line between the garage and shop, far away from the gravel dust on the road. He even made a wagon for me to haul the laundry basket back and forth to the line. All the tiny toddler clothes were so cute on the line but so time consuming to hang. Not to mention my 3-year old's obsession with changing his clothes, which meant a lot of laundry. I definitely wasn't used to stiff, lint covered clothes. I adjusted with the thought that it wouldn't last forever.
I even adjusted to cooking and baking with a crockpot, grill, and electric cooktop. I baked a cake in the crockpot and gave my non-working oven the finger.
The dishwasher is harder for me to go without. Our brand new dishwasher is currently stowed in the garage where it will stay until we can decide which kitchen cabinets to take out. The kitchen wasn't made with a dishwasher. Washing dishes for five people is not ideal and hell on my pregnancy nails. Now that we do have a kitchen range, I produce a lot more pots and pans. It makes sense that one appliance compliments another.
I heard on the radio the top ten conveniences that people can not live without. All appliances were on that list with number two being your phone and number one being internet. We don't have internet, and haven't for almost a year and a half. We have it on our phones, which is how I'm writing this now. Our phones, however, are iPhone 4's. My husband and I like to be stubborn and not conform. I would describe it more as refusing to be dependent on anything, including TV. My husband even goes in spurts when he gives up coffee.
I'm not saying go Amish, but if you can't live without something challenge yourself to give it the finger. I'd rather be interesting (not in a weird way) than have five TVs in my house and an iPhone 15 with all the latest apps to keep me entertained.
