As I’ve commented before, I hate laundry day. I still haven’t figured out how to use my dryer, even after asking multiple friends and even taking the manual in to work. I let my laundry pile up until the last possible minute because I can’t stand the task of finding random places to hang clothes all over my house. I cannot imagine every German going through this.

This laundry day will turn into two laundry days because I have sheets, towels and clothes to wash. I wash everything on the sportswear cycle. A. because that’s the only word I trust and recognize (granted most of my clothes are, in fact, sportswear). B. because at 47 minutes, it’s the shortest cycle. I’m still pouring in detergent with no rhyme or reason to the amount. I just do whatever feels good. And of the 3 places to pour the detergent in, I just pick one. My wash for the most part comes out fine.

When I use the dryer, I try a different setting every time. Why are there so many options?! Sometimes I don’t even go to the trouble of using the dryer because I know it won’t work. But today, the thought of scratchy towels and sheets prompted me to take action.

After throwing my sheets in the dryer and selecting pflegeleicht schranktrocken extra instead of koch/bunt schranktrocken extra (it sounded better), I went back after an hour. I was again confronted by the blinking “behälter” button and my sheets were still wet. I decided I had to figure this thing out. I pulled out my manual, did some Google searches, watched some YouTube videos, and even threw Google Translate into the mix.

Turns out I figured out that I have a condensation dryer that automatically stops working if the water container is full. Behälter means to empty the water container (duh). I pulled out this long plastic container that must have had a gallon of water in it. And I poured it out.

I am 33 years old and I never knew a dryer like this existed. I still don’t know the point of it. But I guess it explains why sometimes my clothes come out steaming hot and wet.

The end result: I went back to check on my sheets after another hour and they were about 75% dry. Hey, I’ll take it!

Only two more hours until my towels are dry.