Hi! I’m planning on purchasing some feminine clothes to see how I feel in them, but I still need a way to wash and dry them unnoticed as I’m still closeted & living with my parents.

For the drying part: my room has a lock which my mom doesn’t mind me using, so I can keep clothes out in the open in my room while drying, but I also can’t really buy something like a drying rack because it would lead to too many questions.

For the washing part: I know that the washing machine is an option but would rather just hand-wash, because our washing machine is really loud and I would have to find a time in which no one was home to use it. We don’t have a tub though, so I wanted to ask how effective washing with running water would be instead.

  • dandelion@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    15 days ago

    since you live in Turkey and the risks / consequences of getting outed are probably severe, I would encourage you to consider having a designated safe person / friend who can clean & keep the clothes for you, ideally a female friend or a male friend with sisters who can swing that? Are there any LGBT+ groups or centers that you know about where you could maybe connect with people who could help you with these logistics?

    I wouldn’t use certain anti-microbial, moisturizing hand soaps for cleaning clothes, but yes - a simple bar soap is probably fine for washing clothes (I have used simple bar soaps to hand-wash my clothes without issue, you just have to be prepared to scrub and rinse them many times to get all the soap out, which incidentally also gets the dirt, sweat, etc. out.)

    Don’t underestimate the risk of your parents going through your things when you’re not there, even for reasons you wouldn’t expect. (For example, my parents went through my backpacks and possessions without my knowledge or consent, and then tried to justify it by saying they thought I was abusing drugs, even though I never had used drugs and there was no actual justification or reasoning they could provide for why they thought that, let alone accountability on their end. They also took my private journal - so be careful about what information you write down or leave around - including your lemmy account, etc.)

    • bootleg@sh.itjust.worksOP
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      15 days ago

      Yeah, I guess you’re right.

      Sadly there are no LGBTQ centers in Istanbul (at least as far as I’m aware, and even if there were they would likely be in a progressive region in the anatolian side of the city which takes a while to travel to.