Why I Hate My Washer/Dryer

There are many things I love about our new flat. I love the ceiling molding, how bright the living room is in the morning, the built-in bookcases in the family room/den, the curved archways between the living room and the dining room, the view of the trees from the upstairs windows, the mantel in the living room, which I am fairly certain is original to the house. It is a cute flat with loads of charm.

That is not to say that they aren’t adjustments you make when you move into a flat from a house, mostly in space. We went from a five bedroom house to a three bedroom apartment. We don’t have a lot of closets, a garage (which isn’t that terrible since we don’t’ have a car) or a laundry room. I never realized how much I loved my laundry room with its big washer and dryer until I moved into our flat and met our washer/dryer. I say met because I think of it like a human being, a human being I don’t like very much. First of all, it is in the kitchen. It doesn’t even know its proper place – a laundry room. Second of all it is a combo washer dryer – meaning the load goes through the washing process and then stays in there for the drying. These units are very popular here. Of the 10-15 places we looked at before we came, ¾ of them had combo washer/dryers. IT TAKES FOREVER TO DO A SMALL LOAD OF LAUNDRY. I can put a load in there before I leave in the morning around 10:00 a.m., come back well after lunch and it will still be going 5 hours later. Another thing, it has the capacity of a large mixing bowl. I can only put in two bath towels and maybe, if I am feeling a little defiant, a hand towel and that is it. If I overstuff it, by let’s say putting in THREE bath towels, the load will never dry. Now in all fairness, I shouldn’t say never because I usually will end a load after about 7 hours so I haven’t really tested whether or not it will eventually dry by leaving an overstuffed load in until it is dry. I think I should do the environment a favor by stopping it after 7 or so hours. Because laundry takes so very long to finish, there is always laundry to do. We are backlogged in laundry and we don’t even do Chizz’s shirts, we send them out. (Hey Uncle S. – you need to look into going multi-national, there are dry cleaners on EVERY block here!) The washer/dryer is on constantly. For a while there I thought I might be able to catch up if I set the alarm and did a load during the middle of the night. But I figured out that at an average rate of 6 hours per load, I would really only be getting in one extra load a day. Since we are talking mini-loads, it is hardly worth losing sleep.

Kiki leaves for college in two years. She will probably be the only kid that goes TO college with dirty laundry. Maybe she can take some of Snake’s.