First of all, the FIVE (!) winners of the My Design Guide giveaway are:
1. gijane_84 (at) hotmail (dot) com
2. The Kesler Klan
3. Lisa Vance
4. Christe from 4 Monkeys
5. Katie from In the Grip of Grace
Ladies, you can email Champe at champegranger (at) mydesignguide (dot) com to get your gift certificates!
OK. Now to the topic at hand. My hatred of laundry. It’s deep. And constant. And lingering. All that stuff.
I despise it. The whole putting it in the washer thing – I’m cool with that. I don’t even mind putting it in the dryer. It’s all steps after that one that I can’t stand.
The dryer always always always takes longer than the washer, so when I’m forced in the mood to do laundry, (which is RARE), my mojo gets all backed up. You know, plenty of laundry in piles, laundry done in the washer, and the whole process gets all wacked because the clothes won’t dry.
Lately we’ve noticed it’s taken even longer than usual to dry our clothes. It was a gradual process. Or maybe it wasn’t – I only do laundry maybe once a month, so maybe it happened last month. Or a few months ago. I wouldn’t know.
Oh yeah, and hubby does his own laundry. Yes, it’s true. No, you cannot have him. He’s MINE. :)
So anyhoo, last week the dryer was taking approximately THREE hours to dry one load. Hmmm…I’m no laundry expert, but that just sounds like a wee bit too long, yes?
So hubs and I found a nifty set of cleaning contraptions to clean out the vent:
This is not the one we got, but it’s similar. We were psyched at the thought of getting a load of laundry completed within a 24 hour period…so we got home and slid out the dryer, disconnected the vent and got to work:
OK. Well, my handsome hubby got to work. I stood back and took pictures. You’ll notice how I paint. :) Shhhh…
We took that vent cleaning thingamabob and snaked it through the vent (ours is a LONG one that goes up through the garage, into the attic, then outside) as far as we could get it.
TONS of lint came out. Piles. Poofs of it. We were giddy! Feeling extra smart and sassy, we went outside and did the same thing from the vent on the side of the house. More poofs of lint.
We went back inside, did the same to the vent going into the dryer (not too far in, but enough) and out came more piles o lint.
Awesome! We put everything back together and dare I say, I was excited to do a load of laundry? I think I was – I’m not familiar with that emotion when it comes to the washing of clothes, so who knows.
I stopped the dryer after about 40 minutes and the clothes were still soaking wet. DRATS! Curses! Shakes fists in the air!
So. Hopefully in the next month or so (it better be soon cause we are running out of socks), we are shopping for one of these:
OK, I think that’s a picture of the washer. Whatever.
(I’m going to tell you a secret so don’t tell anyone. My leeetle plan is to maybe mention something or other about just “going ahead” with a matching washer “while we’re there” and we “might as well” since we’re “having them delivered anyway” – you know. Just a little hint. There’s no way he’ll see through that.)
Anyhoo, in my grand scheme of laundry plans, the laundry room won’t even stay where it is anyway. But in the meantime, I’m thinking a bright red and fun washer and dryer would totally make the whole process way more fun and exciting.
Or a cool blue one would work too:
I’m not picky. I’ll take anything that dries clothing. Is that too much to ask? :)
Our washer and dryer set is more than six years old – is that as long as they last anymore? Any other ideas for the dryer until we can get a shiny new one? (By the way, the dryer is warm inside, the clothes are warm, but not drying.)
Anyone out there have a front loader washer and dryer? Love it? Hate it? (Is that even possible?) Do I need the storage jobbies underneath? Is there a brand you love? Can you find a magic pill I can take so that I enjoy laundry?
Or is a dryer that works the key? We shall see!
By the way – the dryer going kaput one of many mini disasters around here within the past three weeks. First there was the $3,000 bill to get my car fixed. (Thankfully a third of that was covered by warranty and the other third is just going to have to wait.)
Second, the grass in our whole front yard died due to a weird mishap. ALL of it. Crispy. I guess it didn’t die all of the way, because what will probably be a $200 water bill later, it’s coming back, slowly but surely.
The third was this lovely sight we woke up to one morning:
The storm blew the umbrella around and it shattered the table. Awesome!!
Wooee let’s just add it to the list! By the way, in the scheme of life, I know these are minor. It’s just been extra interesting around here lately. :)
I’m off to hang some wet clothes!
Thanks to this week’s sponsor!
