Happy Laundry

I don't mind doing laundry, but I do mind putting it away.  Very often I will spend all day washing and folding clothes, sorting them into their correct piles and even putting them into individual family member laundry baskets to then have them sit in my family room for a week (because that's where I fold laundry while watching Jason Bourne movies) waiting to actually make it to their correct rooms/closets/drawers. 

Just prior to AH's and my trip to Italy (more to come on that trip later) our washing machine started making a huge racket with every wash load no matter the size or balance.  We were able to see that some pieces on the interior of the washer had worn themselves out and were detached and causing considerable noise.  We debated the value of having the machine fixed vs. the cost of buying a new machine.  Ultimately the cost of fixing a 14 year old machine was not worth it when we could buy a new machine for roughly $400. 

As much as I would love to have a high-end fancy washing machine (and dryer) just for the cohesive look and beauty of owning what I see on home décor websites, TV shows and magazines, the reality is we don't need a $1000+ washing machine and honestly, the research and reviews on many of those machines said they "sucked big time" anyway - especially the front loaders.  Add to our frugality is the reality that we have an ugly laundry/pantry/utility room so who cares what's in there so long as it gets the job done and I don't have to buy a new one for at least a decade?  (and I can spend the money I saved on our trip to Italy)

What I didn't remember, until the new machine was delivered, is that our old machine was purchased when we bought our first condo and was condo sized.  All these years I have stuffed that machine to the brim and it has performed beautifully, but this new machine. . . well it makes me giddy.   I purposefully, after reading all the bad reviews on front loaders, sought out a top loader that was not energy efficient.  The beauty of this plan is that it's a lot cheaper, adds plenty of water for a thorough cleaning and has a humongous capacity that now allows me to wash the mattress cover (twin bed), sheet set, and blankets all in one load (it's also self balancing - our old machine could hop around the entire room with a good off balanced load).  In addition to that, it gets the laundry so much dryer during the spin cycle that things are fully dry, after much less time, in the dryer. 

For now I am enjoying the honeymoon stage with the new washer as each day I am looking for items to wash because it's just so fun.  Of course I am so giddy about it that I don't even mind putting the clean laundry away the very same day!