One night last week I was on the ground level of our split level house and heard the usual whirr of the dryer on the basement floor below. It seems the dryer runs constantly. My wife does at least one load a day, more loads most days. Keep in mind this is just for her and our two sons. I do my own laundry, a habit my mother got me into as a teen-ager.
I’ve suggested we hang a clothesline and during the warmer weather dry some of our clothes outdoors. She says it will look trashy and insects will get on the clothes. I don’t know. My mother and grandmother both used clotheslines in the warmer weather.
Call it a premonition, but as I listened to the dryer that day last week I thought: “I bet this dryer doesn’t last much longer.”
Sometime on Saturday, I heard Mary go down to the basement and push the start button on the dryer. There was a low hum, but no whirr. I knew before she told me.
“The dryer isn’t working,” she called out from the basement. Within minutes she was on the computer researching a new dryer. I could have suggested we not rush into anything and consider a repair or at least ask her very handy father to take a look. But I know how important keeping up with the laundry is to her and I didn’t want to interfere. I did point out that this will be our third dryer in 14 years and that dryers in most households probably have a life expectancy of more than four or five years.
On Sunday morning, while the boys and I were still in bed I heard the sound of her van pulling out. She usually doesn’t go out before noon on Sunday, but I knew she was on a mission. She returned around 11:30. As I saw the van pull in I figured there was a 50-50 chance that she has a new dryer in the back for me to unload. Instead, she told me they didn’t have the model she wanted in stock and would have to go to another store location.
By around 4:30 she had purchased the dryer she wanted and decided to have it delivered and the old one taken away. She was disappointed because she would have to wait until Thursday. She had the day off from work on Monday and spent part of it at the Laundromat doing the dirty clothes that had accumulated since Saturday. I gave her a few things to hold me over until Sunday or Monday. The new dryer will arrive on Thursday, but I know she will have it tied up for the first couple of days catching up on all laundry that accumulated between Tuesday and Thursday.
Let me know what you think.
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2 comments:
First of all, I must say that I am very impressed you do your own laundry. However, it may be better to do all the laundry together to save energy and water.
I think that all appliances are built to fail--regardless of the brand. None of them seem to last long and require repair or replacement. I've had 2 dishwashers in 12 years and both had repairs in between. My dryer has only required one repair in 12 years.
I probably would have had the dryer looked at by someone before rushing out to buy a new one. If the cost to repair is too expensive, say over $150, then it might not be worth it.
I actually love outdoor clotheslines. The only problem is if you have severe allergies, then outdoor drying may not be best---especially for sheets and towels. But clothes/linens usually smell nice after outdoor drying--not to mention the money you save on electricity.
To save on electricity and dryer over use, you could make an indoor clothesline in your basement to hang up shirts, pants and use the dryer for everything else.
First, I think I would have done the same thing as your wife, go out immediately in search of a new one. But the one thing I will disagree with is going to the laundromat.
I think I would rather shake off a bug or two and have my laundry smell great then to go to a laundromat and use a machine that everyone and their brother has used.
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