…Or how screech-owl spent thirty bucks in a couple of hours for a good cause.
My dryer broke awhile ago. Just runs and runs without drying stuff. Gets them all hot and humid, but doesn’t suck out the moisture. Yes, I’ve cleaned out the hose, but after about 15 years, I think the dryer has lost its sense of purpose in life. And the drum is rusted, so anything sitting in the dryer for more than 10 minutes gets rust stains all over it. Can’t complain, though, it came free with the place.
So for the most part, I’ve been doing laundry (the washer does still work), and been hanging things from the shower curtainrod in the bathroom, in direct line of the air conditioning duct and a tabletop fan (a couple hours and everything is dry).
Or for the most part everything is dry - shirts, jeans, dresses, stuff like that.
Some things like socks and blankets just don’t dry well hanging from the shower curtainrod. I don’t have enough little clippy things for the socks to hang from and besides, they dry all stiff, not nice and soft if I could hang them outside, which I can’t because of deed restrictions, and also the blankets pull down the whole curtainrod. Bam. Like Emeril was cooking in the bathroom, but louder. And less tasty. And more of a mess, what with pulling the paint off the wall and scratching the tile.
So today, I get torqued off to the point of just doing laundry. Nothing but laundry. Socks, underwear, everything. Including the blankets. And the pillows. And ALL the bedsheets, and pillowcases. Everything.
But like I said, some things just don’t dry well in the bathroom. Face it, I have to go to the laundromat.
Now I have a choice. I can run several loads of laundry here at the house (remember, I have a working washer). This would save me money, but would also mean I would have to
-
do one load at a time and let it sit while the next one washed. I live in Florida (lots of humidity), meaning there would be scads of mushrooms growing out of load one by the time load six was finished, not to mention the amount of time this would all take;
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my washer would be groaning in anguish at the thoughts of the queen sized blankets, as well as the pillows and towels (has it been THAT long since I washed towels?!?), in addition to the easily hung loads of shirts and jeans, as well as the not so easily hung loads of socks and undies, whereas the laundromat has lots of washers; and
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I would have to lug at least seven laundry baskets worth of WET clothes to the car. Heavy. Wet. Clothes. Then take the Heavy. Wet. Clothes. From the car into the laundromat. Then move the Heavy. Wet. Clothes. Into the dryers.
Or I can pack all the dirty but dry clothes into the car, feed the machines and have everything done at about the same time, with a table to fold everything on, to boot. (Didn’t wash those - they’ll get a good polishing later.)
So I find most of the socks [there are always a few (nonmatched ones) leftover - I can deal with this, they will be on the next laundromat trip], and all of everything else, and haul my happy butt to the laundromat.
Now this is actually a pretty laundromat. Not only is it well-kept and clean and the people are friendly, but they also have a blue and gold Macaw as their mascot, living in the laundromat. Cool bird. Likes to say “Hullo” and stick his tongue out at you. Not much on conversation, but great to look at. Much like my last date. Although he wasn’t a bird. Bird-brained mebbe, but not an actual avian like this one.
Well, to condense 9 loads of laundry, 137 “Hullos” and six Diet Cokes to a reasonable timespan, I took my pillows (remember the pillows? I said I was washing EVERYTHING) out of the dryer.
.
.
.
.
.
:eek:
.They were huge. And fluffy again. And completely white. Not the sorta kinda white like they were before I washed them. And not actually pristine white, but a nearly new white. And I won’t have to buy new pillows, which I was going to do because these were kinda flattened out and blah looking, no longer like the professional pillows you see in the JC Penney catalogues, lounging around on the beds advertising the bedsheets and matching curtains. My pillows looked like they had pretty much given up on any sort of modeling career and were settling into a disgruntled domestic tranquility. But now they are back to at least nine inches tall, considering how flattened out they were. Especially my favorite ‘firm’ pillow, which had been mashed down to the consistancy of a small rock. I just hadn’t washed them in awhile. Yes, I did wash the pillowcases, but not the pillows. Just one of those things you think about but never quite get around to doing -" Gee, I oughta wash the pillows, oh look a PBS nature special!!!".
Now I again have a set of huge fluffy firm pillows, including a full and firm yet responsive “Rock”. And a set of clean sheets on the bed. And several sets of clean sheets in the closet. And completely clean blankets and comforters and shirts and undies and jeans in the dresser and the closets. And I just noticed that Mud (the cat) is sleeping in the laundry basket containing the rest of the socks. Gitonouttathere!!!
So the moral of the story:
- Wash your pillows. You’ll be surprised how big they can get.
- There will always be one (sock/towel/shirt) you find after ALL the laundry is dried. Last count - four unmatched socks, one bath towel, and one polo shirt.
- Cats like warm laundry fresh from the dryer.
Tomorrow: I deep clean the kitchen.
