If All Else Fails, Try Punching Some Buttons

About nine months ago, I purchased a high efficiency washer and dryer set. Although laundry is still a major chore (Quandary about laundry here), the new appliances made it a lot easier and faster. There was only one thing that bugged me about them: at the end of each cycle, I would hear a very loud alarm letting me know the machine had stopped. The dryer let out one long, drawn-out noise, and the washer let out three sets of three equally loud noises.

Most of the time I didn't mind them too much because then I knew it was time to continue the laundry process. One load to fold, one load to put in the dryer, and one load to put in the washer. However, when people were downstairs near the machines watching TV or playing on the X-box, those alarms were especially annoying.

Now, for the record, I did look in each manual to figure out how to turn those hideous things off, but there were no directions pertaining to this. So we suffered.

Recently, I decided to mess with the "Options" control button to see if I could get rid of the noise. In just a couple button pushes, the "cycle signal" light turned off. The dryer stopped without making a racket. Later, I figured out how to do the same thing to the washer. Yippee! Now I can do laundry when company is around without interrupting our X-box games with a shrill alarm!

Of course, while cleaning upstairs I will still need my "cycle signals." But it's nice to know that I can choose to silence them if necessary.

And it only took me nine months, one week, two days, and 30 seconds to figure it out.

Quandary about laundry

About 150 years ago, all laundry was done by hand and hung up to dry. It seems like that would have been a lot of hard work. Today, with automatic washers and dryers, laundry has gotten a lot more simple. Or has it?

Sometimes it seems like my life revolves around laundry. Even when I don't have any to do, I catch myself wondering if I have to transfer something from washer to dryer. And even though it doesn't take me as long to get things dry (hooray for high efficiency washers!), laundry seems to have a lot of steps to get through.

1. Collect laundry baskets from bedrooms. (Yes, I actually trained my children to put their laundry IN THE BASKET.)
2. Sort into loads. As you sort, check each garment for stains.
3. Check all pockets for tissues, Starbucks receipts, and loose change. (Keep money for yourself. Consider it a tip.)
4. Treat stains.
5. Load clothes in washer and turn it on.
6. Do something else for about 45 minutes.
7. Take clothes out of washer. Separate out items that must be air dried.
8. Put remaining clothes in dryer and turn it on.
9. Do something else for about 45 minutes again. Wash next load.
10. Take clothes out of dryer.
11. Hire your kids to fold them because now you have to make dinner.
12. Two days later, discover stuff left out to air dry from previous laundry day. Put items away.
13. Begin process all over again.

See how many steps there are? How can this be simplified? Maybe I can cut down on the amount of laundry. I wonder if my kids would mind having just one outfit apiece.

Well...I guess they could have two. After all, they will need something to wear while I do laundry.