Washing Clothes

For a number of years now, I've been the main laundry person in the family. You ask why? Fairly early in our marriage we discovered that Virginia had a real knack for keeping track of the finances, and the more computerized that function has become, it's even a better fit. Neither of us is a real house cleaning freak, so we typically share not enjoying that task... sometimes she does a little more and sometimes I do. Both of us enjoy cooking... and (more importantly) eating... and we both have our favorite things and ways to cook. I must admit, however, that she is much more accomplished in that area... my culinary arenas are mostly the grill, creative uses of leftovers, and whatever can be cooked in a skillet with eggs.

So, years ago... mostly to keep Saturdays free for family stuff... I took over doing the laundry... usually on Thursdays. For years Thursday has been my "day off," and doing the laundry seemed a natural task. I've also folded all the clothes as well... but everyone has to put their own clothes away.

My mom was the laundry person in our family when I was growing up, and she taught me well before I went off to college. Of course, as a student doing my own laundry, I honed my skills... learning what fabrics and colors one can wash together... yanking shirts from a spinning dryer to hang them up thus avoiding ironing. Sometimes pain was the best teacher... those metal snaps, buttons and rivets on jeans get really hot in college dryers.

Our washing machine is on its last legs, so we decided to get a new one. We settled on one of those new front loading energy efficient models from Sears. It's supposed to wash clothes better than the old style... not that I've ever noticed our washer not cleaning well... but I guess we'll just have to see. The mail reason we decided on this style is really three fold: 1) it was on sale (duhhh!!), 2) it uses 70% less water and electricity than the older models (that's a lot), 3) we're getting about 1/3 of the cost back in rebates. It still more expensive than the traditional model we were looking at, but we think saving that much water and electricity is important.

Sooo... today I'm doing my last load in our current washer... waiting for Sears to deliver and install the new one. Thursdays may never be the same...