Household cleverness

[rikibeth]

The dryer always takes longer than the washer. This is a fact of life, and don't tell me about the fancy newfangled energy-saving machines that use less water and super-spin the clothes so the dryer dries them as fast as a load of laundry takes to run in the washer, because I cannot afford them. I also can't afford the really nifty-looking dryer I saw at the store when we went to get our new stove, which has a tumble dryer on the bottom and then a CABINET with SHELVES and HANGER SPACE for drying sweaters flat and steam-freshening dry-clean-only clothes and I want it, okay? Yes, this makes me a terrible dork to covet a household appliance so much, but when I gloat over $2 thrift store cashmere sweaters, it almost sort of seems worth it.

Anyway. Back to the clever bit. I finally remembered that the push-pull dial thingy on my washer doesn't just make the agitator stop when you open the lid because it's pressing against it. You can, believe it or not, push the damned thing in on PURPOSE, and then the clothes will soak.

This has never seemed all that amazingly useful before, but I figured it was worth a try to help get the crud out of my chef's coats. When you're up to your elbows in flour-water paste, which is mostly what the starters are, every little bit helps.

So I transferred some wet stuff to the dryer and set it going, and then filled up the washer, and stuck in my uniforms, and pushed in the button. And let them soak while the entire dryer load ran. When the dryer buzzed, I pulled it out again, and now my clothes are going. And maybe when I take them out they will be cleaner this time.

In other cleverness, I found cheese ravioli in the freezer, which was a major win, because I had to feed melovechocolate something for dinner, and she's decided to go vegetarian again. Citing the cute baby ducklings who nibbled her fingers in her first and second grade classroom egg-hatching project. Cheese ravioli is good because it's nutritious enough to satisfy my guilt feelings, and I don't get an argument.

I really shouldn't complain. Last night, when she made the announcement, she cheerfully ate lentils and rice.

shadowflyer had a Kaplan training session this evening, after substitute teaching in Bloomfield today, so he just grabbed some tuna. Christy had an upset stomach, so she just had miso soup.

Me?

I had Frosted Flakes.

I'll probably eat something sensible later.

Comments

[tikvah.livejournal.com]

Aha! The push-pull button has a purpose! I have a pair of jeans that lost a battle with a plate of pasta (no tomato, thankfully). I've ran the jeans through two times through the washer, and the jeans are much improved, but they're still not quite clean. I haven't put them in the dryer - I do know that much - but now I have another weapon in my laundry arsenal. Thanks!

[djinnthespazz.livejournal.com]

I get the jones when I think about those dryer units, too. We hang dry a bunch of our clothes, and that would make them not have the weird hanger angles that seem to be inevitable in all my polo shirts.

[ghilledhu.livejournal.com]

Bloomfield, huh? That's....sort of cool and weird at the same time.

[shadowflyer.livejournal.com]

Bloomfield High last Friday, Carmen Arace Middle School yesterday.

The kids were little monsters both places. I seriously needed a cattle prod.

[ghilledhu.livejournal.com]

So nothing much has changed, then...

[ashbet]

I keep cardboard clothing-storage boxes (the kind you can get from U-Haul) in my laundry room with out-of-season clothing hanging in them . . . and they also work wonders for slinging hand-dry stuff over the top :)

But yeah, I covet that dryer, too!!

-- A <3

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

ANd you have such spifftastic clothes that DESERVE that sort of dryer...