New Equipment

After 5 lovely years in our rental we finally found a house to buy! WooHoo! We have lived in our wonderful new place for about 3 months now and just love it. One of the things I love is the new dryer that "came with the house." It is amazing! It is one of those new-fangled H.E.'s. It takes half the time to dry a load than it did with the old dryer I used to use.
One of the things I don't really care for is the new washer. It too "came with the house." It too is a new-fangled H.E., only this one is a front loader. It's not horrible, but it is not great either. It takes quite a bit longer to wash a load than the old style washers. And I recently discovered that it leaks. Not sure what that is all about yet. The most troublesome thing about it for me is that I had gotten in the habit of starting a load of wash only to wander through the house and find more items to add. Well, Mr front-loader doesn't like the door opened once a load has started. Alas, things could always be worse!
So to end on a bright and happy note, Ziggy and Bean are progressively getting better at nighttime dryness! There is a light at the end of this tunnel after all!

Next Time Just Use a Baby Wipe to Clean the Book

Guess what happens when board books go through the wash? They disintegrate. all. over. the. laundry. Yup. I could have done without that tutorial today. Bean shed a few tears over her favorite book that is no longer. Rabbits really Rush, Turtles Take their Time; you will be missed.
I'm notorious for not checking each. and. every. item that I put in the washer. The book was tangles up in a set of sheets that I quickly shoved in the washer. I really should check more carefully. But I probably won't. It took about 15 minutes to shake out all the laundry and scrape all the pieces out of the washer. Oh, the fun.

Homemade

I made my own Laundry detergent. It was so easy. and inexpensive. and easy. I've done a few loads with it. So far, so good! I don't have any complaints from the clientele.
Here is the recipe:

1 bar of FelsNaptha soap
1 cup borax
1 cup arm and hammer WASHING soda (not to be confused with baking soda)

grate the bar soap. Then toss it in the food processor to get it as chopped up as you can. Then simply mix it with the borax and washing soda and wala! you have laundry detergent. Two tablespoon per load will do the trick.
Not sure if it is septic safe yet. I will have to research that before we move into our new house. That's right. After 5 long years of renting in this lovely house on 3rd St we will be moving into our own house! Let the happy dance commence! I will be down grading to a laundry "hall" instead of "room" but that's ok, I think I'll manage with the lovely new-er washer and dryer included in the deal.

Today the plumber came. Today the dishwasher died. Tonight my Mother-in-law is coming. The plumber had to turn off the water to fix the leaks, which meant that the load of dishes I now had to wash by hand had to wait. It also meant the laundry was on hold too. I managed to get one load of clothes done before the water was turned off but I still had a load of stinky sheets on the laundry room floor. The plumber needed access to the crawl space which happens to be in the laundry room, which also happens to be covered with "stuff." In moving all the "stuff" off the door I quickly tossed the soiled sheets into a laundry basket to get them out of the way. Three hours later the plumber packed up and turned the water back on allowing me to get back to my laundry. I put things back where they belonged, unearthing my washer and dryer, and pulled the clean load out of the dryer. I began my routine of starting the washer only to look around and think to myself "Huh! I don't have another load to wash!" So I grabbed my basket and took it to the living room to fold. After folding a couple of towels and a blanket I looked down and saw the soiled sheets I had tossed in the basket earlier. Deep sigh. I put everything back in the basket, take it all back to the laundry room, and start the washer. Then I'm off to wash the dishes.

Today In the Laundry Room

2 loads of quilts
3 loads of sheets
1 load of colors
1 load of whites
1 load of white towels
1 load of dark towels
1 load of jeans
8am to 10pm

All in a days work. all.in.a.days.work.

Notice on the Door

Dear family,
Due to the high volume of laundry in the last two days all meals are canceled until further notice. Also, there will be no maid service around the rest of the house until said laundry is done. During this time, the laundry room will not be accepting more dirty clothes so please limit your clothes wearing to one outfit a day (ie: 1 shirt, 1 pant, 1 underwear, and 1 pair of socks) so you do not run out. You are welcome to fix your own meals and clean up after yourselves until I surface from the laundry room.
Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

Sincerely,
The Mom

Oh Poo

Load #3 of the day, colors, wash cycle complete, moving to dryer.
"What the...? why do all these clothes smell like poo?... I must be imagining it." SNIFF. "Nope. I'm not imagining it." Emptying out the washer. "Oh, how I wish that was a tootsie roll down there!" -sigh- Remove 'tootsie roll.' Put clothes back in washer. Add soap. add a little more soap. wash.

Good news: poo smell came out.
Bad news: took 4 washes to get there.