When we lived in New York, laundry involved several awful steps. And it was always awful. Not so bad that we didn’t do laundry when necessary, but bad enough for me to start whining the day before. Soul-sucking boredom. And folding was a pain too, because it meant you had no choice but to stand near Really Annoying Guy.
Stuttgart doesn’t seem to have many laundromats at all, so we really needed a washing machine quickly. But washing machines are expensive, so I spent several days researching our options. It had to be small, because our hookups are in a tiny corner of our bathroom. So small, that if you were to plot the depths of all the washers and dryers on the market, we’d be left with the smallest third of the “small washers” market. 58 centimeters is not a lot of room.
You are probably aware that we had the option of stacking a dryer on top of the washer, but what you might not know, is that they make washer-dryer machines that are all in one! You just stick your clothes in, add detergent, and set some options. Bam! Some hours later, you have clean, dry clothes! We wanted one. And it was cheaper than buying two machines.
Well, long story short, we got one. It’s sitting in our bathroom right now. It’s glorious. We’ve only washed three loads so far, but it’s perfect. We’re still experimenting with the options. Oh, and it has a timer to delay the start until later, so you can launder overnight if you wish. The only downside is that washing takes at least three times as long as it used to. The Cotton cycle with drying can be almost four hours long!
But it seems to do a great job. And we don’t have to leave our apartment to do laundry. And it looks kick-ass. There’s a display that tells us how much time is left, the current cycle mode, and error messages when you try to mess with it. And the spin cycle sounds like a fighter jet. A quiet fighter jet.
I’ve stopped whining about laundry day.
