Laundry Watch 2010 | Current Status: Yellow Alert

So we've run into a bit of a rough patch with our machines (yes, both of them) in the past week. At first the washer started making a terrible noise during each cycle. It sounds a lot like our coffee grinder, so you know that can't be good. We ran a service check on the machine and as far as we could tell it seems to be the drain pump making the noise although it's still draining and otherwise working OK. We hadn't yet alerted our landlords to the problem when yesterday the dryer acted up in a major way too – and it's 100% not usable at this point until it's been serviced since the barrel smelled like smoke when I opened it and so did all it's contents.

And since the contents just happened to be the new cloth diapers I'm prepping for Nate and Seth I was extra unhappy because if you know me at all then you know I love my cloth. Actually, I love doing laundry in general (just ask M.) so the very thought of having the dryer not working for even a small period of time gave me anxiety in a bad way – and I'm not entirely kidding (I get this from my mother).

We got in touch with our landlords and they actually replied the same day which must be some kind of record, but we are still waiting to find out when the machines can be fixed. I guess Maytag was having some kind of a problem with their customer service line yesterday which didn't help any.

On the upside (and this is the only reason we are not at Red Alert today), our neighbors downstairs moved out last week so their apartment is vacant – and so are the washer and dryer that come with the place AND we just happen to have a key. I mean, if this had to happen it at least happened at a most fortuitous time since I know I can't wash diapers at our local laundromats – which honestly was what I was the most worried about. I remember how glad I was when the boys finally fit into their cloth diapers and we were able to put the disposables away for good. I don't want to have to go back to buying them. I am fierce about my cloth!

I asked our landlords if it would be OK if we used the machines downstairs in the meantime and since they didn't address my query one way or the other when they wrote back, I'm taking it as a YES.

Those machines downstairs ROCK by the way. I had forgotten how fast a dryer is supposed to work when you're using one that's full size, and I know there's a lot of hype regarding front-loaders (which we have), but I'd trade mine any day for a good old top loader like the one our neighbors have. If I was buying my own machines that's exactly what I would want. Oh, I could go on and on, but at the risk of sounding like a complete lunatic when it comes to laundry, I'll stop.

Hopefully by the time new tenants move in, our machines will be fixed and life will return to normal. In the meantime, all is fair in love and laundry – and although we miss our neighbors ya'll couldn't have picked a better time to leave. : )

I took some pics of Nate and Seth yesterday covered in an avalanche of clean dipes. This was the last load our dryer managed to do before it broke, so our bums are covered for today at least. The babies were having a great time playing in their crib while I was in the middle of things, and since that's usually where I stack the diapers before I put them away I thought, why not? – and dumped all that fresh fluffy goodness on the lot of them. They loved it!







- L.