May 7, 2021
Dear Everyone:
To be perfectly honest, the thought of using a
pipe cleaner never entered my fuzzy little head.
Last year I decided that it was time to start
thinking about replacing certain appliances.
I started with the central heat and air.
Then the dishwasher suddenly needed replacing, out of order on my
list. Now it was time for
the clothes washer and dryer.
Where I live, we don’t have a “laundry room”,
or even a laundry “area”. We
have a “laundry closet”. It
appeals to architects because they can include something desirable
without extending the “footprint” by very much.
I’m guessing most of these architects are
taller than 4-feet, 11-½-inches.
I had an annual health evaluation at my Primary Care Physician
(PCP) last week and they measured my height.
It’s official: I am
no longer five feet tall.
The major advantage of a laundry closet is that
it doesn’t take up much space.
The disadvantage is that you have to fit both a washer and dryer
in that space. This means a
stacked washer-and-dryer, typically with a very small capacity.
There was one in the closet when I bought the place.
I found that it could accommodate a single bed sheet, or two
towels. Not much more than
that.
Bear in mind that I grew up with maximum
capacity laundry machines.
With 9 people in the house, we went through a great deal of laundry each
week. I know, because one of
my official chores was doing the laundry.
From the time that I could reach all the way down into the washer
drum without falling in, I washed, dried, and folded laundry.
After a few months of putting up with the “doll
size” combo that came with the condominium, I measured the closet and
the dimensions of its doorway and went in search of washers and dryers
that could fit in the space.
I got the largest pair that I could find.
They are “full size” machines.
The only way this works, of course, is to stack
the dryer on top of the front-loading washer.
Many manufacturers have taken this into consideration and
designed their products to fit together with a “staking kit” to hold
them in place. Basically
this is a set of metal plates and big bolts.
The disadvantage to all of this is being able
to reach into the dryer. I
have a small step stool that lives on the bottom shelf of the laundry
cart. When I need to access
the dryer, out comes the stool and suddenly I’m “normal” height.
However.
These machines have been around almost as long as I’ve lived
here, which is now over a dozen years.
And I use them a lot.
I run several loads (known as “juggling the laundry”) each weekend, plus
a few during the week. In
total, I typically wash and dry about seven or eight loads each week.
That makes an average of once per day, or 364 times per year.
Time for replacement machines.
So I went back to the appliance store that sold
me the new dishwasher last year.
I had my eye on a “full size” combo washer and
dryer that I had seen on their website.
But the salesman steered me towards a different manufacturer.
As it happens this is the same manufacturer as the dishwasher, so
I was inclined toward it anyway.
When he pointed out that the dryer did not
require a vent, I was sold.
No more cleaning the vent each year?
Such a deal!
There was a slight hitch when it turned out
that the 220v outlet in the back of the laundry closet was too outdated
and I had to get an electrician in to replace it.
But last Tuesday the new appliances were delivered and installed.
They’re beautiful!
They even include a pull-out drawer in the space between the
washer and dryer, with a little shelf should you want to place something
down while working with the laundry.
There’s just one hitch.
When you open the door to the dryer, it
“automatically” starts to close.
This may be a safety feature.
Or the designer just has a maniacal sense of humor.
In any case, open the washer, open the dryer.
Bend down to take some wet clothes out of the washer.
Straighten up to put them in the dryer and…Oops!
There’s the dryer door exactly where your head would go.
So far, I’ve managed to avoid a concussion.
Nevertheless, it’s frustrating to have to hold the door open with
one hand while “juggling” laundry with the other.
I tried wedging something in to hold the door
open, but that didn’t work.
So I moved on to “hooks and rubber bands”.
I found one of those suction cup hooks that we use to hang
Holiday lights on the kitchen windows and fastened it onto the outside
of the dryer door.
Suction cups don’t work on the inside of a
painted closet door, but a small “Command Hook” worked.
This is the kind of attachment that uses “temporary” adhesive put
out by the 3M company.
A rubber band stretched from the dryer door to
the inside of the closet door, while it’s open, worked, sort of.
Until you forgot and tried to close the dryer door and…Zing!
Naturally, the next thing I thought of was
Velcro. The Universe is
filled with things that Velcro will hold together, temporarily.
So I started going through the second drawer of the sewing
cabinet. This is the drawer
where everything goes that doesn’t fit in either of the other two
drawers.
In other words, it’s the “catchall” drawer.
It includes, but is not limited to, buttons, elastic,
hook-and-eye combinations, ribbons, embroidery hoops, various
denominations of Velcro, and a host of things left over from previous
projects. Exactly the place
for things you have no immediate use for, but don’t want to throw away
“just in case” they might come in hand at some future time.
And that’s when I came across an open package
of pipe cleaners. Don’t ask
me why I have a package of pipe cleaners.
I’ve long forgotten when or why I bought them.
Nevertheless, there they were.
Foot-long pieces of flexible wire covered with soft fuzz.
One end fit over the hook in the back of the
closet door. The other end
formed a simple loop that goes over the suction cup hook on the dryer
door. And voila!
I never would have thought of it, yet it’s the
perfect solution. For now.
Subject to change without notice, of course.
Love, as always,
Pete
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