In today's busy life, you don't realize how much you actually use and rely on something until it doesn't work. Our washing machine decided to stop working a few days ago, and that's not something you want to have with three rough and tumble little boys.
Now this machine is not really that old, in terms of years of ownership, it's maybe four. But, of course, you must factor in that I do at least one load of laundry every single day, and sometimes two or three. We are a family of five, with three accident-prone toddlers and a big, hairy puppy who's bed is washed at least once a week, too.
And, of course, it would have to stop working right in the middle of the twins' first week at school. At three, you send in a change of clothes in case they have an accident or spill something on themselves. At least one twin has come home in that spare outfit each of the three days they've been in school so far. (No sippy cups or bibs at school, if you're wondering how they're suddenly so messy, but that's another story).
The machine also decided to stop right in the middle of a rather large load of half-washed clothes (you know, because we only have two types of laundry in our house - white and not-white). This was the not-white load, and it was our regular day of clothes, pajamas and the kids extra sets of clothes from school.
So, what was I to do with a big load of half-washed laundry and a machine that was broken? I dumped them into the tub in the bathroom across the hall from the laundry room. Then I filled it up with warm water and Tide, and then I washed them all - by hand. My arms still hurt from working with all those clothes (and I'm in pretty decent shape toting around three 40-plus pound boys on a daily basis). Then I drained and rinsed them, before rigging a rather sketchy bungee cord clothesline across the shower to help them drip dry before even attempting to put them in the still-working dryer. Even doing that, it still took twice as long to dry the clothes and I had to break them up into three separate loads instead of the normal one. I can wash them, but I can't replicate that high spin cycle that drains them.
With Josh's birthday last night, we didn't get a chance to look at the machine until today. Turns out it's a broken belt, which should be relatively simple and inexpensive to repair. I've already cleaned out the big mess of black powder that comes with a completely shredded belt, and Josh is going to try to pick up a new one while he's out working this afternoon. Hopefully it will be working again soon.
Which is a good thing, because we're still a messy family of five. I'm not sure how many more loads of laundry I'm willing to do by hand (and this one only makes two)!
