The Laundry Room

[Jeff Wrangler]

For people who live alone, as I will be in a few years, there's such a thing as a dishwasher that's about half the length (vertically) as a regular one. It's like the top half of a dishwasher, so it doesn't require as much bending, which is important as you age, which none of us are.

But it would solve a problem I sometimes have, where I'm out of one thing, like coffee mugs or forks, but the dishwasher isn't quite full enough to run.

I don't really like a dishwasher; for a one-person household, I think it's really an extravagant waste of energy. But since I have one, I use it once a week so the seal doesn't dry out. I never use it for cookware--that I wash up by hand as it gets used--and I just manage my use of tableware so that it takes a week to fill up the dishwasher, and it gets run once a week, usually on Friday evenings after supper.

And if I'm using my mother's silver flatware, I wash that by hand anyway.

[CellarDweller]

But wait, you forgot to factor one important thing into the equation: the pleasure for you of seeing your parents, and for them of seeing you. That weights the scale way over to that side.

So it's more like six of one, 600 of the other.

Plus, as long as we're doing the full tally, you also save the cost of the lunch. So it's six of one, 607 of the other.

who says seeing my parents is a pleasure?     LOL   Just kidding, yes, you're right about that, so it does outweigh the time saving aspect of doing it at home.

[Front-Ranger]

Hey, Cellar Dweller who doesn't live in a cellar anymore (while I do now!), Alma would agree with you that line-drying is the best way to finish the laundry!

[Front-Ranger]

Here she is, thanks to Pentheslea.

[brianr]

I doubt Alma had much choice 
I am the same age as Ennis and do remember Mum washing when I was a child. My sister and I were just discussing a cousin who is causing all sorts of problems at the moment because, now aged 89, she has schizoid/paranoia and developing dementia. Apparently Mum never liked her and used to complain that she and her then husband always came for an unannounced visit on Mondays. Monday was washing day. Clothes in the boiler tub, wrung out by hand and carted, still heavy, to the line. I well remember Mum being excited when we got a spin drying machine which was spun by water. I do not know when washing machines became widely available, thankfully by the time I first moved from living at home in 1971. I had 2 rooms at the back of a house with a separate shower/toilet and use of the laundry in the same shed which the owner of the house left for my use on Saturdays.

[CellarDweller]

Hey, Cellar Dweller who doesn't live in a cellar anymore (while I do now!), Alma would agree with you that line-drying is the best way to finish the laundry!

It certainly costs less!!!

[CellarDweller]

I doubt Alma had much choice 
I am the same age as Ennis and do remember Mum washing when I was a child. My sister and I were just discussing a cousin who is causing all sorts of problems at the moment because, now aged 89, she has schizoid/paranoia and developing dementia. Apparently Mum never liked her and used to complain that she and her then husband always came for an unannounced visit on Mondays. Monday was washing day. Clothes in the boiler tub, wrung out by hand and carted, still heavy, to the line. I well remember Mum being excited when we got a spin drying machine which was spun by water. I do not know when washing machines became widely available, thankfully by the time I first moved from living at home in 1971. I had 2 rooms at the back of a house with a separate shower/toilet and use of the laundry in the same shed which the owner of the house left for my use on Saturdays.

I can remember going to my grandmother's house, and among the stuff she had in her hoard was an old washing machine that had the two rollers that you fed the clothes through to get the excess water out.

[Jeff Wrangler]

I can remember going to my grandmother's house, and among the stuff she had in her hoard was an old washing machine that had the two rollers that you fed the clothes through to get the excess water out.

It's called a wringer washer. My grandmother had one, too, and she was still using it when I was a child. My grandmother's looked a lot like your grandmother's except I think they were different brands. Those rollers were called wringers, hence the name "wringer washer." Once upon a time those wringers had to be turned by hand, with a crank, but from the photo, it appears this machine has powered wringers, as did my grandmother's.

Notice the machine is on casters so it can be moved to wherever it's water supply came from, or maybe that was because of the drain. I don't remember how the water was drained when the laundry was done.

There used to be a saying that went something like "See you in the wash if I don't get caught in the wringer." That saying was clearly inspired by the washing machine.

In my time I've probably known some speed queens. ... 

[CellarDweller]

There used to be a saying that went something like "See you in the wash if I don't get caught in the wringer." That saying was clearly inspired by the washing machine.

In my time I've probably known some speed queens. ... 

 There are times that I wonder if that machine would've been worth money.  At the time of the hoard cleaning, we were so frustrated about it all, we just threw everything out.

Granted, most of what she had was worth nothing, but I wonder if there were a few buried treasures we missed.

[Sason]

Hey, Cellar Dweller who doesn't live in a cellar anymore (while I do now!), Alma would agree with you that line-drying is the best way to finish the laundry!

I love the painting, Lee!

Do you know who the artist is?