a little cameo

One of the most inconvenient things about our new apartment is that we don’t have washing machine hookups.

It’s not uncommon in America, and I guess adds further credibility to all those tv and film storylines in laundromats. It also adds a big pain in the arse to people like me, who are used to the luxury of having their own washing machine with multiple settings for water level, temperature, length of wash and spin cycle.

Doing the washing is usually one of my favourite chores. I like sorting my clothes and then spending a day doing wash after wash and getting a nice clean wardrobe at the end of it. However without a washing machine in our apartment, it is a little more complicated. We are lucky to have a washer and dryer downstairs in the communal laundry that is shared between the five apartments rather than have to make a trip to a laundromat and wait their for our washing to finish. But still, at a $1.50 per wash and $1.50 per dryer cycle, it is going to add up. Already, in the space of a week we have gone through more than $20 worth of quarters.

Having to use quarters (25 cent coins) only makes it more of a nuisance. Tired of hoarding and saving quarters like a scrooge (when parking meters request them too) I made a trip to the Bank of America to get some quarters which then lived on the windowsill until I used the last of them today.

To add to my little whinge about laundries, I don’t like that there isn’t anywhere to line-dry our clothes and that they really have to go in the dryer. We’ve looked into clothes horses, but here they just aren’t the same size and are few and far between in the stores.

I’m going to keep track of how much we spend on quarters in the laundry this year, because I think it could very well add up to the price of a washing machine.