I'm one of those people who wait until they completely run out of underwear before they start thinking of doing laundry. And it's right around that time. Actually, I'm a bit ahead of the game this week. I could go another couple of days, but I'll be travelling shortly and I wanted to get this out of the way. So today is laundry day. Well, actually, yesterday was supposed to be laundry day but I aborted part way through. Neighbors. What can you do?
We have one coin-operated washer and dryer shared among nine apartments (somewhere between 12 and 15 people). Most of the time this isn't a problem as I've been working from home and can usually find a time when the machines are empty. But we have a couple of neighbors that are very aggressive about inserting themselves into the queue.
I usually do five or six loads in a row and I have a nice routine: set the timer for when the dryer finishes, walk out the back door with a dirty load, walk back in with a clean load, and repeat as necessary. This works great since the washer takes less time to finish a load than the dryer. But that also provides an opening. Sometimes I'll come out and a hamper full of dirty clothes has been set on top of the washer - a signal that one of the neighbors wants to do the next load. Or, even more pushy, is when I'll come out and my wet clothes have been removed from the washer, dumped on top of the dryer, and someone else's washer load is already running. One of our neighbors, in particular, is a master at this technique. I'm pretty sure that she scopes out the situation, sets a timer, and empties the washer the minute it stops spinning. I find it hilarious. Time is money, I guess.
Now I could eliminate any problems by leaving a hamper full of dirty clothes on top of the washer and keep cycling that until I was done. Part of the reason I don't do this is that I've got this weird pessimistic streak where I'm paranoid when I leave something lying around out in the open. Irrational. But there it is. But the other reason is that finishing my laundry is just not that important to me. Whenever I see that one of the neighbors has jumped the washer, I just chuckle to myself and think, "I guess they realllly wanted to get that load done today."
So, long story short, two loads yesterday and four loads today. Same smell.
On a side note, I'm coming to the conclusion that you can learn a lot about someone by how they deal with the dryer lint trap. Selfish people only empty the lint trap before they do a load. All they care about is that the dryer functions well for them. Considerate people empty the lint trap after they finish their load. They want to leave the dryer ready for the next person. (Maybe a Goofus and Gallant opportunity?). I've got to stop being so considerate. Most of the neighbors don't clean the trap after their last load. Maybe I shouldn't either.
'Nuff said on that topic.
Other domestic type things. Rosie is gone for a few days so I'm tackling the living room rug (S. is gone, too. But she's pretty good about not using the rug for relief). So far, Rosie is winning this battle. I'm almost ready to swap for the new rug we have in the garage. I've saturated this thing with chemicals to the point where me and the cats are staggering around the apartment like a bunch of drunks, scrubbed and scrubbed to work the chemicals in, and now I'm waiting until all this stuff dries out. Coming up on forty hours. Still kind of damp.
At least sweeping the floor went without a hitch :-)
