Before my wife and I were married, we inherited a washing machine from my parents. It was sufficient for our needs; it cleaned clothes well enough and it wasn’t too loud. Occasionally it would rock a bit, but it never started its own marching band.
Our faithful mechanical servant has lived through a lot – far more than the average washing machine. Before we acquired it, it saw two moves; and in the last seven years we have owned it, it has weathered five more. Unfortunately, each move aged the washer and wore it down.
When I came home from work this past Friday, it finally gave me notice that it was tired of its duties and wanted to retire. But, following in the spirit all of my temperamental equipment seem to exhibit, it didn’t just quit. No, that would have been too simple. Instead of just quietly dying and refusing to do another load, my washer decided to lock me out of my house!
Our laundry room is situated in what could be considered a “mud room” off of our garage as you enter the house. It’s a place where it’s easy to strip down if you’re dirty so you don’t track your filth through the house. And it’s also the place where I enter the house after I return home from work. But on this particular afternoon the door simply would not open. It was unlocked and it did move in slightly, but I couldn’t push the door past the jamb.
Defeated and my calls for assistance failing to reach my wife’s ears, I pulled my keys back out of my pocket and trudged to the front door. After finally gaining entry to my house, I headed to the laundry room to find what prevented my ingress. What I beheld was my washing machine defiantly pinning the door closed after walking nearly a foot to accomplish its goal, straining against the various cords and tubes that connect it to its electrical life source and the plumbing. It was a marvelous scene and I now wish I had taken a photo for proof of the malevolence of this particular mechanical beast.
Now my wife and I have determined we must replace the aging washer, but we certainly do not want to dip into our emergency savings unnecessarily. The washer still cleans clothes, we just have to make sure we’re sitting on it before it enters a spin cycle. And it’s not like we hadn’t thought many times before about replacing it. While the washer was sufficient for our needs when we were first married; now that we have a child, the low capacity and relative inefficiency of the washer is costing us a great amount of time and money.
So now, instead of using every penny of the anticipated tax rebate (if it ever comes) to help pay off our car loan, a great majority of it will now be used to buy us a larger, more efficient front-loading washing machine. It may cost nearly $1000 up front, but I believe the long-term benefits will definitely outweigh the short-term cost, especially since we do not plan on moving again for a very long time. I just hope we can last until this supposed rebate arrives…
