Laundry Procrastination

I've never been one to have a laundry routine. I don't do laundry every day, nor every week. I simply go without until I literally can't anymore. Dylan and I have the ability to literally go over two months without needing to do laundry. Does that happen regularly? No, but it did once, actually.

When my parents moved out, they took their washing machine and dryer with them, since the house we bought didn't have any. I made sure to take advantage of still having a washer and dryer before they moved out, and did a few loads of laundry just before their moving day. When they moved out in the beginning of December, though, we kicked ourselves into survival mode. With the purchase of furniture and a new TV on the horizon, we decided that we would try to wait as long as possible before making the big purchase of our first washer and dryer. And I'm happy to say that we made it until February.

On Saturday, February 1, Dylan and I took a little trip to Sears to finally bite the bullet and buy our first major appliances together - our new washer and dryer. Now, what you need to understand is that this wasn't a sporadic purchase. I had spent hours and hours of time researching what we wanted and what we didn't want in our new appliances.

Like the tech geek within me, I clearly wanted the new set from LG that has a smartphone app that tells you when your laundry is done, but the price tag on that was waaaay more than we wanted to spend. In fact, the price tag on just the washing machine was more than we spent for both the washer and the dryer together! Insane!

In terms of actual features though, here's what we were looking for:

1. Top-Load Washing Machine
2. Electric Dryer
3. Spin-only cycle
4. Rinse & spin cycle
5. Timed Dry
6. Wrinkle Free cycle
7. At least 4.2 cu. ft. washer
8. High Efficiency
9. Energy Savings
10. Cold-water friendly

The first thing may come to you as a surprise, but yes, I actually wanted a top-loading washer. I have had nothing but bad experiences with front loaders. Yes, they are typically a lot larger than top-loaders, but the rubber barrel barriers constantly have mildew and mold issues, and I've had water draining issues along with clothing getting stuck in the rubber barriers before. And some of you may never have problems with your front-loaders, but considering that there is a pretty serious class action lawsuit against one of the top manufacturers of this style machine, I knew I didn't want to take any chances with this type of washer. Top-loader it was.

So, after probably over 25 hours of research on sets that matched my criteria, I finally found a set. Surprisingly, they aren't making very many top-load washers with agitators now, as the new high-efficiency models use a different technology. The set we chose, made by LG, was one of those without an agitator. Despite some reviews of other models that clothes weren't getting as clean without an agitator, this set was available at a bunch of different stores, and all of the reviews were great across the board. So we went to our local Sears, got the run down from the sales associate just to make sure we were going to be satisfied, and then made our purchase. And for an extra $10, we were able to have it delivered the next day, on a Sunday, meaning I didn't need to take any time off of work for the delivery, and I could get some laundry done that weekend!

LG Washer and Dryer 1201 Series via Sears

The delivery guys arrived at 8:30am on Sunday, and had the washer and dryer in their spots and hooked up in the basement laundry room within a half hour. Perfect! Because it was below freezing outside, they said to wait two hours until you start your first load, that way the machines could acclimate to the indoor temperature. After that, they were ready to go!

And the first day of laundry was a success, as have been all three following that! I am so pleased with our purchase and now I guess I am a little excited to do laundry. The machines play a little tune whenever you turn them on and off, and the buttons are in a perfect location. The washing machine barrel is deep, and gigantic, which means washing two sets of queen sheets and three weeks of towels at the same time isn't an issue at all. There are so many different cycle options,  including the ones on my must-have list, that I don't know if I will ever even use all of them! 

Washing machine controls

Dryer controls

But, who knows - maybe now that I have some beautiful new appliances, laundry will happen more often!

What was the first big appliance purchase you made for your house? What kind of washer and dryer do you have: top-loader or front-loader?

How $45 Has Saved Me At Least 10 Hours

One piece of background information is needed for this post - I am a Google Chrome user. I'm sure most of you can understand the use of this browser, but if you haven't already made the switch from Firefox or (gasp!) Internet Explorer, please do for these reasons: safety, ability to share bookmarks across devices, integration with Google Accounts (Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Blogger, Analytics, AdSense, etc.), it's extensions (Pinterest, AnyDo, Evernote, etc.), and most importantly, it's tab-enabled. Now, what goes along with this post is the part about tabs - I am a tab hoarder.

Don't believe me? Well, I don't need to explain anything using words. I'll just show you a screenshot of my current browser.

I won't make you count, but as you can see, there are a lot of tabs open - 52 to be exact, but that's just on this one browser window, on this computer. I use almost all of these on a daily basis, and the others that I don't visit as frequently are there as a reminder that I need to check something.

Now, you're probably asking, "What does this have to do with this post?" Well, one of the tabs that I have open is above is the Sears webpage. I refresh the page every morning to check what's been put on sale. One day a few weeks ago, I finally had hit the jackpot. The DeWalt Random Orbital Sander that I had been eyeing was marked down to just $45! I decided to save on shipping so I stopped by the store after work with the intention of purchasing it. Turns out, though, that the price was only valid for online purchases, and the in-store price was $60 - not outrageous, but still more than I wanted to spend. Bummer, right?!

I was disappointed, but then I figured out a secret! I decided to just bring up the Sears website on my phone, order the sander, and set the delivery option to In-Store Pickup! Since I was already at the store, I just had to walk over to the Merchandise Pickup Window, and grab the sander. And I did just that.

I was able to get the sander for the online-only price of $45 and had it within 5 minutes at the pickup window. So, there's a tip for when you are in store. Always check the online price before making your purchase, because that nifty little "In-Store Pickup" option can help you save a lot of money!

Now, as the title of this post suggests, this sander has saved me hours and hours of time. How?

Sanding doors.

About two weeks ago, we removed all of the interior doors on the first floor to paint them. In addition to that, I also removed all of the hardware and gave it a good bath in some soapy water. They really needed some TLC, but that's for another post.

I wiped the doors down to get some of the grease and buildup off of them, and then sanded them down using my brand new random orbital sander! So, for a total of 10 doors (so far!), I was able to save myself at least 10 hours of sanding, since each door took me about 15 minutes with the sander rather than over an hour by hand.

Please ignore the gross painting/cleaning/tool-using clothes again. It's also necessary to dress in layers for working in the basement. 

Best investment ever. Seriously. I haven't even tackled the doors on the second floor yet, not to mention all of the furniture that I will be refinishing, so this is easily the best $45 I have spent so far in my home renovating and DIY-ing. And for the amount of doors I was sanding, I probably would have gone through that amount of money in sandpaper had I been sanding by hand!

We just put the last coat of paint on the doors and today is the end of the 24-hour curing process I like to let them sit through, so we will be putting them back on the frames tonight after work. I'm so excited to have doors back - the cats are messing with things in closets and it's just awkward because we can't have guests over when there's no bathroom door!

Have you purchased a tool using Sears' In-Store Pickup option? Were you able to catch a break in the price, making the purchase that much more justified?


Please Note: I was not compensated for writing this post. I was not contacted by Google Chrome or Sears to provide this information and review. All opinions are my own.