Laundry Day

Monday is my laundry day to to my clothes, Mr Vanilla's clothes, and towels.  The girls clothes are done on Sunday.  The new clothesline was put in Saturday, and today was the first day I got to use it!  I had been using the pool fence, but needed more room, so got one of those five sided clotheslines you can spin, and that have multiple lines on each side to hang clothes on.  As of right now, having hung the first clothes out around 2.5 hours ago, I really like it!  And, since after the party almost every towel in the house needs to be washed (swimming), I need all the drying help I can find.

Why a clothesline?  Well, with our tri-level house, once the Arizona heat begins to hit, we have no choice but to use the air conditioning, or the bedrooms, which are upstairs, are just too hot to sleep well in.  We also have a large diving pool, and our summer electric bills are killer.  So, instead of using the dryer, last summer we started to use the pool fence near the end of the summer, and it did help.  So this year I started to ban the dryer as soon as the weather warmed up.  I don't use the time of use plan, although I am considering it.  When I was working it was a pain, because I always wanted to use an appliance when I wasn't supposed to turn them on. 

Teenage Vanilla thinks the clothes are too stiff, but I really like the smell when I bring the laundry in the house.  And, just shake the clothes, and they aren't as stiff.  She did hang all her clothes out yesterday, so she is going with it.  Little Vanilla doesn't care how her clothes get dry, which is good.  I am also finding there is something soothing about going into the backyard and hanging clothes out among the bushes and trees.  I might not feel the same way in July, but I am going to enjoy it while it lasts!

Teenage Vanilla's party was a hit with the kids (according to text messages and FB), and from the parent perspective, the 18 kids who descended upon the house were good.  If we needed to ask them to stop something we didn't have to ask twice, pretty much all of them talked to Mr Vanilla and I a little bit, and none of them tried to really get away with anything.  They were there to hang out and have fun with their friends, and they did just that.  They swam (and it was fairly cool that evening and windy), they threw a football, played Foosball, listened to music, watched a scary movie, and talked non-stop.  Since I want the kids to feel comfortable here, and to want to make our house their hang out place, I was very happy with how things went.  The only thing Mr Vanilla and I would change is how late they stayed.  I took the last teenager home at 12:30a, and I realized Wow, that is late for me!  Next time I would have them come earlier and leave earlier.  I don't care that they come over for six hours, just that the six hours end a little earlier.

Today I have to price new washing machines and dryers.  Sigh.  My washer barely agitates anymore, and is about done with what it does.  I probably could stay with the dryer I have, especially since I don't plan to use it during the summer, but Bobi said we should just get a new set of the energy efficient ones, and then we won't have to worry about them for a long time.  I can't even remember how old this washing machine is, or what house we got it at.  The dryer either.  So, I am armed with Consumer Reports, and the Internet, and hopefully I can find a great deal and have a new set here for next weeks laundry.

Have a Wonderfully Vanilla Day!