Looking in at City Life: Laundry

One of the most frequent questions I get from family and friends is how different life is when compared to our previous suburb life. My answer: a lot. 

We don’t have a car, dishwasher, garbage disposal, ceiling fans, central AC or heat, washer and dryer, just to name a few. Basically all of the “luxuries” that we had living in Tampa, we’ve been living without for nearly four years now. It was definitely something to get used to and if I could go back and give myself one piece of advice it would be not to take all of those small things for granted.

When we lived in Tampa I loathed unloading the dishwasher, washing my car, and doing laundry. Now I miss it. Don’t get me wrong, we love our life in the city and it’s been the most incredible experience for our family that we’ve learned so much from. But it’s those little things that I really miss.

Sadly, we think that our time in the city is nearing an end. With this little guy on the way, it puts city living nearly impossible for our family. We could definitely make it work, but I don’t think we would truly be comfortable. We need more space. Space we just can’t afford living in the city. And part of me is really starting to want a backyard and a nice house that we can truly make ours. The city will always be here and will just be a train ride (or car ride!!) away.

As I mentally prepare myself for our impending move (which we have no clue where it will be) there are several things that I am looking forward to living in the burbs. One of which is doing my own laundry. I’d never thought I’d say this, but I am actually looking forward to doing laundry. Our city life laundry situation is less than ideal and has be dreading doing the chore every week.

Let me give a play by play of just what laundry day looks like here in the city:

Our laundry room is located all the way down in the basement of our building which means we have to take the elevator, go outside then take a stairs just to get there. That means if it’s raining or snowing, you just have to wing it and make it work.

We separate the clothes in our apartment, put them in all separate bags and get the detergent ready to go downstairs. We usually have so much stuff that it takes both me and MacKay to take it all down, which also means the girls have to come down too. So all four of us head down to the basement.

Once we get down there the girls usually run rampant with the rolling laundry baskets while MacKay and I try to stuff the laundry into the old and small washers (that is if they are not all taken, then we have to wait) that hardly ever really get our clothes clean. We pay for the machine and go back upstairs and wait. Thirty minutes later it’s time to change from washer to dryer. That is usually only one of us and then we go back upstairs and wait again for them to dry.

Once dry we stuff all of the clothes back into the bags only to fold (and sort the ones that didn’t get clean all of the way) them on the floor of our apartment.

Bottom line: it’s miserable.

Last month I visited with the lovely people at Whirlpool who gave me a sneak peek at what my life in the burbs is going to look like.

Isn’t it pretty? Never in a million years would I have thought that I could get excited over a washer and dryer, but I’ve reached that stage in my life and I’m proud of it.

Whirlpool gave me a first hand look at their newest washer and dryer , the Duet. Never again will you have to choose what size load you have or what temperature of the water to use. The Duet senses the weight of your clothes, and dispenses the perfect amount of water and laundry detergent to keep your clothes looking newer longer!