I sure do miss my (brand new then) KitchenAid washer and dryer, given up in the long nightmare of my divorce in order to keep the cats and my filled-to-the-brim deep freezer.

I do my wash at Kimmel's, about three blocks away over by one of the colleges, where it costs a bloody fortune. When I was in college I could do a few weeks' worth of dirty laundry for about a buck and a half - washing AND drying. Now it costs about 14 quarters per washer! And a quarter in a dryer gets you exactly six minutes. Most of my dryers get seven or eight quarters each, and today I used 5 dryers. Three washers, all Maxi-size, cost me 14 or 17 quarters each. So I spent about twenty-four bucks just getting the sweat out of cotton today.

Oh well. Whilst sitting at the dryers and waiting the folding and stacking, it occurred to me that I should post and pass-on what I have learned since being a single and having to do the wash at an institution instead of in my own abode.

1. If you are allergic to ANYTHING, you are allergic to perfumes and dyes. So use the FREE & CLEAR detergent. It costs the same and cleans the same, but it won't give you the willies.

2. NEVER use dryer sheets that supposedly reduce or eliminate static if you have allergies. They are the worst source of asthmatic reactions known to mankind.

(Sidebar: One time - and the only time - my ex-wife decided to do some wash. She washed our sheets and pillow cases. We made the bed just before going to sleep with a set that she had washed and dried. Soon after we killed the lights I began to wheeze and cough. In ten minutes I was choking.

She had used Bounce dryer sheets in MY dryer! She admitted it and I stripped the bed, carried everything she had washed back to the laundry and washed it all over again, dried it again and it still stank of the Bounce.

So I ran white vinegar through the washer sequence and had to dry several loads during the night with the hope that the Bounce odor would go away. It finally dissipated.

Meanwhile, she had to sleep on the bare mattress and at about five a.m. I managed to get some sleep on the couch.

Maybe this is one of the reasons we are divorced? LOL

She would ruin water trying to boil it.

3. A full dryer takes much longer to dry. Split a load into two dryers (impossible to do at home, but easy in a laundromat.)

4. Never wash underwear and towels together. I separate all my laundry this way:
a. underwear and socks
b. jeans
c. shirts (except for silk or microfiber - they are washed separate)
d. towels and other terrycloth
e. whites, such as bedding (they get bleach)

5. Take a good book along.

6. Watch your wallet or purse. Laundromats collect strange characters. After all, I go there. LOL

7. Before you put clothes into a dryer, check it carefully. It may have grease, melted rubber, plastic or candy on the inside. People are really careless.

Now I have to put all this clean laundry away.

Later...