See that washer and dryer up there? That’s what we’ve been using for the last 11 and a half years. Before that they belonged to my parents. They bought them in 1976 or 1977, which makes them about 35 years old. I was 6 or 7 when they were purchased.
Before they bought this washer/dryer set, my parents owned a small set that fit in the apartment we had been living in. The washer did not have a conventional hookup. My mom actually had to roll the washer into the kitchen on laundry day and hook it up to the kitchen sink. My dad built a wooden ramp so she could roll it up a step and out of the laundry room. Mom would pile loads of laundry on the kitchen counter and stove waiting to go in the washer. Once she accidentally burned a towel by placing it on a hot burner. I’m sure she was happy when they finally bought a washer she could leave in the laundry room!
The washer and dryer served my family well, but began to show their age. When I was about to get married in 2000, my parents decided it was time to get a new washer/dryer set. They offered the old ones to my husband-to-be and I since we would be loading up a moving truck anyway to haul my stuff down to Reno. We said, “Yes”! We figured even if they only lasted a few months, it would be nice to not have to buy a set immediately after we got married and settled into our new place.
The first place my husband and I lived had the washer/dryer hookups in the garage. Not ideal, but we were happy not to have to go to a laundromat. When we bought our house the washer and dryer came with us and moved into a proper laundry room.
The washer and dryer have been on their last legs for a while now, but they still kept chugging along. On Friday I discovered that my load of laundry was not dry even after a couple of hours in the dryer. They weren’t even warm. Finally time to be replaced!
I am looking forward to my new washer and dryer. It will be nice to have some modern features and they will certainly be more energy efficient. But I doubt the new set will last us nearly as long as our trusty old Maytags.
From Scratch 
Ooooo. What are you going to get? I am SOOOO thankful for the set we have since I do laundry EVERY day (ugghhh!).
Yeah! Congratulations 🙂
I think new appliances are exciting. I was SO excited to finally be able to replace my refrigerator this year. I haven’t been able to convince the world that I need to replace the W/D yet…
Karen you are so right about the new set not lasting as long…my last set lasted about 15 years which I thought was a pretty good run. Incidentally…I used to own one of those apartment washers when we were first married…I hated it! It never really cleaned the clothes as well as a regular washer, but the worst thing about it was hooking it up to your kitchen sink! Oh the good old days…lol!