Surviving the Washing Machine.

Photo courtesy of worldofmeh.com

You wouldn't believe the stuff I have pulled out of pockets AFTER being washed, or found in the drum of the dryer.

The latest survivors? Two of my son's 3Ds games. I have to hand it to Nintendo, they made those things pretty indestructable. I have washed and dried quite a few DS and DSi games over the years, and they always work just fine afterwards. (Although we have a few that are identified with black sharpie, because the labels melted off in the wash.)

Legos, rocks, candy wrappers, action figures, lego mini-figures, coins, paper money (eek!), you name it. I've washed it. Don't judge. I have three boys and a daughter. You think I have TIME to check all their pockets before I wash their stuff? ;-)

In "gross" news: I finally figured out something VERY important about my front-loading Neptunes. They need to be CLEANED, and on a regular basis. I won't go into major detail, but there was a smell involved, and I got curious and inspected the drum of the washer, and I won't tell you what I found. Safe to say, leave the door to the washer cracked open between washings, so...stuff can't grow in the drum. Because the water never completely drains. Add that to all the crap you wash out of your clothes and...yeah...GROSS, I know. I also discovered a handy little cleaner by Tide:

You dump this into your detergent tray (it comes in pre-measured packets), and run a cycle on hot, once a week, and it keeps your machine daisy fresh! Just make sure to check that drum weekly too. Yuck.

This completes my public service announcement. Should I step off my soap box? (HAHA)


Happy Wednesday!