Having lived in tiny apartments my whole adult life (unless one counts a brief tragic period in a rented suburban house when we first moved to Massachusetts) I have never had a laundry machine of my own. But as of about fifteen minutes ago, the Gordy family is happy to be able to do its own wash.
This little machine both washes and dries, is small enough to fit in our apartment, and is ready to go after a lovely seven hours with the plumber. We now have to figure out something clever to do with the quarters we have been collecting all these years.
8 comments:
send them to me! I still have to go to the laundromat! how much was that machine I need to get one!
To be honest, it is really expensive! For a long time there were only two combo washer-dryers on the US market, this one from Asko and another one by LG (even more expensive). But now there are a couple more, so the prices may have gone down. If you live in a place with vents for a dryer and hookups, it would probably cost less to get two machines, but this works for us, with just a tiny space in the kitchen and no vent.
Commercial plug: most appliance dealers in the US (like most furniture manufacturers in the Balkans) assume that every customer has a huge house--this place:
http://compactappliance.com/
specializes in small things for us little people. Some of the stuff is crummy, and some of it is kinda neat.
Man, we need to get one too... The Germans have this bizarre thing where most places are rented out without a kitchen and without a washing machine in the building, which is really a bit silly. We struck it lucky and got a kitchen in our flat, but we still need to buy the washer... Any secret to successful buying? I find these things a bit daunting, to be honest...
Without a kitchen, really? Or just without appliances? Either way, it seems odd for renters to have to buy their own appliances.
Ah, but you ask for advice on buying washers. By now, I could write another dissertation on buying washers! It is a tough one because it forces you to break the very useful rule "never buy anything you can't lift." It will be easier for you, since you are in the land of well-designed appliances (note to American lads wanting to show European women that you understand how they suffer: complain about American top-loading washers). Basically you want something you can take with you when you move, so: 1) get a washer-dryer combo rather than two machines, 2) make sure it is a ventless dryer, unless you are handy with poking vents into your exterior walls. But since the Tedeschi have a decent selection of good design and small sizes, probably the best thing is to get the one that uses the least water and electricity. Or you could just go for the (Italian?) "Candy" brand, since they have the most festive colors.
thanks for the link Gordy, they are really cool appliances but I am right now in tales of the broke and super broke. I like the compact concept though, and really given what prices are, they aren't THAT expensive. Just for me right now. I do like the compact washer dryer combo concept a lot, it would be very nice for most of the people I know in Sarajevo because damn near no one owns a dryer. In spring summer or even fall it's not generally a problem but in winter, it's terrible, I feel sorry for anyone there who has a baby. It literally can take DAYS to dry a load of diapers there, and most people do use the cloth ones there. Having the combo would be great for families there, provided it's not real hard to repair. Here in the Gulag I am cheaper off using a washer and a dryer. Decent used ones are not so bad here. Still if I downsized to an apartment it would be nice to have the combo.
My apartment in Buenos Aires had a nice little feature--in the hall there was a little door that opned up to the building's heating duct. You could just hang your wet stuff in the duct and it would dry there. Convenient, no extra energy used, and no wrinkles. Now that was a clever low-tech convenience! I have never seen it any other place, unfortunately.
I like the idea of "festive colors!" The cheapest decent models on the market here, by the way, are made by Gorenje. And I did mean that German kitchens come without "appliances," of course. Thanks for the advice!
I have no idea whether this is true, but I have been told that if you rent an apartment in Sweden, you bring your own lights.
On the other hand, inconvenience aside, it might have been a good thing if when we had got this place we had just been compelled to get new kitchen appliances. As it is, we keep calculating how long we can tolerate the landlord-grade sprave that came with the property.
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