Laundry Day

I've been doing laundry pretty much non-stop since we returned from South Africa.  We had quite a lot of dirty laundry from our trip, which took a while to get through, plus we'd run through our entire collection of bath towels and that was a separate mountain.  

Laundry has become my least favorite chore.  I actually used to not mind it that much, but that was in the days of having an American washer and dryer.  How I miss my washer and dryer!!  Two separate units that each do their job very well, and can handle large loads!  What I have now is what's known as a "washer/dryer", as in it's all one unit.  There are many problems with this thing - 

1. The washer/dryer is meant to fit in small spaces under counter tops in little British flats.  It is therefore very small.
2. This one machine is meant to do both the washing and drying.  This means that you cannot have one load drying whilst washing the next. 
3. You can fit approximately one pair of jeans, three shirts, and one sock inside of it.  Not much.
4. Its drying capabilities are often shoddy at best. 
5. When I want to dry something, I switch it to the drying mode and then have to press a button for how many minutes I want it to dry (there is no automatic sensor for "dry").  Only each time I press the button, it adds just 5 minutes to the total.  It starts with 10 minutes.  If I want anything to actually be, I don't know, dry, I have to let it run for at least 2 hours.  If it's towels, 3+ hours.  SO, each time I dry a load of towels (which would be 1 bath towel and 2 hand towels max), I have to hit the button 36 times.  Each load.  I have done 5 loads of towels and another 6 of clothes this weekend.  I have hit that freakin' button 360+ times.  
6. Once I set it to dry and hit start, it locks and I can no longer open it.  If I missed something, it fell on the floor or whatever, I'm out of luck.  To the drying rack it goes.
7. When the load is finished drying, it beeps loudly for about one minute.  This beep, however, does not mean (as one would expect), "Hello, I'm done!  Come open my door and get your mostly dry clothes!"  Nope.  It means that the door will remain arbitrarily locked for another few minutes.  For fun.  You cannot get anything out right away, or stop the beeping.  Oh, and there is no beep when that random wait period is up.  You just have to remember and come back to get everything before it wrinkles.  

When we first moved here, one of the things Stephen and I missed immediately was our American washer and dryer, and they were old and not even that spectacular.  We said as soon as we moved back to the States and had a house again, we were going to buy the biggest washer and dryer on the market.  (Stephen said, "Let's get two of each!")  Only now we're moving to New York, and will be in another apartment!  No room for our own personal laundry mat I suppose.  But, we are looking for places with washers and dryers in the units (not just on the premises in the building).  It's actually very high up on our list along with safety and close to green space.  Hey, it's a life changer!

Here it is, in all its glory (drying 3 towels):