First World Problems – laundry

 

Growing up, my grandparents lived with us and it was Grandma who did all the housework because my mom worked full time. We had a washer and dryer, but almost always, laundry was dried on the clothesline in the back. The wet laundry was put in the cart and rolled to the back.

 

I did the same when I married, but dress clothes were dried in the dryer. And I had one of those carts like the one above. It was an old one, but very sturdy. The liner was from heavy cloth and lasted forever. When we moved to Oroville there was no back yard clothesline, so I started drying everything in the dryer. I found that I needed a second cart when doing more than one load of laundry. So I ordered one. Talk about flimsy! But it served its purpose. And the liner was pretty good quality. Over time, both liners started wearing out and I ordered new ones. Those weren’t as heavy as the others, but they were OK.

 

When the time came to replace them, I got some pretty liners like the one above. You can still get the carts, by the way, but they are stupid expensive for what they are. I only needed the liners. TOTAL CRAP!!! And they were not cheap in price, but in quality. They started tearing almost immediately. I mended them over and over. This style of cart is one that suits me the best. The washer and dryer are raised up so I don’t have to hurt my back. And scooping out the laundry from one machine to the other in a cart is easy. And since the cart folds somewhat, I can get it up the steps from the garage easily.

 

When Sarah came up for Easter, I asked her to bring her sewing machine to make me some new liners out of a couple of beach towels. That material will last a LONG time. She cut the flimsy liner apart to use as a pattern and made me two lovely cart liners. One is pictured below.

 

By the way, I looked all over the Internet for liners for this style of cart and they were all the same. Same pattern of cloth (or white ones) and same poor quality of material. And my original 60+ year old cart is still going strong. The one below has been replaced once because of the poor quality of metal, and the time will come when that will need to be replaced, but I know I will never need new liners!

 

PS—I just now thought to look up ‘laundry carts for seniors’ and found this at Hammacher Schlemmer: https://www.hammacher.com/product/back-saving-laundry-hamper

It’s a bit pricey, but if I’d seen this when I was originally looking for liners, I might’ve gotten this. The reviews are enthusiastic. This might be my next cart when the other one wears out.