Off the Grid  Retirement at our remote log cabin in Colorado

Sunday, July 31, 2016

Laundry Breakthrough

Posted by: Rick

Okay, this may not be the most glamorous post. Nor even interesting to most of you. But, it is a huge breakthrough for Lynne and me at the cabin.

One of our big frustrations is a "trip into town". It is especially difficult while Destin is still a puppy, because we don't want to leave him too long. A trypical trip into town involves checking the mail, dumping trash, picking up groceries we need, stopping by our storage unit, and a likely trip to a hardware store. Oh, and there is the library, and lunch, and we even like to pop into Bart's or an antique store to browse. Add doing laundry at a laundromat to the list and it really takes a lot of time. Usually, Lynne would do 5 or 6 loads at a time at the Spic 'n Span laundry (a very nice laundry), while I tried to get as many other errands done as possilbe.

That really ate up a day. Figure roughly an hour to get to town and another to get back, we had at most about two hours we could spend in town since Destin is crated at the cabin. (When cooler weather comes, we can take him with us.) Since doing a trip's worth of laundry could easily take 1-1/2 hours, there was not much time for anything else. It felt like rush, rush, rush. Plus, at about $3.00 a load for washing and drying, it was expensive.

So, one of our first priorities was to get the ability to do laundry at the cabin. I did much research before settling on an Ariston washer (the bottom part of a stackable unit built for RVs). I found one at Camping World in Longmont and picked it up on my way back from visiting family in NM for Dad's memorial. A plumber from RNR plumbing in Fort Collins actually made the drive up here and tapped into hot and cold water at the water heater and added a drain. We still have to use an extension cord to get power to it, but it is "fully functional" and a dream come true.

The washer just fits in our utility closet.

It takes a maximum 15 pound load, which is not bad. As a front loader it uses little water, yet gets the clothes super clean. It is quiet--I kept checking on it for the first few loads thinking it had quit working. It spins fast, up to 1200 rpm for some load types (that's 20 spins a second!) and the clothes come out mostly dry. We've now done 6 or 7 loads and all have worked flawlessly. We could not be happier! I no longer wear my underwear for three days in a row wink

What about drying? Well, it is so dry up here, and the sun is so intense; and, we have a breeze most of the time. Clothes dry on our line in a matter of minutes. In winter, drying outside is also fine except in bad weather where we'll use some drying racks in front of the wood stove.

Our "dryer. Lynne teases me about the pants stretchers...

About

Follow our adventures living in an off-the-grid cabin in remote Colorado. Kind of like reality TV on a blog!

Introduction to Off the Grid

Follow us on Twitter and be notified of new content:

If you’re new to this site please visit the archives to catch up.

Membership

Login  |  Register

Share

Quote of the Day

“Don’t use a big word where a diminutive one will suffice.” – Unknown

Search

Calendar of Entries

December 2024
S M T W T F S
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31        

Archives

Photo Galleries

Recent Comments

  • Hello Christina! How nice of you to comment about my dusty old blog! I do…

    Posted to: ‘A Chapter Ends’ by Lynne on 12/07/2021

  • Good to know.  I’m just starting construction on my property “over the hill” in the…

    Posted to: ‘A Chapter Ends’ by bill bush on 09/29/2021

  • I began following the New Jersey Girl blog years ago, and I do miss the…

    Posted to: ‘A Chapter Ends’ by Christina Muller on 08/23/2021

  • Hi Steve! Thanks for being a loyal reader through the years. I have thought about…

    Posted to: ‘A Chapter Ends’ by Lynne on 08/06/2021

  • Thanks for the update. I enjoyed the writing both of you did about this adventure.…

    Posted to: ‘A Chapter Ends’ by Steve on 08/05/2021

On This Day...

Syndicate