Waltz of the Dryers

About six months ago, maybe more, my boss offered to sell me a lightly used clothes dryer.

I had the one that came with the house, which was old and ugly but quite functional, but I yearned for a larger, shinier version with less rust on the body. I had a relatively new clothes washer and the old dryer just didn't GO with it. So I said yes, I'd love to buy your dryer!!!

So I did. Darling Man collected it from the boss's house and brought it back to live in our garage. I admired it greatly, but didn't have the time to hook it up right away. Also, it had no plug, so I would have to do some fiddling that I wasn't of a mind to do just yet.

Months later, it still sat in my garage, with things piling up on it as the old dryer did yeoman's duty in keeping us in clean, dry laundry.

I didn't really think about it.

Then last week, my friend Alison mentioned that her old dryer had died and she was looking for a good used one.

I was wondering why my garage had held two dryers for so long... My old Kenmore was waiting for a suitable home.

I took a morning to get it all cleaned up, took the plug off, moved it to the front of the garage for easy removal, then cleaned the new dryer (it HAD been sitting in there a long time), put the plug on it and opened up the lint screen, which reminded me to clean the vent to the outside.

I disconnected the whole thing, took it outside and brushed it out for all it was worth. There was a pile of lint when I was done. Then I cleaned the outside, flapper part. Oh, my! I couldn't believe how much was stuck up in there! I think if I saved all that, I could probably insulate my garage with it all! And that after only two years. I'm glad I did it though. That's the number one reason for dryer-related house fires.

That evening, Darling Man and I took the dryer to its new home. I'd forgotten that she lived on the second floor... while DM got it off the truck, I went up to scope its new digs out. The space for the dryer was tight - and it had to get through a narrow kitchen to get there.

We managed to get the dryer up the stairs without too much trouble and I put the plug from their old dryer onto their newer dryer while DM puzzled out how to get it into the new space. He also disconnected their venting and gave it to me to clean out while he maneuvered the dryer through the narrow kitchen. I found a bird nest in the vent. Luckily there were no eggs or baby birds in it, but that reminded me again of how important cleaning these things out on at least a yearly basis can be.

Finally got the thing hooked up and tested with a load of clean wash that finished just as we did.

Perfect!

The new owner is thrilled to be doing laundry at home again, and I am thrilled with the new space in my garage!