Getting caught up....conspiracy theory

Now that the NYC trip is finally blogged and behind us, I really will try to stay on top of Crack Team news. Bear with my while I do some catching up.

I loved the movie Conspiracy Theory. It redefined extreme theorists for me and allows my creative mind to work through my own conspiracies without feeling nuts. So, here's my latest theory (note:most of them have nothing to do with bureaucracy, politics, or boring stuff like that...more like shopping deals, clothes, and the like).

In April right after our NYC trip I noticed that some of our clothes were coming out of the laundry with rust spots. Let me mention that I love doing laundry. Separating, washing, drying, and most importantly the smell and feel of items fresh from the dryer. Between my love for laundry and delicate items that have to be hung dry I don't even let Chris do the wash. So, a rust spot on the laundry was a highly upsetting event. We noticed that the basin in our washer was chipping and leaving rust spots which must have been depositing on and ruining our clothes. This was a strange discovery for several reasons:

1. I am a scavenge for change in pockets. I figure if Chris leaves it, it's mine. I have a small piggy bank near the washer and I happily empty his pockets and fill my bank. This goes without count on our official budget which is of great advantage to me. Then when the bank is full I spend it...usually on shoes. For those who love my green and white polka wedges...it's the laundry bank fund!

2. I also am pretty particular about zipping jackets and tucking in sharp edges. Mainly because the clanging sound ruins the serenity of laundry for me.

3. Because I can think of lots of better things to spend money on than new washer and dryers.

None the less...it had chipped and for fear of ruining other clothes we decided to buckle in. This is where the conspiracy begins.

We knew we wanted to go to the HE (high efficiency) front loaders. We're really trying to make GREEN decisions around the Crack House. We hope you are too. I had visions of the sparkling red front loaders on the pedestals in our organized laundry area and my weekly duty reaching new levels of bliss....

Conspiracy one - the pedestals don't come with the machines. However, the front loading doors are so low to the ground that years of laundry would lead to chronic back pain from bending and lifting at such a low height. So, you are basically forced into two pedestals. Pedestals run at $200 each.

Conspiracy two - the color versions of the front loaders are a minimum of $200 more for the SAME model as boring white. OH COME ON! I work in product development. I know that occasionally a color version of something can cost a little more because of paint but the $200 per machine (washer and dryer) is a greedy rip off.

Conspiracy three - while these HE machines are FAR more efficient and I fully support the earth friendly cause for them, you save money on utility bills but practically make up for it in detergent! You have to use special HE detergent with these machines because regular detergent is too sudsy for the fast spinning action of the washer. So, since the appliance companies rip us off with the color mark up and pedestal mark up the detergent people jumped the bandwagon. I paid $11.99 for the same amount of detergent I can get for a regular machine at $6.99.

So, we decided on white machines. I'm calling it clean, fresh, pure, white - think fresh linen (to compensate for my lost dreams of the red sparklers). We punked the system and got our pedestals on Craig's List for a far cry from $200 each. And, while there is nothing I can do about detergent, (perhaps I should write a letter) at least we are doing the laundry in a more efficient way. I don't have to worry about rust spots, I now have a setting for hand wash (LOVE THAT!), and one day when my laundry area is presentable, I'll even post a photo. Warning...don't hold your breath. Our laundry area is in the garage and it is over 100 today so I'm in no rush to work out there for any length of time.

While I stand firmly behind the conspiracies of greed in the appliance and detergent industries I do want to be very clear that I am thankful for the blessing of a new washer and dryer...for any washer and dryer.

So on that note, I'm off to smell some fresh laundry....