This laundry room image from Martha Stewart was one of my first pins on Pinterest. I pinned it because it was simple, practical, and not too fussy. The rolled up towels are a bit twee, but I love that the cleaning and laundry supplies all in their original packaging versus the apothecary nonsense I usually see. My favorite part about the image is that it features an ordinary washer and dryer from the 90s. We happen to be the last household in America using a top loading washer (I checked. The other family bought a new set with their tax return in May.), so� I appreciate the inspiration. Thanks, Martha.
Too bad this is all only tangentially related to today’s post. In fact, I only put up that image because the real images are so horrific, I didn’t want them to be the first thing visitors see. What I’m really talking about today is a project my husband took on and finished.
It began like this: our dryer stopped blowing hot air.
While I was across the street drying Nico’s soccer uniform 7 minutes before we were supposed to leave, my husband was on Youtube refusing to believe we had to buy a new dryer. He was looking at dryer repair videos, not LOLZ cats. He found one that looked promising and saved it for after the game. When we got home, he got to work and I went to the supermarket. When I came home, I found him on the floor taking this picture.
I put away the groceries while he told me what that we should be cleaning out the interior every year, depending on how often we use the dryer. I knew 15,000 house fires start each year due to dirty lint traps, so I always swipe it clean before every load and wash it regularly. I had no idea we were supposed to take apart the dryer as part of our routine maintenance.
I put away the carrots while he hoisted the drum out of the dryer. When I turned around, I found him on the floor taking this picture.
Our dryer is 13 years old. We had it serviced shortly after we moved in, so I suspect that’s 6 years of dust and lint. I blinked twice and said, “Okay, I’m going to Target!” And I left.
I came home an hour and found him on the floor taking this picture.
After this picture, he put the dryer back together again so he could diagnose the problem. It turned out we needed a new spark plug or something (zzzzzzzzz), so he took apart the dryer again, replaced the plug, and then put it all together again. I helped him put the drum back in the second time. I was instrumental to the project.
These are all the pictures he took, so you’ll have to imagine the machine back together again. I think it was sweet he even thought to take pictures for me.
My Martha Stewart Homekeeping Handbook, which I should clearly dust off and read, says homeowners should do this every year. The video my husband watched on Youtube (this is the one) suggests every six months. I did a little research on the internet–a reliable source if ever there was one–and several sites say it depends on your household. If you live alone and do laundry once per week, you could go 5 years without needing to clean your dryer vents. Daily dryer users should clean every 6 months. Weekly or biweekly users can go every 18 months. The average family of 4 using the dryer 3 times a week, once a year.
There are lint monitoring systems on the market if you are really feeling unsure, but they are pricey and I don’t know how well they work. They are available at most hardware stores.
I think we’re going to stick with a yearly cleaning. Our dryer can now warm a small home with the heat it generates. We are able to dry our clothes infinitely faster now. I should probably suggest the neighbor who helped me with Nico’s uniform, too. His uniform never dried to more than damp, and she complained that her dryer was working as well as it had in the past…
New here? For the next 31 days I�m living according to the famous William Morris quote, �Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.� You can learn more about the project here, and catch sneak peeks of my projects by following me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram (I�m @pancakesfries).
For just a milli-second, when I saw that beautiful Martha Stewart photo, I felt betrayed. Here I thought we were chums, you and I (with the unifying interest of wanting to get our crap organized) and all along you have secretly had a magazine-worthy laundry nook?
That linty drier made me so happy! Not schadenfreude, but just… relief? I like knowing that even though other people look so put together on the outside, that they have messes that can make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, too.
I don’t even look put together on the outside 75% of the time, so you’ve come to the right place. ;)
Clearly I need to spend some time with my Martha book.
Yeah. Maybe I should make it a book club selection.
Ha!
Actually, that kind of appeals to me in an odd way.
I know. Me, too.
We bought our first washer and dryer this summer and we went with a new fangled top loader because I hear so many horror stories about the front loaders. So I can join the top loader party with you!
I’ve heard a lot of bad things about the front loaders, too. I’ll admit to listening to the stories with a smirk on my face.
I’m so out of it I never knew that my top-loader was out of it. Thanks for sharing your scary pics. It’s one of those things I know I need to do, but never do. Going to think about adding this to our Sunday chore list.
If anything, do it to make your dryer blow hotter. I swear I can dry towels now by just thinking about putting them in the dryer.
Absolutely love your sense of humor. We are the proud owners of a top loader. So proud in fact, that we purchased one specifically (used) because we believe the horror stories about front loaders (stink, unreliable seals etc etc etc). Allow us to join the count to make it 3 families with top loaders!
Seriously though – thanks so much for the awesome link. We have some hefty dryer maintenance to do. Ours does work fine but I had no clue we had to degunk the inside.
Three families! You guys, that’s enough to call ourselves a group. Shall be start a revolution?
I’m curious to see if the previous owners cleaned out their dryer first.
We’ve been renting … forever … but several years ago we had w/d hookups and I don’t think it ever would’ve occurred to us to de-lint the dryer.
Glad I’m not the only one!
Yup, we’re also Team Top Loader. We were poor as church mice when we first bought our house, and didn’t have a washer or dryer (we paid an extra $30 a month to rent a set from our previous apartment complex). My parents graciously offered to buy us a set as a house warming gift, and so we chose a set that seemed like it would last but wouldn’t look like we were taking advantage of my parents’ generosity. At the time, it was well over two thousand dollars for a pair of front loaders, so although they were pretty, we passed. And you know what? Our homely top loader has been just fine.
Funny story: in our apartment the laundry closet was just off the kitchen, and it was tiny. Like, the washer and dryer were set against opposite walls facing each other, and there was barely room to open the dryer door. Apparently a properly hooked up vent system would’ve taken up too much space, so instead of venting our dryer to the outside, the just let it vent into the closet and installed a bathroom fan instead. So the inside of that closet was CONSTANTLY coated in lint, and if we forgot to run the fan while the dryer was on, the whole thing turned into a sauna.
Team Top Loader.
Too…
many…
jokes…(!!!)
ha ha ha ha!!!!
We’re still top loaders as well! Maybe you’re the last ones in California. :) And I showed my husband those pictures, we need to clean out our dryer!!!
I told my husband that a bunch of women are sending his repair post to their husbands, and he remarked that many husbands probably hate him by now. :)
We pulled our dryer apart this morning. There was some lint but not this much. Thanks for the tip. I didn’t have to take the drum out.
That reminds me–if you have animals, you have even more lint. We have two dogs, so maybe that’s it. Also, maybe it’s been more than 6 years…but I don’t even want to think about that!
First off, your husband did an awesome job on the dryer! It’s a really cool post. I don’t think I know anyone who has done this, or at least told me about this. Super cool.
Secondly, thanks for being another mom who can’t see herself putting dry laundry soap (mostly cos i don’t use it) in an apothecary jar. This blog is for real. I appreciate that. If I’m throwing a load into the wash, I most likely have a child on my heels, a phone on my ear, a batch of muffins burning in the oven and another child to pick up at school. I like pretty things but I can’t relate to a system where you put your detergents into a new container and then into a basket, on a shelf, behind a curtain. Omgosh, it makes me tired thinking of it!
I think he did a great job, too. I was proud!
I can see putting in something like OxiClean in a plastic container or something, but only because those square boxes are completely worthless. But, yeah, I love pretty things–just not enough to dispense liquid soap into glass dispensers, which I see in blog land a lot.
I’m chiming in to say that I’m so jealous of you top loader. As a cloth diaper user, I absolutely hate (!) my front loader. Unfortunately, we’re stuck with it for now since our w/d lives stacked in our kitchen (in a very size specific space so when it comes time to replace, we’ll be spending lots of $$ to either relocate them to another area of the house or buying custom sizes…sigh).
See, as pretty as they are, I don’t hear a lot of good things about the front loaders. Mainly I hear complaints about the smell and seals that don’t last. I think they are gimmicky, but I don’t blame anyone for that. God knows I fell for the bottom freezer gimmick hook, line, and sinker and now live to regret it several times per day!
What’s wrong with a bottom freezer? I was thinking of choosing that style intentionally when it’s time to replace our old fridge.
I wrote a post about why I don’t like mine (search for “How to Organize a Bottom Freezer” in my archives) but maybe the problems I have are no longer an issue. Mine is 7 years old. If you can’t find the post, let me know.
Found it, thank you!
AACK! I don’t want to think about what is waiting for me in the basement…
I would say to procrastinate, but since it’s a cause of house fires…you should probably put it on your list of things to do. :)
We still have a top loader :). We took apart our dryer a few weeks ago when a pencil went down the lint trap. I pulled out all kinds of stuff (hair pins, lego, playmobile, etc. in a pile of lint) from where the fan connects to the vent. So glad it got a good cleaning!
I just asked my husband, and he said all he found was a couple of coins…and about 4 lbs of lint!
Team top loader here too ;)
Another top loader…and though last year I replaced my dryer vent, and I have also read about opening up the dryer and cleaning out the lint…but I haven’t done it yet. In my house, it’s not a job I can delegate to my husband. He’s all, “Call an expert!” and I’m all, “How hard can it be?” But I fear messing up and not being able to put it back together. Knowing the state of the old dryer vent (a fire waiting to happen if ever there was one), the rest of the dryer may well be in terrible shape–I don’t even know how old it is since it came with the house 5 years ago. And we’re a daily load family of 5. Hmmm…maybe I can enlist my visiting father-in-law tomorrow…
got a top loader here too! this is AMAZING. I have to show this to my husband….
OMG, it’s almost three a.m. here and I want to wake Jeff up and make him take apart the dryer for a lint check.
Nope, top loading here (from the 90s) and avocado dryer too! They’re in the basement, never seen except by me.
Thank you for this post; I often wonder who has the time to decant laundry soap, etc, into glass containers; the containers they come in work perfectly fine for me.
I took my washer apart this summer when I started experiencing problems and I felt empowered that I was able to do so and was able to put it all back together, too.
I purchased a new washer and dryer in the past year (on separate occasions when it wasn’t worth fixing either of them) and both are top loaders; given the poor reviews and the prices of the front loading machines, I just didn’t see the point.