I am a member of my generation…

This story is not for the faint of heart. It is icky. And, for your sake, there are no pictures.

So we’ve lived here almost a year. And we’ve had trouble with our washing machine almost the entire time we’ve lived here. I just thought it had issues. But. Well. It turns out it’s me with the issues.

The problem was the cycles would never completely finish. I couldn’t figure out why and I read and read to try to find a reason. Nothing. So I developed a technique. I’d pick my cycle, run it til it stopped, then do another shorter cycle til it stopped. Then I would continue on with a rinse cycle, which occasionally went all the way followed by a couple drain cycles and a couple spin cycles. So. Needless to say, it was quite the event to do laundry and by the time it was done it usually smelled a little funky rather than like fresh, clean laundry, which I assumed was because it spent so much time in the barrel.

I was getting really frustrated with this process as it seemed to be getting worse and worse and was considering giving the maintenance guys a call. I decided before I took such drastic measures, I’d read back through the guide to the machine to make sure I had done everything possible before I called.

So I’m reading and I see this ‘maintenance guide’ section that talks about cleaning out the filter (here we go..) once a month. I think ‘hmm.. the filter. I don’t think I’ve done anything with the filter..’ So I decide to go have a look. It mentions some water might trickle out, so to be ready to catch it. I brace myself for the trickle, but it was more like Niagara Falls polluted with large balls of lint and hair. After I got over my disgust, I grabbed a large bowl, which proceeded to get COMPLETELY full of grungy water from my washing machine. I finally get to the point where I can take out the filter and find an even more disgusting sight – packed, I mean packed, full of slimy, blue, fuzz and hair, some of which has been in there for nearly a year.

I consider trying to get it out with my bare hands, but decide that will involve too much gagging. So I grabbed a knife and went at it until it was clean. Well then I had to take my knife to prod into where the filter goes to get the rest of the clogging out of there. It might have been the grossest thing I’ve ever done. And to give my husband credit – I know he would’ve done it because he’s done far grosser things, but he was studying and I didn’t want to bother him :)

I put the filter back in, put the cover back on, and ran a ‘please clean it!’ cycle of just detergent and hot water. It has worked like a charm ever since. So.. um.. I’ll be cleaning the filter out from now on.. every month.

All the while this was going on, I just kept thinking ‘this is the 21st century! I’m educated, I can work with technology, it is just shameful that I couldn’t figure out my own washing machine! I’m not even fit to be a part of my own generation!’

Then as I was telling Ian this story, it dawned on me that I actually fit in very well with my generation. ‘what – you mean I can’t just push a button and make it work?? You mean I have to DO something???’ :)