Whirlpool, We Have A Problem

Pre-boot Replacement rip on my daughter's PJ

Over two years ago I posted about my new Washer. At the time we had troubles linked to our new water softener when they installed it wrong. Friday night I went to take clothes out of the washer and part of the boot seal had ripped off! We called to see how much it would cost for someone to come and fix it, but it was going to be about $300. We only paid $700, plus we have been seeing holes in our clothes and can't figure out if it was the washer or dryer. I searched You Tube and found a video about replacing the boot on a front loader. We were able to order the part for $110 and my husband replaced the boot. He put in the first load and when it was time to put it in the washer he discovered my work out pants burned and tore.

I got these at Marshalls and really liked the length and the fit. There is no repairing this kind of tear. The pants are 93% Polyester and 7% Spandex. The PJ are 100% polyester. We also have holes in cottons but they haven't been as big as these holes.

I searched online and found some older forum about holes in clothes. It seams people blame washers, dryers, laundry detergent, activities and clothing for holes that seem to appear.

To troubleshoot this problem for myself I'm going to:

1. Not let my husband wash my clothes. I think he over stuffs the machine and he doesn't sort.

2. Separate my knit clothes from jeans and other materials

3. Wash them in the gentle cycle

4. Only lightly fill a small laundry basket for a load

5. Consider new detergent

I will update later if I find that this is working or if I find more holes in my clothes.

Note: The Whirlpool Duet Model I am using is WFW9150WW00, Serial number HL01895953 bought from Lowes Aug 2010.

Household Coordinator

Source: someecards.com

(I decided I need fancy names for my household projects. So for my post on improving my money will be called Financial Expeditions, Organizing will be Household Coordinator, and Health will be Well-conditioned.)

As my husband was commenting on how he has been working 60 hour work weeks, I thought to myself "big deal." I bust my butt every week to keep this household together. He gets to come home, leave his job and doesn't have to answer the phone. I work 40 hours outside of the home, then I come home to do 80% or more of the household and child rearing. I make the appointments, buy clothes, co-ordinate schedules, make list of list, and entertain kids. So sorry if I'm not sympathetic. I think I did my wifely duty by just writing this on my blog and not telling him to his face.

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As household coordinator, I have already developed a weekly list of chores, which I haphazardly follow. Now I need to come up with back up plans for when I'm out of town on the weekend or when I'm not able to clean during the week.:

Gone For the Weekend Chore List
Monday- living room dining room tidy up, dust, vacuum furniture and sweep floors
Tuesday- clean both bathrooms
Wednesday- clean kitchen, sweep floors
Thursday- tidy up basement, laundry clean and put away, balance checkbook, and plan meals

Weekend Power Clean
1. place all laundry downstairs and start a load
2. assist kids with cleaning bathrooms
3. run load of dishes
4. tidy up dining room and living room, dust, vacuum furniture, sweep floors
5. move laundry to dryer and add another load if necessary
6. kids clean their rooms, while I clean kitchen
7. laundry to dryer
8. kids move to tidy up basement, I mop floors
9. work on my bedroom
10. everyone puts laundry away

Another thing I would like to do is to make a more detailed list of cleaning rooms to follow, and to teach my kids more about what a clean room entails. My daughter can work two hours on her room and it will look like she has done nothing because she still have a mess all over the floor. I gave them list to check off the other day and it worked great so I would like to make more list for their chores so they have clear expectations.


Money report: $8.82 on lunch,bought Chinese at Hy-vee with a pop
Chore Report: swept floor made bed, ran dishwasher cleaned up living room/dining room, laundry down stairs
Health report: ran/walked tonight, drank pop :0C , and I am tired since I didn't get to bed by 10 because I stayed up to watch movies and woke up with a stuffy nose.

A List

So have you seen this posting on the  blogosphere : Project Organize Your Entire Life.  It is one thing to bitch about your life, and another to actually do something about your life.

These are the things I would like to change:
1. finance
2. weight/look
3. organization

Finance
I am getting better with making more money.  I recently traded one of the bills that I paid, grocery's, with my husband's bill of my car payment. It is very had to get a handle on grocery's and I think my husband is now realizing why we ate a lot of mundane, crappy food when I was feeling the wallet pinch. The car payment is $306 a month which is a large payment, but it is what it is for now. I plan on starting a dental hygiene program in the fall of 2014. I would like to make sure by that point, our bills can be paid by mainly my husband because the program only recommends working 15 hours a week. It will most likely be a low paying job because I found it hard to find a good paying job to begin with when I needed to at the time.  I will still need to put the kids in daycare I think, depending on my school hours and how much my daughter has matured by that point.

Weight/Look
I have been working on running in the half-marathon. A running book I read says that most women who start running programs, just maintain their weight the first year.  For a few weeks I have been being good, but then I slip back in to eating out and drinking pop. Did I mention that cans of soda are only 25 cents at my job? How tempting is that? I think I need to take this one meal at a time and find a group of rotating breakfast or lunches, that are low in calories which would free up more calories for dinner. It did seem that when I kept track of what I ate, I snacked a lot of calories so that would be my next step.  I think I also need to schedule in a cheat day, and reschedule it as needed. I tried to tell myself that I would only have pop on the weekends but I really need to go cold turkey with that. I wonder if those people who don't drink pop don't get value meals when they eat out? I might need to start ordering off the value menu.  Once I get my food on track, I hope that it will help clear up my skin since I have been having mad break outs lately. I also think I need my hormones checked. Becoming thirty has been hard!

Organization
I organized a lot when I was out of work, but the house still needs work.  I haven't gotten a handle on my schedule yet as far as cleaning. I think I need to come up with plan A, B and C. Plan A: daily cleaning schedule. Plan B: cleaning bare minimum. Plan C: Weekend or just a few days of the week to clean.  I also need to figure out the best chores for the kids to do and when they need to get them done. I did pick up a organizer with a handle and a colorful spray bottle for the kids to use when they clean the bathrooms.

I think my biggest downfall is my lack of keeping a plan. I don't know weather to tackles each one of these task one by one, or work on each one each week. I think I will mull this over and get back to myself by Monday.

What a Day...

This was after putting all the clothes away, but we still had more to wash so it doesn't look like I did anything.

Yesterday there was no school due to Martin Luther King Jr.'s holiday.  I was able to get the laundry put away, and we sold another 20 boxes of Girl Scout cookies at my work and at my sister's work.  Not too bad.  I'm lucky these babies sell themselves because my daughter and I are not the best sales people.  I also went grocery shopping and the kids were able to play for about 3-4 hours outside today (crazy considering today we woke up to almost blizzard like conditions).  I even had time to search Pinterest and found this for Valentine's day:

i phone printable

This is perfect for my third grader because they have been using Apple i Pad this year to help review math and play other apps.


Valentine's day will be here before you know it.  Four weeks and counting down.