Tuesday, August 16, 2011

We're Livin' The High Life

Guess what we did this weekend? We upgraded from these old guys (dated in the 70's or 80's):
 

To these brand spankin' high-efficiency new ones:


And to say we're in love would be a bit of a understatement. We're completely head-over-heels smitten.

Upgrading to energy star efficient appliances has been on our minds for quite some time, and we finally decided to bite the bullet and just do it, already!


You see, our previous set could be a bit... temperamental. They worked, but sometimes they needed a bit of TLC to get the job done. Which didn't bother us much - since we only do laundry about once a week - except that soon our needs would be changing big time because we've heard that babies come with LOTS of laundry.

Especially if you're gonna do cloth diapers. Yep, we're jumping on the cloth dipe bandwagon.

After doing lots of research and crunching the numbers, ditching disposables for cloth diapers will save us a whopping estimated $1,300 per year. And that, ladies and gents, is a number that we can't ignore!

Of course, doing cloth diapers involves doing laundry - and LOTS of it. That means that, in addition to our regular once-a-week laundry schedules that we keep now, we'll be doing laundry once a day for those cloth diapers - in addition to all the regular laundry that babies require (which we've heard is nothing to sneeze at).

So we'll pretty much be doing laundry, um, like all the time. And sometimes-temperamental-washer-&-dryer + constant laundering needs = not very happy new parents.


The new washer and dryer are so efficient it's not even funny. We can do a whole load - wash and dry - in under 2 hours. That's major, people!... okay, so maybe it's also just because we've never used very nice washers and dryers ever in our entire lives. Either way, we're in love.

And let's talk about those numbers again. Cloth diapers will save us about $1,300 per year - which is how we justified our new purchase in the first place. But the new appliances are also energy star efficient and use much, much less water per load than our previous dinosaurs - about 25-30 gallons less water, to be exact. Combine the less-water-usage with less-energy-usage, and we're talking lots of saving here. Um, yes please!


We're so smitten that I'm finding excuses to wash things that aren't even dirty yet. Sometimes I'll walk through the house just looking for something random to wash. Toss pillow? Rug? The dog? Hahaha, just kidding.

What do you think? Are you slowly upgrading your own appliances to energy-star ones, or still happily using older models? Anyone think we're nuts for cloth diapering (you wouldn't be the first!)?

(And yes - we're still planning on remodeling the laundry room (it definitely needs it!), but you know, things like finishing up the bathroom remodel and actually getting around to doing the nursery before Baby M arrives come first. Oh, priorities.)



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4 comments:

  1. We are moving in about 8-10 months and those are one of our must purchase items for the new house! Can't wait!

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  2. When we bought our house in 09 it came with all appliances, including a washer and dryer that were probably 20 years old. We only managed to struggle through one year with the dinosaurs before we bought our shiny new HE set and it made a huge difference in how we feel about laundry (which we used to dread doing) :D

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  3. Our high efficiency washer/dryer is being delivered on Saturday! I hatehate doing laundry, so maybe they'll make it better?

    I doubt it.

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  4. I cloth dispersed both of my babies over 30 years ago because of major allergy problems with the disposables of the day. My daughter is cloth diapering my granddaughter using a disposable only at night. It is pretty easy with all of the fancy new diapering pin less systems. Not only is it more economical (especially if used for multiple kids), but it is better for the ecosystem.

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