I'm going to share with you my all time, favorite home purchase, that on the surface might not seem mustachian, but I can't begin to tell you the amount of money, time, and headaches this thing has saved me.
The amazing, wonderful... portable washing machine!
Yep, a portable washing machine. Let me explain - I live in a cooperative building that has one laundry room with 5 washers and 6 driers... for roughly 80 apartments. Aside from almost always being busy (not to mention the room is locked from 10pm-7am), they're pretty scuzzy. And for the life of me, I cannot get the memory from college out of my head, when I woke up early one Saturday morning to do laundry, opened a washer, and was met by a damp pile of puke. I still hold my breath every time I open up a washer. Not to mention it's expensive! I think my building charges $2 or $2.50 per was and per dry, so you'd be paying $4-5 for a load of laundry. Nope.
When I first moved into my unit, about a year ago, I started bringing my laundry to my parents' place about 30 mins away. My parents didn't mind, it meant they definitely got to see me regularly, and I like visiting them, so it wasn't a huge deal. But still, nothing says "I'm a mature, adult homeowner" like doing laundry at your mom and dad's house regularly. On a whim one night, I started googling washing machines, trying to figure out if I could sneakily (without my board knowing) set up hook ups in one of my closets, when I found out portable washing machines are actually a thing.
Say whaaaaaat? (Is that a well known fact? I never heard of it.)
I bought
this guy and never looked back. It was $106 when I got it in October, but it looks like there are plenty of different/good options. The washer has two baskets - one for washing, and one for spin drying. Now, some of you super duper safety people would absolutely freak at my set up (like my dad does), so I'll start by saying there are many safe set ups you could do. I'm super careful and think it's all fine for me. I stick the whole thing directly in the tub (once upon a time I made a post asking how I could lift it up, which I ultimately found unnecessary). I throw my dirty clothes in the washing bucket and put my removable shower head directly in (honestly, the inlet it comes with is useless, though other people have been pretty creative on how to fill it). Once it's full, I throw the soap in, let it run its cycle (9-15 mins), then drain. You do have to rinse the clothes since there's no rinse cycle, but I just either spray it down with the shower head or run it under the tub faucet. Then, it goes straight into the spin dryer for 2-4 minutes. The spin dryer is powerful enough that my clothes are usually dry by morning (I usually do my laundry at night). Seriously, this thing is a life saver.
If you live in an apartment, a tiny house, an RV... anywhere without a regular washer hook up, I highly recommend looking into a portable washer! Like I mentioned before, I never heard of this before, and everyone I mentioned it to has the same shocked reaction, so if there's one person on this forum who could benefit from hearing about it, well, I hope I helped!