Thanks for all of the great tips! My ideal would be the washer from my childhood, (and adolescence and young adulthood), which involved dumping detergent in the top, turning a knob and pulling it out to start the cycle...it never, ever broke.
I do have front loaders, mostly because my children are not tall enough to do laundry easily with a top loader, and I like having little laundry slaves teaching them life skills. But, how much is that worth when they’ll be tall enough in a couple years?
I’m totally open to old, mismatched, dented appliances, but finding them up here is harder. I’d rather have functional than fancy looking!
I did find an appliance repair place that sells refurbished appliances, so I could possibly find older models that have been cleaned, tested, and have a repair person warranty for a few months. We aren’t opposed to fixing appliances and have pulled all sorts of parts and replaced them on our last couple sets but having had someone else look them over seems like a good idea. Right now, they’re very slim pickings, but I’ll keep watch there and Craigslist.
Where we live, water is not an issue. I pay a flat fee for water and get as much as we want and we do use gas instead of electric. I don’t know if that makes a difference...
Also, randomly, we hung laundry for a couple years, but with the kids getting bigger it became difficult, especially the winter when the sheer volume of bulky clothing was out of control, now we dry so damp clothes don’t overrun our house and cause some serious moisture issues during the colder months!
