Inventions: Wash it up!

Yes, it's certain: instead of doing what you did while broken down on the side of the highway, you should have emailed your wife, or texted her, or called her. But we all make mistakes. When I was growing up, there was a poem by S.H. Payer that hung in the entrance hall bathroom, and it had some wonderful words of wisdom that I want to share with you:

When you are faced with decisions, make that decision as wisely as possible - then forget it. The moment of absolute certainty never arrives.

Payer must not have been married. If he was married, he would've know that you're not allowed to forget it. You must repent. And then re-repent. And then do something really, really nice to make up for it. Like doing the laundry.

Now, let's step back for a second. It was definitely a nice gesture, no doubt. But let's face it, if the laundry wasn't already done and dried, would you have done it? Or would you have maybe tried to settle up by doing the hand dishes, or taking out the trash? These tasks, thought not wholly enjoyable, are far less time consuming than the pain-staking process that is handwashing clothes. When I was in Asia and again when I was riding my bike across Canada and traveling through Central America, I had the *ahem* "pleasure" of washing my clothes by hand on occasion. And these were only my clothes, and even then, in a limited space capacity! I can't imagine if I were washing for a whole family. This joyous task would often take hours of my time, if not more. It was only then that I truly came to appreciate the automatic washing machine.


(Front-loading washer)

Yes, that's right, the washing machine.

"But how can you put this in the top 5 inventions of the last century?" you might think to yourself. The answer is simple: it saves me time... and lots of it. And as far as I have been able to tell in the time I've spend on my current stop on this planet, time is the most valuable resource that I have, and the only one that truly matters. If time ends, well, so do I. But I digress...

Washing my clothes is a weekly/bi-weekly/monthly (depending on my current supply of underwear) duty that I have yet to figure out how to bypass. Thankfully, due to the fact that the washing machine reduces the time I spend washing my clothes to almost nothing, I don't mind this task so much. In fact, most of the time I just pop in the laundry and go surf the WWW.

The first patent for a washing machine was granted in England in 1691, but it wasn't until 1904 when the first electric washing machine resembling today's machines became available. And of course, like all good things of utility, they sold like hotcakes. By 1930, there were almost a million sales of washing machines.


(Who wouldn't want one? It's a happy day!)

There are two reasons that the washing machine was and continues to be such a popular item:

#1) Utility

This is undeniably the number one reason why people use washing machines -- they are incredibly useful and have a huge return on the investment in terms of time. Even with the most poorly designed washing machine, the amount of time that it takes you to figure out how to use it will be miniscule in comparison with the time you save by using it.

#2) Usabililty

Thankfully, most washing machines are incredibly simple devices. Select the size of your load, the temperature of the water for washing and rinsing, and turn it on. I would frankly be surprised if a monkey couldn't run a washing machine given enough time and washing detergent. How exactly to do this varies from machine to machine, but as I said before, the main purpose of a machine is utility, and I have yet to see a washing machine that is so badly designed that it's completely unusable. And if you can't figure it out, you can always look online for instructions.

Well, the laundry's in the machine... time to surf.