Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Can you put pillows in the washing machine?

Yesterday I decided to go through my bathroom and get rid of the less spa-like items and excess clutter, so I started filling a bag to go to the Salvation Army. But then the bag looked kind of empty with just a few candleholders and my old shower caddy inside it and then Temerity Jane told me to be a lot more heavyhanded than I was prepared.

Well OKAY! Time to get serious. So I took a good look around my apartment and weeded out some more stuff-- that pile of sweaters that I had stacked in a cupboard as a kind of "I never wear these, let's see if I miss them" test and two or three flat irons that I don't use because my new one is vastly superior but that I was keeping "just in case." And then I came across my old pillows. I had bought new pillows months ago (during bedroom zen) and just sort of shoved the old ones into the crevice between the wall and the dryer. I didn't know if the Salvation Army would accept pillows and I couldn't seem to find the answer online but it felt wrong to just toss them down the garbage chute when really they were perfectly fine pillows, aside from the dryer side/wall dust.

So I decided to wash them. But I wasn't sure if you could put pillows in the washing machine. So I typed "Can you put pillows in the washing machine?" into Google and maybe I should have looked beyond the first page of hits but everything that came up seemed to indicate that you could... so into the washer they went.

Ten minutes later my laundry nook and kitchen/hallway were a quarter inch deep in water.

"GAH!" I shreiked. I stopped the washer, yanked out the pillows, drippily carried them into the bathroom and flung them in the general direction of the bathtub. I gathered up all of my towels and mopped up the puddles.

So then I washed the pillows in the bathtub which is probably what I should have done in the first place. And then I, uh, threw all the wet towels back into the (half full of dingy water) washing machine and crossed my fingers. (<--- see also: she who does not learn a lesson). It ended up fine, though. The end result was achieved in that the pillows became clean and the washer did not leak again.

But I am still unclear: can you put pillows in the washing machine?
Another way to phrase this might be: why the hell did my washer piddle all over my floor when I put pillows in it but seems to be working fine now?