A Foreign Invasion of My Washing Machine

Today I'm sharing an article that was sent in by Michael Brown. It's a story that a lot of you moms out there will surely relate to, and it's a very relevant article to read during tough economic times.

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Washing machines are for washing clothes, not your children’s toys. Adults know this but sometimes kids have to find out for themselves. I have five year old twins and I’d like to think that I’m a pretty good parent, but my little angels occasionally get themselves into things that they’re not supposed to, like my washing machine. Here’s my story about appliance repair.

My boys like to play army when they’re stuck in the house on a rainy day. They take these little green men and hide them all over my house and then hunt them down with some jeeps and plastic tanks. It can be an annoyance when I’m cleaning up and finding army men everywhere but its fun to watch them strategize and have fun. They have been warned though about hiding their toys in appliances or under appliance parts of any kind. I guess they didn’t think that this meant the washing machine.

If you’re a parent, you can probably guess the rest of the story. The jeep and the tank somehow ended up in the washer and the washer got turned on mysteriously. Both boys came pelting up the stairs and Mom had to go down and shut her very loudly banging machine off before the damage got too extensive. The appliance itself was okay because the toys weren’t in there that long but the agitator had gouges in it. That plastic they make those trucks out of is tougher than it looks.

I did have a brief moment at this point where I feared that I would have to buy a brand new washer, but common sense took over. I could see that it was just the agitator that was damaged and it looked fairly simple to replace. As a single mom, you have to learn how to be handy with tools and raising two boys you need to be able to fix things that are broken without calling in professional help.

Taking a neighbor’s advice, instead of calling for an appliance repair guy I went online to http://www.appliancepartspros.com/ and ordered a new agitator for $29.07. They have Whirlpool parts for washers, dryers, refrigerators, ovens, stoves, and appliance parts for just about everything that you can’t find in a hardware store. All in all, there are over 1,000,000 appliance parts at Appliance Parts Pros and you can order them shipped the same day. It was a great option for someone like me who has more time than money. The installation was fairly easy and the washer works great now. The kids are still grounded.