Ever disassembled a washer and found socks its suppose to eat?

Not the washing machine. I changed the heating element and the belts and rollers in our dryer. Tons of crazy shit in there. Old bras and socks and even a belt I thought I had lost. All of it was ripped apart. Except the belt, that was leather.

edit :: a small gap formed from one bearing that went bad so the drum wasn’t flush against the back wall.

Amazing.

How hard was it to crack open?

Pretty easy. They sold a kit to replace the major parts for about 30$. It took about two hours to yank it apart and put it back together. This was a really old dryer. Luckily Sears still had the parts in stock. We bought it for about 20$ and it worked really well until that roller gave out. It still worked great when we left that house.

Washing machines look great on the outside, but inside, there’s concrete blocks and cables. It looks like a pile of debris from a collapsed building. You’ll find socks in all collapsed buildings.

I love that this question is tagged “gnomes.”

@jp That’s got to be a terrible fire hazard huh?

I’ve gotten so tired of losing socks that I’ve started buying all men’s socks and making my husband share with me. That’s not going to work for us when our little one gets here though! I’m going to put his socks in a bag to wash.

Oh and I think socks are eaten by gnomes for sure. :-)

Washer, nope. Dryer, yes. Few dollars in change and several washers (flat metal type) and misc debris.

@dragonfly: I know the feeling. We don’t wear the same size, so I can’t do that. I solved it by buying a whole bunch of 3 distinct types. If you don’t do it all at once, the markings will change and this won’t work. They are all white, and have distinct logos. My husbands are on the toes, my sons on the cuff and mine are a different style and marked differently as well. I am at piece with myself now. If one gets eaten, there is always a match (eventually). It’s just all part of the “great sock conspiracy”, put in place to drive us all nuts.

@jp: I wonder if the belts are still leather? I believe I saw some other material in there, the last time my dryer was dissected. I have one of the new energy efficient ones now and a coin got logged in one of the “wings” inside the drum and it drives me nuts.

Worst case scenario in a dryer, dragonfly: BEWARE OF STEALTH CRAYONS LURKING IN POCKETS!!!!

@Seesul I actually had to stop letting a friend do his laundry at our house because of him leaving nuts, bolts and construction crayons in his pockets. I knew getting into it that letting someone used our machines was a bad idea but did it anyway. Stupid me.

As far as socks of different sizes goes, it’s kind of funny me wearing my husbands socks. I only started doing in while pregnant because they’re so big on me if my feet swell it doesn’t matter, but they come up to my knees! The heal of the sock comes half way up my calf. After we have our baby I’ll have to buy socks of my own. I guess a woman shouldn’t be wearing men’s size 16 socks! I usually buy hanes socks for myself and they have the logo on the toes, so like you said, that’ll help.

Yeah, got to warn you though, my feet gained a size and never went back. I still give my son guilt about that one. The swelling went away, but my feet just got larger and I had to buy all new shoes. Funny you should mention Hanes. We have an outlet near our house. I buy the plain white men’s Hanes for my husband, so they have the red letters on the toe. I buy Champion there for my son, and they have the Champion logo at the cuff. I buy women’s plain white Hanes with the logo on the toe. Really easy to sort.

You think I’d learn about pockets. So far I’ve washed a watch (doa), a flash drive(survived), and one of the original iPod Shuffles (survived as a flash drive, died as a music source—luckily we got it for free). The problem is too many darn pockets on guy’s pants and shorts. Any money found is mine, though, so at least they attempt to check first.

I can’t learn about pockets either. I think I’ve gotten some what better but still need improvement. I once washed a digital voice recorder I had bought for a class I was taking. My husband still hasn’t let that one go, the darn thing cost us $120 so I never did replace it. I don’t know if it was the water that killed it or the melting from the dryer…

I wash his wallet all the time, but it seems like his debit card works better after a good wash anyway! I have to be more careful with his stuff since his office issued him a blackberry, I can’t afford to replace that right now.

As far as the size of my feet goes…this is why I haven’t bought any new shoes these past nine months! I need them, but I’m afraid of getting the wrong size. So I’m waiting and meanwhile wearing flip flops most of the time!

Oh yeah, I forgot about the wallet. Washed my son’s entire wallet his Senior year in HS just after everyone had exchanged pictures. I also washed an entire Lo-Caide (sp?), which is like the Thomas Maps, but loose-leaf. We had just moved into a new house, and there was flooding going on and the morning carpool called me and warned me the regular outlet to the neighborhood was under water (creek flooded). This is pre-computer, so I pulled out my book of maps and figured my way out of the neighborhood. I left it on the dryer, but the washer was on, and soaking stuff, so it was open. I was late, so I ran out the door, and when I came back the entire book had fallen into the washer.