While my wife and I looked for temporary housing to fill the gap between our current situation (living with family) and a long term solution, whatever that might be, we toured an apartment/condo building. Having lived in a 30 unit building for more than 4 years, the idea of shared walls is nice from the perspective of lower utility bills, but not having one’s own space can be difficult, especially with little kids needing to run around.
One component people often look for in apartments or condos is a washer and dryer in the unit. We had one in our condo back in Colorado. Everyone in our building did. That’s 30 washers and 30 dryers (assuming everyone had one, which is not a stretch). That’s 30 rooms, albeit small ones, dedicate to an appliance that is used a handful of times per week at most. Our washer and dryer combo were high efficiency models, but they still consume a significant amount of water and electricity, or natural gas. Line drying is not necessarily an option in tight confines, but it can be done on a small scale, as we did with our older son’s washable diapers.
Now, the building we toured did not have in unit laundry. With 50 units total, that’s 50 washers and 50 dryers, plus 50 rooms that were not dedicated to this infrequent activity. Instead, there were 5 washers and 5 dryers in the basement of the building. If this reminds you a bit of dorm life, well, yeah, it was reminiscent, minus the coin operated system for payment.
I realize it’s nice having the the convenience of putting the clothes in your own washer and getting to it when you get to it, but convenience is not sustainable per se. Paul Hawken, Hunter Lovins, and Amory Lovins talk about cars and washing machines in the same way in Natural Capitalism. The amount of resources that go into these devices, compared with the actual time that we use them is astounding. Oh yeah, I didn’t even mention the cost. Our washer and dryer? Somewhere in the $2500+ range, AFTER a rebate from Denver Water. Now that is not sustainable.
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