I’m running out of clean underwear so I start researching washers and dryers. I could find a laundromat nearby but we have two empty spaces in the bathroom that are meant for a washer and dryer. Filling the spaces with boxes doesn’t seem like a good alternative in a damp room. Plus, I’m enough of a nascent house husband to want a convenient way of doing laundry.
It’s been quite a while since I bought any appliances – about eight years to be exact and that was in the states where I mostly understood the language given that descriptions of appliances have their own particular vocabulary. In some ways it’s worse than buying a car.
Cars are major purchases so the natural tendency is to take a lot of time and carefully consider your options. There’s the appearance factor – would I be caught dead in that car? What does it say about the size of my penis? (Here they don’t advertise cars based on whether driving it will get you a sexier mate so I guess that’s just a consideration in my old country.)
There’s the performance factor – what kind of driving do you do and what kind of a driver are you? There’s the cost of ownership factor – will I be supporting my mechanic’s family or mine? Will it have any value when I decide it’s time to move on and buy something else?
All I want from a washing machine is something easy to use and that cleans clothes well. Wrong kemo sabe, there is so much more to consider. Just ask AEG, Asko, Bosch, Electrolux, Miele, or Siemens – the principal brands here. My danish is very basic — I can tell time and read a menu — therefore clearly not up to evaluating “vaskmaskine” features and benefits without endless visits to google translate.
Of course not every model sold here is also sold in the UK so I could actually understand what the differences are and why I should spend thousands of kroner more to buy that model.
My wife is revitalizing the organization she now heads and is rather busy sorting out what those challenges actually are. Besides, she never bought a “vaskmaskine” and never even considered buying a tørretumbler. We have two empty spaces and I feel like we should fill them.
Appliances will be our major purchases, after the cost of moving a container across the Atlantic, for the year. We’re not buying a car in the second most expensive place in the world to own one (Singapore is #1). This purchase is a big deal or at least I think it is because who wants to go through this again until you have to fifteen years from now when they wear out.
I’m on my own.
I mention this to a friend of ours who says I subscribe to the Danish version of Consumer Reports. Let me send you the ratings. Great! This promises to simplify my life instantly.
Wrong Kimo Sabe, if only it were that easy.
