We have five sliders and five french doors (Pella)...and a lot of window washing! The french doors are all single doors and twp of the sliders are doubles (i.e., four panes of glass each). We live in the Sacramento area and enjoy bringing the outdoors in. The screen doors on the sliders are spring-loaded so they close behind you automatically, a very handy feature. Space wasn't a concern for us and we easily could have accommodated french doors throughout but for us the focus wasn't on the doors but rather on the view and the sliders are very unobtrusive in that respect. And although our home is an old-world Tuscan design, the sliders work just fine aesthetically. On the subject of window washing, we discovered the Mr. Clean AutoDry Car Washing system makes washing all those windows a breeze. It's a device that attaches to the hose and dispenses either soap or clear water. But it also dispenses de-ionized water for use in the final rinse so that windows can self-dry without spotting...a big time saver. No squeegeeing, no wiping and the windows are spotless! We wash the windows with a sponge mop, rinse with water and DI water and we're done. If you have divided light windows, it wouldn't be of much help but for large panes of glass, it's invaluable. Bob

“All washers have filter.” I’ve been wondering about that. 🤔 On my Samsung it was accessible from a front access panel, but not on my Maytag. No mention in the manual. Looked for a video, didn’t find my exact model. One said remove front bottom panel. I don’t have one. Another showed how to access from the back. so I pulled out the washer, and cleaned decades of dust. Found a floor drain that I didn’t know existed. Could that have been the source of sewer smell or dead animal when we first moved in? 🐁Never did pinpoint that but it went away. Took off back panel, saw boot from tub to pump, connection from pump to hose, no filter like in the videos. Put everything back and googled some more: ”Maytag model MAH5500 does not have a drain pump filter to check and clean. The only time the drain pump will need to be accessed is if the drain pump is faulty and needs to be replaced.” 🤐 Could have saved myself some effort, but it was not a waste. Nice to have less accessible areas cleaned from time to time. And in the course of my googling found that the washer has a liquid filled ring for balancing. So there’s NOT water remaining after the cycle, as I had suspected due to sloshing sounds! 💦 Enough excitement (and emojis) for a Saturday morning. Tweaked my back in the course of all this. Rest for a bit and then decide how powerful to go with the drugs. 💊 Thanks, dcarch, I THINK!

Besides ensuring I use a cold water setting, I always pull my jeans inside out before washing to preserve the color from fading. Then I hang to dry and iron them when they are just barely damp, for a crisp polished look. Alternately, if I have a load of dark clothes ready to go into the dryer, I throw my 'non-dryer' clothes that dried by hanging into the dryer with the wet clothes. This takes out any wrinkles they got from hanging and fluffs them while they are tossed around in the dryer. I have never had them shrink by putting them in with the wet clothes, as long as they were completely dried by hanging before adding them to my wet load in the dryer.

Break the stupid thing clean off and jam in a piece of thick wire. Long as it fits tight it's just as good. Might even be better than before. Mostly you need length not height. Longer it is the better reception. So if you use a long wire just curve it back. If it's real long then tether the end to your back bumper with a string.