It is amazing how much time I spend discussing dryers – do they work, are they hot enough, are they fast enough.  The bigger the house, the more laundry.  The more laundry, the more time it takes to get everything washed and dried.  If a home has more then 4 bedrooms (or some bunk beds) and it used a great deal then a second set might be just the ticket. 

When purchasing a large washer/dryer or a second set – what do you get?  Often we are attracted to the new High Effeciency machines.  We are now getting rebates for purchasing these machines.  I must say the dryers  are not worth it.  The HE machines have smaller motors.  What does that mean to you — longer drying times.  A large duet machine doesn’t even have a drying cycle less then 50 minutes.  So 5 sets of sheets and towels – assumming you can double up would be at least 4-5 loads.  At 45 minutes a wash and 50 minutes to dry — you have 5 hours of laundry!!! 

So how do you reduce this time – put in a second dryer or just use the big style, old fashion, energy hog dryers.  They are hot and fast!  And with 2 dryers – you cut off at least an hour.  Double the machines and you are down to just 2.5 hours.  

Of course there are other ways to cut down on laundry time – request your guests to do 2 loads before they leave.  Limit the number of towels and bedding the guests have access to.  I have found that if the sheets or towels are available – the guests will help themselves and RARELY do they do the laundry.  So if you have 2 sets for every bed and the guests use all those, plus all the towels and spa towels — well you might as well start your own laundry mat! 

It is a sad commentary on the area when home break-ins increase.  Recently we had a window broken on a home – the alarm went off and the intruder was scarred away.  With a quick response by local authorities (because the alarm is monitored and we knew that no one should have been in the house) significant damage or theft was averted.    This house is in a quiet area and it would have been easy access if the alarm did not exist. 

Until recently we had only a handful of homes with alarms.  But now I strongly encourage alarms.  Home Fridays is a great deterrent as we are in the house changing the lighting pattern and giving the house a more lived in feel.  But we are not there 24/7.  And that is when the alarm really comes in handy. 

We usually get the call that the alarm has gone off.  If the owners are visiting or someone is scheduled to be there – we run over to the house.  If no one is scheduled, we let the police respond and then go over.  Sorry, I am just not big and scary enough to drive anyone away from the house!  Sometimes it is a false alarm, but in this recent case it was not.  

We have heard stories about a moving van pulling up in front of a house that was for sale.  They cleaned out the entire house of furniture and everything.  It was months before anyone discovered the theft.  The neighbors – just thought they had sold the house.   Alarm service along with Home Fridays would have prevented that theft.

Another vacation home was slowly cleaned out by the thieves over a matter of weeks or even months.  The final straw – they left the door open.  So the pipes froze and the owner was alerted when he received an enormous water bill.  He drove out to his home and found the door ajar, water running through the house and the things the thief had left, out on the lawn.  A good monitored alarm system along with Home Fridays would have prevented that – our weekly visits will discover any issues and get them resolved.