As our appliances warned us, we shouldn’t be afraid to make a change

There was no doubt. In the back of our minds, we knew change was on the horizon. The noisy warnings were evident and steadily worsened with each load of laundry.

Doing the math to figure out when we purchased them, we realized our washer’s and dryer’s days were numbered! But we were hopeful they would hang on for just a few more loads.

The first sign of their decline was the increasing amount of time it took to dry clothes. When the bell sounded, there was no mad dash to unload our permanent press clothes before they began to wrinkle. We knew there was no need. We simply turned the dryer back on and went about our business.

If the “hard to get dry towels” weren’t enough to convince us, the washer chimed in to help. Almost like it was groaning in pain, the washer tried to let us know it was wearing out. When we didn’t listen, it cried even louder. Its final spin cycle sounded more like you were in a pressurized airplane toilet than a laundry room.

Although straining and spinning out of control, the washer didn’t want to let us down and kept trying to do its job.

We made our loads of laundry smaller and smaller to accommodate the ailing washer and dryer. The already dreaded job of washing became more unbearable with the adjustments. Still, having to replace them seemed like a worse option. We turned our heads in denial and refused to accept the inevitable.

There was no doubt it was the end when I opened the washer door to retrieve some towels only to find them bogged down in a sea of water still sudsy with detergent. Even though I clearly knew it was over, I still reset the knob to give the towels another whirl to spin out the water. Apparently, the washer didn’t have a whirl left in it, so I gathered the water-laden towels and went to a neighbor’s washer to complete the process.

Even though the dryer must have known its companion had died, it still attempted to dry clothes — even though it had lost the warm wing in its sails. There, standing in the shadow of the appliances in our laundry room, we were left with no option but to replace both of them. Even though they had given us their best for many years, I still let out a little sigh of disappointment because I knew all the work and money we faced replacing them.

We weighed all of our choices for replacements. We compared energy efficiency ratings, styles, colors and prices.

Choosing the pristine, fresh appliances was the easier part of the transition between old and new. As we knew all too well, the worst part is the process of switching out the appliances. Like many other things in life, change comes with a price.

Anytime you plan to go from A to B, you have to be prepared for whatever it takes to get there. No matter how prepared you may be, there is always something unforeseen that sneaks in and has to be handled. Deep down inside, I think we all completely understand this process and that’s why we fight change so much. Often it is easier to choose to keep things as they are instead of changing them — unless you don’t have a choice.

How many times have we averted our vision from changes that need to be made? How many times have we shut a door in order to hide from change? “Out of sight, out of mind,” the old saying goes. Change is around every corner and we fight so hard to avoid it. The fact is, we can run from change but we cannot hide!

Change has a way of reminding us when it is hovering around. It continues to gently tap us on our shoulders to capture our attention. When we don’t listen to the soft suggestions of change, the warnings become stronger and louder. Just as our appliances warned us months in advance, when we refused to listen, their message soon became unavoidable.

Now that our new appliances are in place and humming the sound of new beginnings, we wondered why we had waited so long to make the switch. Change is like that. After we recover from the process that often comes with it, most of the time change is worth our effort.

This story was originally published May 14, 2016 at 9:00 PM with the headline "As our appliances warned us, we shouldn’t be afraid to make a change."