See this?

Get a good look, because you may never see it again! My laundry room only gets deeply cleaned about once every year or two, and this was the week. I actually put away the clothes that had been sitting on top of the ironing board for at least the last six months. And I threw away an entire garbage bag full of old, almost-empty bottles of cleaner and other such junk. I can walk in this room now, without tripping over heaping baskets of laundry and piles of dirty (or are they clean?) clothes on the floor. I can actually see the top of the dryer, and not have to move a mountain of stuff off of it every time I need to clean the lint trap (which is every time I do laundry).

It's a good thing I chose Tuesday to do this, since on Wednesday the dryer stopped working, and on Thursday I had a repairman here to fix it. Isn't it the funny thing about appliances, that as soon as you call the repairman, they suddenly start working again? Yeah, he couldn't find one single thing wrong with the dryer. And now, $60 later, it's working just fine.

But at least he could also take a peek at the microwave, which hasn't been working since I accidentally turned it on without putting any food in it about a month ago. (Flames and sparks every time, and a big burned and melted spot in the side--not good.) Unfortunately, instead of spending a lot of money to find out there's nothing wrong with it, I spent a lot of money to find out it can't be fixed. Can we say, "New microwave for Christmas!" (I am SO not into practical gifts for Christmas.) It also happens to be a nice, over-the-stove microwave, so we're not talking cheap. And we've only had it aboutl a year-and-a-half. Just long enough for it to not be under warranty anymore.

PSA: If you buy one of those nice new microwaves that come with the metal shelf in it, take the shelf out! It was the shelf coming into contact with the side of the microwave that caused all the problems. The repairman told me that his advice to people is to just take the shelf out. It's not worth the risk of irrepairable damage!