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<\/p>\nOur laundry sink has never had a plug in all the years we\u2019ve owned the house.<\/p>\n
Most of the time it\u2019s only there to drain water from the washing machine, so that\u2019s fine. But occasionally, it would be nice to use it for its intended function. For example, to soak the spa pool filters when they\u2019re clogged up with dirt from less fastidious friends and family, or to clean a dog that\u2019s rolled in something objectionable, or in the theoretical situation when I might want to hand wash a garment. Note I can say that from personal experience, the so-called \u2018hand wash\u2019 setting on the washing machine is definitely not up to the task. Although the subsequent shrinkage of my favourite woollen jersey by two sizes \u00a0may have been contributed to by the water being cut off by the council at that precise moment, when they were fixing the leak in the pipes, meaning that I had to put the wash through a second time. Fatal.<\/p>\n
Anyway, I was motivated a few weeks ago to find a plug. I was in one of those modern enormous hardware stores, looking for a line trimmer, and decided to get one while I was there. I asked an assistant to show me where they were, and hoped he\u2019d then leave me to my own devices. The problem was, I didn\u2019t know the size of the plug hole. As is so often the case, I couldn\u2019t find any sort of tape measure when I wanted one, so had resorted to finding a plastic ring from the top of an old drink bottle that happened to fit nicely into the hole, as my measuring device. Unfortunately, the assistant was far too courteous\/interfering to leave me to pick out a plug by myself. To give him credit, he didn\u2019t bat an eyelid when I showed him the plastic ring. \u201cLooks like a 41 mm\u201d he said, and gave me a plastic plug of that size. Since the ring had only been an approximate sizer, I was tempted to buy a rubber plug which would be more forgiving in its exactitude. \u201cOh no, you don\u2019t want that!\u201d He said \u201cThey get moldy and nasty. The plastic is much better.\u201d I had a half hearted look under his watchful eye but soon gave up, defeated.
\nWhen I got the plug home, it fitted but was slightly loose. It seemed to do the job OK at first, but after an hour a full sink was completely empty.<\/p>\n
The next time I was at a hardware store, it was looking for outdoor furniture, reasoning that although the weather was currently absolutely ghastly, at some point it would improve and eventually might be good enough for even someone in Wellington to willingly spend time outdoors. While Simon was delighting in his purchase of a bar stool that cunningly doubled as a small beer table, I went to the plumbing area. I found a rubber plug in the correct size. I kid you not, however, that when I got home, the plug inside did not match the packaging. \u201c41 mm\u201d stated the box, but the plug itself was stamped with 38 mm. Needless to say, it was way too small.
\nWe were again at a hardware store last week, looking for an umbrella to replace the last one that had been destroyed by the wind. This is a common occurrence in Wellington as you might imagine, the death of the current one being the most spectacular for a while. They will break often if they are left up on a windy day, but this one had bent over a table when it was folded up. Yikes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I had another stab at the plug problem while we were there. The 41 mm shelf was empty, but by now I was gaslighting myself – was it really a 41 mm? Wouldn\u2019t the plastic plug have fitted if so? So, I bought the 44 mm. Way too big.<\/p>\n
I now have a set of three useless plugs and still no means of keeping the water in my sink. At the least the plugs are cheap: the capital outlay so far barely exceeds $10. It\u2019s hard to put a price on wasted time and considerable irritation, though.<\/p>\n Our laundry sink has never had a plug in all the years we\u2019ve owned the house.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8Ukf-3dy","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6072,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2021\/01\/14\/laundry-appliance-update\/","url_meta":{"origin":12372,"position":0},"title":"Laundry appliance update","author":"Interloper11","date":"January 14, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"That small electrical fault in our dryer is a gift that keeps on giving... ...or perhaps it\u2019s just that it\u2019s exposed my acquisitive streak for what it is. When the new dryer and front loading washing machine combo arrived on Monday, we discovered the very minor plumbing job of moving\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6035,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2021\/01\/08\/consumption\/","url_meta":{"origin":12372,"position":1},"title":"Consumption","author":"Interloper11","date":"January 8, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, that escalated quickly! Some visitors noticed the dryer at our beach house was still going in the middle of the night last week, even though the clothes were dry. When this happened a second time, we knew we had to replace the dryer as a safety issue, before we\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12471,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/10\/its-whats-underneath-that-counts-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":12372,"position":2},"title":"It\u2019s what\u2019s underneath that counts!","author":"Interloper11","date":"December 10, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Our washing machine shat itself a couple of weeks ago. You\u2019ll remember my long term dream had been a front loader, it was one of those things on my list of stuff I\u2019d buy once Simon left me, up there with chickens. So it came as a bit of an\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_1056-157x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":111,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/07\/its-not-easy\/","url_meta":{"origin":12372,"position":3},"title":"It\u2019s not easy","author":"Interloper11","date":"August 7, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"My green credentials took a double hit this morning. In 30 degree heat, i had to put my washing in the dryer as we have no access to any sort of clothes line or even a drying rack. I couldn\u2019t find a cold wash on the front loader either, so\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6154,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2021\/02\/06\/achilles\/","url_meta":{"origin":12372,"position":4},"title":"Achilles","author":"Interloper11","date":"February 6, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"My husband is a big, tough, manly guy - until you put on the washing machine while he\u2019s in the shower - then it\u2019s a full on Princess and the Pea type scenario.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5999,"url":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/2020\/12\/27\/forward-planning\/","url_meta":{"origin":12372,"position":5},"title":"Forward planning","author":"Interloper11","date":"December 27, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I have a list in my head of the things I\u2019m going to do if my husband runs off with another woman, which gets added to occasionally as he vetoes various of my ideas. They could also be applied in the event of his unexpected early demise* 1) buy a\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12372\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/accordingtokirsty.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/accordingtokirsty.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/IMG_4094-300x225.jpeg?resize=300%2C225&ssl=1\")