Melissa and Doug Washing Machine Find At Goodwill! Perfect for 18inch Dolls!

Greetings and Salutations Doll Friends,

I went into town for work yesterday and, you guessed it, stopped by the nearby Goodwill. What did I see but a cute little washing machine that looked, literally, like it was made for 18inch dolls. Score! Then, when I picked it up and realized it was actually made out of wood I was even more intrigued. Looking closer, I realized it was a Melissa and Doug toy. Nice!! I love their toys because they are always made as if to survive the end of the world or something. By this I mean they are very sturdy and hard to break, as all toys should be really. My own children had a number of their toys when they were smaller, all gleaned from Garage Sales and Thrift Shops because, especially when the kids were little bitty and I was staying home with them, there's no way I could've afforded the new prices. Are you kidding me? Hahaha. Luckily, because they are so well made, they oftentimes make it to the second hand market and so I found my kids quite a few of them. I digress... But suffice to say that Melissa & Doug toys are top notch. 

I was so happy with the price on this piece too! It was marked only $3.99! WOOT!! Especially when I went to the Melissa and Doug website and found out that this is called the "Lets Play House! Wash, Dry, Iron! set and it retails on thier website for $39.99!! So I got it for 10% of the new price! Of course I didn't get any of the accessories that came with but who cares when it's 90% off, right? After looking around the internet I found you can find it cheaper at Walmart where it was more than $10 cheaper at $28.47. By the way, what is up with Walmart and their oddball price points, eh? I digress again but how weird is that? Hahaha. I am too TypeA for Walmarts weird pricing! Now I am giggling at myself. At least someone is amused, eh? (Can't tell it's Friday and I am so happy that it is?) 

Back to the washer! So the one I found was in nearly perfect shape. It could afford to be wiped down but this is literally how I found it. 

Here Annie is modeling by the newest appliance in the Doll House! The dolls were all very excited! They had been hand washing all their dolly clothes and what a lot of work that was. 

*giggles*

As you can see on the dial, it's meant to be a washer and a dryer. How convenient and space saving! The top of the shelves is meant to be an ironing board. I have to say I really love this piece! I think it could likely take years of play and still look just like this. A lot of the toy appliences actually made for dolls are made of plastic and not nearly as sturdy as this is. This reminds me of the toy kitchens I often saw in churches when I was little bitty, all made out of wood and sturdy like this. So totally cool that I have it for the dolls. I've hinted that I may be doing a bit of 'traveling' with my doll house in the near future to bring the doll house to real live kids to actually play with... (Not all of it mind you, the breakable bits will stay safe at my house!) So I think this will be the making of a whole laundry room for that venture. So excited!!

As you can see, you can fit very large loads of laundry in the machine! I love high capacity washers! I have one of my own! 

Uh Oh! The laundry fell out! (Kidding!)

Annie is ironing a skirt! (I got all the accessories you see here at thrift stores and garage sales. The iron is a 'wind up toy')

I also love that you can store all the accessories in the washing machine when you're all done playing. I took a photo of that but forgot to upload it apparently.... So I'll come back and update with that photo from my phone soon.

Better run!
Till next time!
XXOO
Heather