So our new washer and dryer are being delivered tomorrow morning. I never thought I’d feel this amount of excitement over appliances, but it’s sad what constitutes a thrill when you’re one half of an old married couple. Actually, it’s only sad to those on the outside looking in, and by sad I mean pathetic. But I don’t care. Two words: FRONT LOADING.

The thing about getting a new appliance is you’ve got an old one sitting right where the new one’s supposed to go. Most major retailers offer takeaway service along with installation (bargain for free takeaway and installation if you can’t get them to come down on the price!).

But then I got sentimental, as I always do when Change Is In the Air. I didn’t want to send our old faithfuls out into the mystic void (I’ve been reading this book, The World Without Us, and I learned that there’s no such thing as a mystic void; it’s called the ocean). So what if the washer lid slams shut if you don’t caress it a little and gently let it down? Who cares if we had to jimmy an old broom between the dryer and the wall to get it to quit making a weird noise? They still got the job done. They’ve still got their looks, for the most part.

There are a lot of options for donating stuff you don’t need or have room for anymore. The usual suspects are Goodwill and the Salvation Army, whose proceeds of the sale of donated items help those in need. But I wanted to go one better. I wanted to know that our washer and dryer—those unsung heroes who toiled countless hours cleaning our soiled linens!—would go to somebody who would view them as a small blessing.

In fact, those appliances were a small blessing for Noah and I when we first got married. They had belonged to his brother who was moving out of state, and we inherited them to the cheery tune of “Give My Regards to the Laundromat.”

I called the local battered women’s shelter.* The employees I spoke with were so grateful and kind, I was actually embarrassed. I knew it’d feel good to give a big if uncool gift to someone in need, but I certainly didn’t feel like I deserved the gratitude they gave in return. After all, I was an inch away from letting random delivery dudes cart them off into the great unknown like they were doing me a favor.

I know a little about the women’s shelter since Noah has taken some victims there in the line of duty (he’s a police officer). The shelter’s location is highly protected from public knowledge; in fact, everything about what they do is discreet and under the radar. I was told by a lovely employee named Manda that their pickup person would come by on Monday and deliver the washer and dryer to the (undisclosed) location of a woman who was moving out over the weekend.

For reasons of safety, I won’t be able to meet the woman inheriting the washer and dryer. But I want her to know that this gift, meager though it is, has been given in hopes that it’ll afford her even just a micron more of much-deserved freedom.

Maybe my excitement isn’t so pathetic after all.

*There are many other often-overlooked places that could use such direct donations. Men’s/homeless shelters, halfway houses, local food pantries, city/county family and children’s services, foster and children’s homes, no-kill humane societies, free clinics, Ronald McDonald houses, etc. Goodwill and the Salvation Army are excellent institutions, but don’t forget about your local not-for-profit organizations providing invaluable services on a shoestring budget.

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