Cleanliness is next to the garbage can.

I was zipping through the photos on the phone, looking for what could be deleted, and found this one, taken a few months back while walking the dog. 

It's so cuuuute!!

I've seen tiny washing machines before, but this one is essentially a toy washer. Look at it next to the garbage can, for Pete's sake! It's the only major appliance I have ever seen that could fit in a garbage can!

I mean, I don't have a ton of socks, but I don't think they'd all fit in there.

Maybe five socks.

It's like the Easy-Bake Oven of washing machines.

I've seen kitchen-size washers. I've seen apartment-size washers. I've seen washers designed for the kitchens of apartments. But I've never seen a washer this small.

This is a Sanyo, and I'm not surprised to see a Sanyo by the trash. Not that their products were lousy, just that they're no longer an independent entity, having been absorbed by Panasonic, and a look at the customer service Web site indicates that parts for their washing machines might be extremely difficult to come by. On the other hand, the harvest gold top on this beauty tells me it dates from the early 1980s at the latest, so the fact that it only got pitched at this point indicates that it was a survivor. Yes, it may have survived inactive in the garage for decades, but even in that case someone thought it worth holding all this time.

Who knows how many miles of materials went through this small device, coming out again clean as new? How many shirts, socks, underpants, pillow cases, diapers, towels, blankets? (Actually, blankets, probably: 0.) But, as all flesh + time = grass, so too all appliances + time = junk. And as Sanyo shows, all companies + time = mergers and acquisitions.

The next time I passed this way, the mighty mite from Sanyo was gone, gone with the garbage men.

Ah, Sanyo! Ah, humanity!