Laundry Genius

I don't profess to be a genius in many respects, but today I showed genius-like qualities in my own sphere.

There has been a longstanding problem with the way I get my liquid laundry detergent into my front loading washing machine.  First I tried just setting the HUGE jug on top of the washer and guess at how much I should put in the dispenser for each load.  This, skipping the middle measuring man and the mess that comes along with it.  Then, while the washer was going it would jiggle the jug right OFF the washer creating a HUGER mess than the measuring middle man ever could have and thereby making it a crappy method.

Next I tried just moving the jug down each time I needed detergent in the dispenser, again skipping the middle measuring man and just guessing as to how much soap to put in.  Then once a large load of warms did not come out smelling fresh and that grossed me out for like a week, so then I worried I wasn't putting in enough soap.  I felt I must start using the measuring cup (the middle measuring man).

So for the past few weeks I have been washing everything in COLD (not really a pertinent detail to this story, but it has revolutionized the way I do laundry and I feel good using less energy) and measuring the detergent with the measuring cup.  It has gone well enough, but never does ALL the soap come out into the dispenser, which leaves a dry, soapy mess IN the cup and the driplets that fall outside the rim of the cup end up getting the shelf gooey.  Now, for an average joe person that probably wouldn't be a problem, but it BUGS me. 

We're almost to the genius moment.  I washed off the shelf and the cup and was about to let it return to the ooey, gooey, sticky, measuring method from before when I thought . . . I should just drop the cup INTO the dispenser and let the water wash it out each time.  At first it didn't fit, but after a few tetris-like rotations I got it to fit.  I thought, there is no way it could mess up the cycle, because I am sure water just splashes up into the dispenser to get all the soap up and it will just clean this little measuring cup while it's at it.  And alas, after waiting the 37 minutes for the cold, delicate cycle to complete.  I was right.

Genius.