Laundry room blues

So if there is one thing I could change to make my condo better for my family now that we have a child it would be to add a washer/dryer.

I have the laundry room blues. Doing laundry while supervising a baby poses some challenges that I have not been able to solve. Mainly the challenge is what to do with the baby when you run down to the laundry room to put the laundry in the washer, change it to the dryer, and collect it to bring it back. The laundry room in our complex is only about a minute walk away, so each trip only takes at the most five minutes. But babies can get into a world of mischief in five minutes if they are left alone. By the way the same challenge applies to a lot of other daily activities (e.g. how to do the bathroom while watching your baby, how to take out the trash while watching your baby, etc.)

1-3 months (newborn phase): In some ways this was the easiest. My baby slept so much and he usually slept strapped to me in a baby carrier. He was only 7-12 pounds during this time period, so I could easily carry him down to the laundry room with me. Or I could run to the laundry room without him and he would be peacefully asleep the whole time.

3-6 months: This phase was still pretty easy. I still tried to run down to the laundry room during naps, but if he was awake I could put him in his swing or bouncy chair and know that he could not get into any trouble for the five minutes I was gone.

6-9 months: By this point my son was napping less and he was done with his baby swing. I tried carrying him down to the laundry room in his baby carrier, but the weight of him plus the laundry basket was a lot to carry. Also trying to pull stuff out of a deep washer while not squashing your baby is hard. Fortunately he was not crawling yet so I could leave him sitting on the floor surrounded by toys and pillows and the worst that could happen when I was gone was that he would topple over.

9-12 months: Things got complicated. My son is now 20 pounds and carrying him and a laundry basket with me to the laundry room will definitely cause me to break a sweat and/or hurt my back. If I leave him alone on the floor even for thirty seconds he usually manages to get into something or climb on top of something and either a) hurt himself or b) make an unholy mess (or both). I can put him in the crib which makes him sort of unhappy if he is not tired but at least I know he is safe while I am gone.

So the smart reader will be thinking why doesn't this idiot do one of the following:
a) do laundry after her son goes to bed
b) do laundry while her husband is home and can watch the kid
c) install a washer/dryer in the condo

So the bottom line is that I am lazy at night, bad at planning ahead, and not willing to spend the time/money. But a reasonable person could probably avoid all these silly little dilemmas. In the meantime I am envious of my friends who have washers/dryers. However, the one advantage of my situation is that I get to capture moments like this:

My son helping me do the laundry.