It remains to be seen whether she’s built other things beside that washing machine, but at least putting that contraption together gives her more time to flip through pages.
It also sounds like this hasn’t done anything to improve the townsfolk’s opinion of Belle, but no one cares what they think.
After all, when you’ve read as many books as Belle has, not only will you learn many skills, you may also form interesting ideas for inventions.
While the mere idea of Belle loving literature was enough to make most of the townspeople look down upon her in Disney’s original Beauty and the Beast, the remake is taking that ball and rolling with it further.