The Laundry (written July 15 2010)

Most people have love hate relationships that involve people or family members. Mine is with the laundry. I love doing laundry. I love the act of sorting out clothes and turning the dials on the washing machine. I love the smell of liquid laundry detergent and I love the feeling of fluffy warm towels fresh out of the dryer. I feel some sort of satisfaction when I can see the bottom of the laundry hamper, although this does not happen often. I do not however enjoy the act of putting laundry away. Having a spare room with a large bed next to the laundry room does not help my cause. After each load of laundry is done I dump each pile onto the bed while I tell myself I’ll come back in a minute to fold and put them away. Well that minute always seems to turn into hours and sadly days. Being a mom means that are many distractions in one day. Folding laundry is never as important as feeding a child or changing a poopy diaper. As I look at the mountain of laundry that never seems to end (both in the hamper and on the bed) I ponder what I should tackle. I always choose the towels first. As a former housekeeper for 9 years I take great pride in folding towels so neat and perfect. I do not however possess the skills to create beautiful swans or nicely shaped hearts. After the towels have been folded I usually holler at Brady to come and put the towels away in the linen closet upstairs. I do not have the energy to make several trips up and down the stairs. Next I usually start sorting out the clothes. I make 5 piles. Brady’s, mine and Jorja’s, my parents, and Brian’s. As I look at Brian’s pile of laundry I don’t know whether I should be worried about the enormous amount of t-shirts he owns or if I should be concerned that my pile is lacking in volume. I definitely wish that I could buy $5 t-shirts at sample sales. After those clothes have been dealt with it is down to the most awful part of the laundry……..folding socks. I don’t know where the socks go and how they always seem to lose their partner. This morning Brian asked me if there were any white socks. If I had the energy at 6:30am I would of looked for him but instead I shook my head. I wonder what color socks he decided to wear to the gym today. I secretly hope he had to wear black dress socks with his runners then maybe he would understand how much the sock problem pisses me off. The sock problem is so bad that I have a large grocery bag full of mismatched socks. I dare not throw them out. I firmly believe that I will find the pairs eventually. Now that it is summer the majority of our clothes get hung outside to dry. It is kind of fun hanging out clothes and I love the smell of liquid softener. Those liquid softeners claim that they will make your clothes all nice and soft like the bear on the front of the bottle but I am still searching for the right brand that will not leave my towels all crunchy. Maybe in my search for the ultimate liquid softener I will also find the right detergent or stain remover that will remove Jorja type stains. I don’t think Jorja owns a single article of clothing without stains. I really don’t have the time to go through all of Jorja’s clothing and pre-treat the stains. I barely have enough time to hand-wash all of my bras! So as I write this note I realize I could probably go on forever about the laundry. I love to hate it and I would hate if I couldn't do it.