I do laundry basically EVERY day. I rarely let a single day go by with out performing a laundry related task. Weekdays, weekends, holidays... I do laundry. I start most every morning starting a load, moving a load, folding, or putting away laundry. I do this before the kids get up. I throw a load in quick before going outside, or leaving for an errand. I do laundry after everyone else goes to bed. You know, 5 minutes here and another 5 minutes there.
I think my obsession may relate to my mom. In my mind and memory, she was a laundry guru.... seriously! Her laundry room was large and functional. It had cupboards and counter top, a hanging rod for ironed clothes on hangers or to air-dry, and a cabinet for the ironing board. It was a rather large room in our home off of the entry from the garage (if my dad came home dirty, it was easy to dump his clothes).
In the laundry room, there was a blue plastic laundry basket that sat on the floor near the door. Nobody had a laundry basket in their room. Dirty laundry was to be brought directly to the laundry room, or more likely, my mom came and got it daily. The only time the blue basket was EVER overflowing was when we returned from vacation. Otherwise, it contained a load or less most all of the time. My mom ironed everything when it was dry and returned it to our closets. She probably ironed the t-shirts and jeans. On the rare occasion I brought girlfriends home from college to stay, their laundry basket were welcome. Beware, because once you put it in the laundry room on Friday evening, everything inside would be clean and folded for you on Saturday... probably before the guest got up. Her detergent of choice was Era.
I studied abroad in England while in college. I lived in a castle with 28 other St. Cloud State students. While there, my classmate and friend Amy washed her clothes with a tube of red lipstick, and ruined many of her clothes. I alerted my mom, who was coming to visit. Not only did she arrive armed with an arsenal of her favorite stain removers, but she requested Amy give her the clothes and let her have a hand at them. She got out most every stain with the coin washers in the castle basement. She liked good 'ole Dawn dish washing liquid and something or another from Shacklee. I have no idea who got my mom turned on to Shaklee! Anyway, my mom knew tricks or something about laundry, and they worked!
So, as many women in their thirties discover daily... we are our mother's daughter. Like my mom, every one's sheets get changed once a week. (Okay... once in a while it is less then once a week, but not often.) I will tell you I don't iron anything until I am going to wear it (unlike my mom), but I do iron. I do NOT iron as well as she did. I also do not yet possess her talents for stain removal, but I do like OxyClean. Our laundry area is tucked in the hall straight off our front door (above), which further fuels my laundry obsession. No one wants guests to see the laundry. I have no room or door to hide behind.
Here are my drying racks. I hang dry most everything, except sheets, towels and underwear. If guests are not expected, the racks are often sitting in my lower level family room. With just two racks, if you want to hang dry, you need to keep up with the pile!So there you have it... me being, well... ME!
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