Airing our Dirty Laundry
Before I start on today's post, I wanted to let you know that the eggs in the nest on the front covered porch hatched yesterday! I can see 4, maybe 5 teeny tiny naked birds no bigger than a nickel!
___________________________________________________________
As with most everything, our Little House provides benefits for some things being handy, other things, not so handy.
Take the laundry, which is one of my least favorite things to do. About the only thing I enjoy about it is having it folded and put away until next time.
At our house in the city, we literally had enough clothes in our closets that allowed me to sometimes let the laundry go for up to 3 weeks at a time. Of course, Dale had uniforms where he worked and they did that dirty, oily laundry, so it was mainly my clothes and his weekend wear.
Here at our Little House, we don’t have much closet or dresser space and I can barely scoot past the dirty chore for more than a week. As well, there isn’t room to put many dirty clothes – unlike our house in the city – where the clothesbasket was in a spare bedroom where I could just shut the door.
Emma looking regal
The final downside here is that Emma, our brave Rottweiler/German Shepherd mix is terrified of the sound of the washer. I have no idea why. I tell her I’m scared of it too, but I don’t get to run away from it like she does! She usually goes and hangs out at The Belle Writer’s Studio while I’m doing the laundry.
The best part is that my laundry closet is in the kitchen, just steps from the bedroom closet and it is oh, so easy to get clothes in and out. This is also unlike our old home, where the laundry room was in the back corner of the basement, which required trips up and down stairs.
Last week, Dale told me when he was already out of clothes that he didn’t have anything else to wear.
“Why can’t you give me at least a day’s notice that you’re out of clothes?”
He looked at me like I was loony. “You should just know when you haven’t done the laundry for awhile.”
Argh. As if my mind isn’t in a thousand other places.
This week, he told me yesterday that he would be out of clothes today. At least he gave me day’s notice, and so it goes.
Some of you might be wondering why I don’t tell him to wash his own clothes. The fact is, this is the only household chore he is completely banned from touching.
When we were first married, I told him to do some laundry one Saturday when I was working overtime at my corporate nightmare.
He not only washed reds with whites and turned almost everything we owned pink, but dried my shirts in the dryer (including a silk blouse that was in the dry cleaning pile) and shrunk every last one.
He hasn’t been allowed to do a load of laundry since.
I’ve had a few disasters as well. Also early in our marriage, I washed his paycheck, on the week we needed to pay our rent.
I’ve also put an ink pen through the wash and a package or two of gum.
Now I check the pockets each time, although we are both pretty good at emptying them.
Leaves nothing for us to argue about then when it has to get done.
What’s the worst thing you’ve put through the washer or dryer?
Oh there have been many laundry disasters here, mostly having to do with kids. Markers, crayons, stickers, tissues, Silly Putty, you name it.
Ha! Men are bad enough, glad I never had to worry about little kids and what they might put into the wash!
When my husband had come had come home from Naval boot camp (this was 39 yrs ago) we went to the laundry mat to do all his wash. I put a little detergent in and he didn't think it was enough so he added a BUNCH more. Next thing we knew it was sudsing over. We took off until the washer was done.…what a mess.
About a month ago I washed my cell phone…no one to blame but myself on that one.
I think I would have had to walk out on that one as well, Susan!
I washed my husband's bluetooth headset… although since he's the one who left it in his pocket, I can't take total responsibility.
That's right, Kim. We are each responsible for what is in our pockets here. However, since his clothes mingle with mine and I don't want either ink splattered clothes or red dyed ones, I try to remember to check the pockets each time!
My toddler daughter had a lovely blue and white wool sweater/coat that her French aunt had knit for her. Somehow it got into the wash one day. After that, her sweater became a coat for her favorite doll. (Fortunately, she had almost outgrown it, but I did feel awful when I realized what I had done!)
Well, at least the doll could get some additional wear of it, Alexandra!
My husband and I have a division of labor also. There are things that I am just better at doing and many, many things that he is better at doing. I don't sweat the "who does what" thing. I find I enjoy laundry much more when I get to hang the clothes on the line to dry. The only problem is getting back into the house for the next load. I tend to get distracted. I too have washed many unintended things, mostly when the kids were still living at home. I do have a stash of, what I call, laundry money. That is money found in the washer or dryer. Finders keepers is what I say.
Exactly, Kristi! I've found up to $20 in the wash. Definitely finders keepers. It's our pay right?
I don't have a laundry story but I do have a dishwasher story.
I had to go somewhere and my husband was trying to be nice, to help out, so he ran the dishwasher. When I came home, I opened the door and had a "army" of monster suds over 5 feet tall marching from the kitchen through the living room, I could not find the kitchen, but battled to the kitchen through the suds, Dan came in the living room and was horrified, I ask him what did you put in the dishwasher to wash and he said "the soap you use to wash dishes, yep, just as I figured, Dawn! By this time, I was literally on the floor laughing, Dan was not so happy, but it was the funniest thing.
Oh, that is funny, particularly the image of those suds "marching!"
I have a wristwatch that has been through the washer twice. Lives up to it's old ad that says "takes a licking … and keeps on ticking." It's never missed a beat!!
That's funny, Olivia! I guess time is on your side!
OMG, BJ, you made me smile this morning as well. I'm sure once your mother calmed down she realized you were only trying to help!
What a chuckle for my morning! You brought ack this memory–
Worst I ever did was take a plum red wool blanket and wash and dry it, I was 10 and trying to help my mom who had been in the hospital for surgery. It shrunk to a very small square as well as making everything in that load this wonderful plum red color! It had been a wedding gift from England for my parents and now it was the size of a doll blanket! Mom was less than pleased!
It has since gone one to be a part of a quilt, so lots of good came out of it, but.…at that moment, there was no good that I could see!
No, I still do not like laundry, but being single means I have no other option if I want clean clothes.
Kerri, congrats on the new nestlings!