Of Laundry and Sirens

Today is going to be laundry day. Mount Washmore beckons, and I must go.

My son leaves for camp next week, so I have to wash pretty much everything that's in the laundry. As a bonus, my daughter comes home from camp next week, so I'll have more laundry then. Best to get at least some of it done sooner, rather than later.

If I'm going to be truthful about it, I don't mind doing laundry per se. Dirty stuff in, clean stuff out. Towels warm and fresh-smelling from the dryer are second only to towels hung on a clothesline outside. As big as our yard is, though, we really don't have a good place to hang clothes outside, so I use the dryer.

One year we tried to set up a clothesline, but the way I wanted it just wasn't practical. Our yard is a double lot, so it's pretty big (at least for the city). The way it's configured, though, the biggest part is openly visible from the street, and where my kids play. Also, quite frankly, I didn't want my clothes hanging in public view. It's a quirk I have, and I'm not defending it, it's not good or bad, it just is. Kinda like touching wet wooden spoons. That's for another post, I think. Sensory overload.

Where was I? Oh yea, laundry and quirks. I have plenty of both.

So, like I said, I really don't mind doing laundry. I usually don't even mind folding the laundry. The bane of doing laundry, as far as I'm concerned is matching socks. What an idiotic job that is. It's time-consuming, and it takes a ton of space to do it right. My daughter has been doing the socks for me. I can't tell you how happy that makes me. A) I don't have to do it and B), she's helping with laundry. She recently asked me to teach her to do laundry. When she comes home from camp, I'm going to do just that.

Some years ago, I bought two 3-bag laundry sorters, to hold a total of 6 kinds of laundry. Each bag in the rack holds one or two loads. Lights, darks, brights, jeans, work clothes, and delicates. I opted not to buy the laundry sorting system in the same aisle because I wasn't paying the extra $20 for a system. I bought a plain old laundry sorter, in fact, two, for the price of one system. Have you noticed that when something like a new product is presented as a “system”, the price is automatically higher?

Back to the laundry of today. I have to keep stopping the writing to change loads or whatever, so when I come back, I sorta start where my brain thinks I left off. The result is this choppy piece of the day. Sorry.

So, laundry. The one thing about laundry (well, aside from socks) that gets to me is that our washer and dryer are in the basement. [At least we're lucky enough to have a washer and dryer -Pollyanna] That's 14 steps down, then 14 steps up with a full laundry basket for each load. Standing on the concrete floor while I load the washer, or transfer clothes from the washer to the dryer, or stand there sorting laundry. On the concrete floor. Oh, and I forgot (surprise) to mention that we have a laundry chute, hence the pile that is Mount Washmore, and the reason I need to sort laundry.

Some days, the thought of all those trips and all that standing is too overwhelming, and I just can't do it. Today, though, despite the gloom, I feel up to it. I had planned to get some groceries, but that will have to wait for another day. Mount Washmore beckons like a Siren to a sailor, and I must launder accordingly. Hopefully without crashing to my demise :)