Laundry is my bane. I truly detest it. I'm not loving dishes (although, with a dishwasher they are bearable) and cleaning bathrooms is just so-so. I actually enjoy vacuuming because it means the floor is clean enough to see.
But laundry...ick. I think it is because it takes so long. I like to start a project and finish it. The dishes I can tackle and then stand back and be proud of a job well done. But laundry...you spend ALL day doing it and then there are still piles to put away. And if you don't put them away, they either end up on the floor needing to be washed again or it's just more work for tomorrow. My children like to change outfits during the day and they will put the clothes they wore for twenty minutes in the hamper. Part of this is my fault; I stopped encouraging them to put their clothes back in their drawers after I would find macaroni stained shirts when I put the clean laundry away.
I tend to get a bit feisty now when I see them changing clothes. If they knew how much I hated laundry they would understand why I start to breathe fire when I see them in the third pair of pants for the day. My motto is: "Don't worry, it will dry" (unless it is pee—come on, I am not that heartless).
I try to stay on top of laundry, but it breeds in the corners and under the beds, and then there is the random laundry like the slip cover that needs changing every so often, and don't get me started on the beds. Sheets tend to stay on the beds longer than recommended (once again, unless the kids pee on them) because it just means MORE laundry.
Anyway, I only mention this because Tyler who doesn't do much of the laundry (I am NOT blaming here—if I could get out of it, I would too) washed load after load after load last night so I could just fold and put away today. I was folding my last batch of laundry and Daisy was getting fussy. I picked her up off the floor and cradled her in my arms while I continued to fold and then she proceeded to puke in the hamper of clean clothes.
COME ON, BABY!! CAN'T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?
It was only five items of clothing that never even reached a drawer but instead went straight back into my bane box (also known as the laundy hamper). Sadly, one of them was my blue sweater which she did the unkindly justice of spitting-up all over on the 7th (I remember, I was at Ready to Learn sitting by Deanne). It then got left in the car for over a week, finally to be retrieved and washed, only to be spit-up on again before it even got worn. Ah, the injustice.
The prophet said this last conference, "If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly."
Miss them?
Fingerprints - yes
Toys - maybe
Laundry - never!
9 comments:
know this:
I FEEL YOUR PAIN. And on top of it all, Matt has started doing his own laundry, because apparently I'm too slow and his clothes get left in the dryer for too long and then all his precious shirts are slightly wrinkly.
Don't get me started. I could go on all night about how much I hate laundry. I'm seriously going to give up folding.
The way my mom did it was to have a basket that belonged to each kid. (She had 9). Your clean clothes got put in the basket. You took them to your room and put them away. As soon as my kids get a tad bit stronger, we're totally moving to that method.
I've been finding it kind of eerie how similar we are in our likes, dislikes, and attitudes about stuff. I'll read something you wrote and think, "Yup, that's totally me." Well, you've done it again. :)
And I loved that quote from Pres. Monson. I remember thinking to myself, at the time, "Yeah. . .I don't think so."
I really don't like laundry either. I don't mind washing and drying them as much now that the laundry room is much more accessable, but I don't get everything put away as quick as I should!
There was a story on TLC about a family with like 17 kids and they had a HUGE laundry room and they kept all thier clothes there, not in individual closets. At first I thought it was weird, but now it sounds quite practical! I HATE putting things away when in just one day it is all back in the laundry rooom anyways.
I feel I need to point out that I did ALL (ok, almost all) the laundry when we were in our college appartment. I remember explaining to my wife that I was going to be doing the laundry until I was gone most of the day at work. In addition, she would only have her uber workload for about 15 years--then she's basically done since the kids will be compentent enough to assist in virtually every household chore.
This conversation transpired as I hauled laundry out of our house to the apartment complex next door because there were no hookups in our apartment and the (chivilrous) man carried the laundry to and fro.
And now, with the advent of modern technology (i.e. hookups IN our house -not down the street- to support non-coin operated washing and drying machines) and her 'retirement' growing ever nearer, I don't feel terrible about the laundry situation.
Of course, that said, I do love my wife and it's sort of important to help out with the chores that I usually don't have to deal with. Last night it felt pretty good to help out and provide some extra time for my wife to sleep a bit.
I hear you on the laundry situation....I can't stand it. The washing and drying I don't mind as much, but folding and putting it away....uggghhh! Too often we end up getting dressed from the piles of folded laundry in our rooms, because of my hate for putting it all away. Luckily, Mark is willing to help with the laundry, but he always seems to find the worst times to do ALL OF THE LAUNDRY (ie - Social worker coming for her bi-monthly visit, someone coming over to fix one of our doors, etc.) - this drives me INSANE! I do love his willingness to help with it though and I realize I'm lucky for it! Great job Tyler recognizing your wifes need for a bit more sleep! The sweater story is just typical, right?
Laundry is never-ending torment! That is why I hate it too...because it is NEVER done. We have this constant pile in our room of clothes needing to be folded, and 5 constant little piles folded in the hallway waiting for the kids to come take them down and put them away. I think if I never had to do laundry, the rest of the house would be clean all the time because of all the extra time I would have! Ugh.
You fold your laundry? We just keep everything in baskets. White baskets are clean laundry, green baskets are dirty laundry. Oh, things thrown on the laundry floor are usually dirty too. I have given up on getting people to actually put their laundry away, although it can get a bit frantic sometimes when everybody is trying to sort through the white baskets to find something to wear!
Actually, Tim sometimes does his own laundry, but Dad - never. He sweettalks me or Tim into doing it for him!
Laundry isn't quite so bad with only one child but cleaning the bathroom--I abhor!!!
I hate doing laundry with just doing mine! I can't imagine having to do laundry for an entire family! You have my sympathies.
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