My thoughts on laundry

I think I hate doing laundry, or at least I hate doing laundry in my current situation. Let's face it it's never fun. It would be more tolerable if it were really like all those laundry soap commercials. A big, well stocked, and organized laundry room with baskets of clothes neatly separated by color into perfectly sized loads. Machines that operate correctly and time to wash, dry, fold, and put away everything as soon as the cycle is done. In that situation I might not hate doing laundry.

My dryer is broken. It still turns on and rotates. It will even dry the laundry after a cycle that takes approximately 13 hours. Unfortunately, I am not exaggerating. We hung a clothes line in the back yard to help with drying but it has been raining a lot. So we are currently drowning in a larger than usual pile of slightly damp, smelly fabric.

I have no idea how people did house work before the invention of modern appliances. I guess they didn't have as many clothes and didn't wash them as often. Between dragging the rugs out for a good beating, cleaning floors on hands and knees with a scrub brush, hand washing all the dishes, and hauling ice for the icebox, who could blame them. I am tired just thinking about it. Add to that no microwaves for quick meals, central heat and air units, or TV and video games to help entertain the kids and I must say I have it pretty good even with the dryer in the state it is in.

Here is something to ponder, why is it that the coolest hang out spot for spiders is in a huge pile of dirty laundry? Perhaps they think I will never really get to the bottom of the pile and it can be a home to their descendants for generations to come. I really will get to the bottom someday. I hate spiders. They are so sneaky and smug and sarcastic.

On the plus side, I think I have finely broken the kids of playing in the dirty pile. I have redirected them towards the clean laundry pile which is just as big and fun to jump in but smells a little better.

I want to get one of those new washer/dryers that will fit 25 towels at once. The one we have now will fit 9 and I am not talking about the big, expensive, Egyptian cotton, bath sheets but the ratty, cheap, Wal -Mart, barely cover my big butt, towels. We go through an astonishing number of towels in this house. Not only for bathing but for wiping up spills, potty accidents, mud pies, and of course rat-tailing your siblings. POP!

If I could wash bigger loads and dry them in under 3 hours I might be able to get caught up. I will probably be able to afford those fancy machines when my kids grow up and move out on their own, of course I won't need them then.