Loads of Laundry (& I do mean LOADS)

I loathe laundry. It is the bane of my existence. I used think dishes were the worst chore - but I've decided I kinda like it. It can be mindless. You can get lost in the bubbles. The sound of the water running drowns out the rest of the family noise (and why can't they seem to remember I.Can't.Hear.You.If.The.Water.Is.Running?!). It's kinda like yoga...but productive. Anyway, I digress.

My poor husband likes to joke that his pool table is called the laundry table (as this is where I dump all of the laundry for folding). Yes, I do have a laundry room. Yes, he did build me a nice built-in washer & dryer with a counter on top of them for this very purpose. No, he has yet to install a t.v. in there (which is a required accessory to laundry IMHO). Anyway...this is what the table looked like tonight when I transitioned from house cleaning, dinner, bath time and kids in bed time.

Yes, that is a styrofoam plane and a bunch of used dryer sheets under the table. Like Pioneer Woman says - I'm keepin' it real (I did almost move that stuff before I took the photo!)

Today was "cleaning day" at our house which means I spend the day going up & down the stairs, throwing in a load of laundry (when I can remember) while at the same time trying to scrub the kichen, yell at the kids to stop playing with legos and finish their rooms so we can "swiffer" them, sweep, sweep, sweep (durn cat hair) and swiffer & dust (not necessarily in this order). Meanwhile, My Man had an eye appointment so he cleaned our bathroom and then split. Now, don't think ill of him - he did do ALL the shopping today (cleaning products from Walmart, groceries from Aldi, Meijers and Eurofresh...or was it Caputos today? who knows!)

So after all of this was done and the kids were in bed, I retreated to the basement to fold all those loads of laundry I kept tossing onto the "laundry table" all day. This means I got to watch the Oscars - I never watch because I never get to see any of the movies before the awards (as a matter of fact, I usually don't get to see them until they've been on video for at least 2 years!).

So after 2.5 hours of folding, I finished with four heavy packed baskets (of which, two of them got filled up again once I emptied them upstairs). That one on the left was really dense - bend at the knees when picking up laundry!! Of course, I'm still not done, I currently have two loads going of towels (one in the washer & one in the dryer). Hopefully I will get the rest done before our trip to Florida at the end of the week.

Really, I do try to do stay on top of the laundry pile...but all you have to do is have one weekend away and it gets all backed up (oh crap, I'm going to Florida, that'll screw me up for another week!). It's not like I have a huge family - I don't know how those bigger families do it. But my family of four can go thru laundry like crazy (or so it seems).

I do come by my bad habit (of delaying laundry) honestly. I grew up in a home where all of our clothes were clean...but they were in a basket...somewhere. I can't even remember having matched socks in a drawer - they were always clean and in a "family sock basket". Because of that I do have my own weird laundry habits: I wash ALL socks & undies in their own loads and I try to wash the kids clothes separate from the grown-up clothes (makes for easy completion of a dresser-full of clothes).

I'm looking forward to tomorrow morning when I won't have to walk to the basement to pick out my clothes before taking a shower. When I won't have the kids whining that they don't have any socks in their drawer. Or My Man asking me to go get him an undershirt...again. It feels good to have the bulk of the laundry done and put away. If only it could last more than one week at a time.