56 pounds of another chance
In honor of the Vernal Equinox, I thought I’d share a recent story of giving myself another chance.
You know how quickly you can get behind in something as essential and unrelenting as laundry? Yeah. Me too. In fact for the last couple of weeks it has been a truck load of bricks hanging above my head 24/7. Well, to be precise, it’s been 56 pounds (and growing) of bricks hanging over my head.
No matter how much I got done in a day I always could beat myself up over the fact that I still hadn’t done any laundry. Not that I had time or actual motivation to do something about Mount Washmore.
Until yesterday.
I realized that if I didn’t do something SOON, I would be back at Target for that walk of secret shame known as “buying more underwear because you don’t have anymore clean.”
Until I remembered a little conversation I had with PC over a year ago. She’s a funny gal. Unembarrassed about her lack of motivation toward the domestic arts, she uses her oven as a book storage unit to the point where the gas company had to come out and check her stove because they hadn’t used any and the gas company was certain they had bypassed the meter. Nope. Just don’t even boil water on the stove.
ANYWAY. PC also doesn’t do laundry.
Turns out there is a Twin Cities equivalent of the NYC “Fluff ‘n Fold.”
I seriously had no idea.
And yesterday I called PC and demanded to know WHERE this scion of ablution was located. (Marshall and Cleveland, for those of you wondering.)
So this morning I loaded up the bags into the car (yes. I said bags. Don’t judge me. There was reason I couldn’t bring myself to start) and made my way over there.
These saints of suds didn’t care about my lame excuses. When I tried to tell the guy how I’d been really busy and have fallen behind and I really didn’t think it would come to this again (promises promises. Don’t want this guy to think I’m a total slob of a housekeeper afterall. The whole blogosphere can know, I guess but not this guy.) His response to the lame excuses? “Got anything in there you don’t want in the dryer?”
I almost wept.
And then they called and said it was all ready (folded and the socks matched!!) around 3 p.m.
If I wasn’t such a cheap frugal person, I could become addicted.
Oh! and I want to make note that within 15 minutes of the boys helping me bring it all in from the car it was ALL put away.
So there! I’m caught up with that for 10 minutes.
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A year ago (or longer) on This Journey…
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vernally balanced 2007
I wonder 2007
springing ahead 2007
March 20th, 2008 at 3:24 am
My girlfriend Renee lets the laundry pile up as well and she usually goes until she runs out of underwear. Furthermore, she hates the laundry room in her apartment building because her stuff always comes out smelling, in her words “like old people”. The solution I helped her come up with is a trip to the laundromat where she can do 5-6 large loads all at once. The problem, getting her stuff to the car in one trip.
I used to try and make the effort get my laundry done on a set night every week–Monday. It worked because I just incorporated it into my schedule. I used to do laundry the same time I cleaned house.
evil-e’s last blog post..Tuesday Tags #39 (a little help on this one)
March 20th, 2008 at 7:11 am
With two kids my best method was to do a load a day. I would put a load in as I left for work (Please, no comments about how I could have come home to a flooded basement. Life is risk.) and then pop it in the dryer when I got home. Folded and (theoretically) put away before bed.
Between my excessively crappy mood this winter and crazed schedule it got away from me. As of today, I’m back to the 1 load a day routine. (I hope.)
and what is this “clean house” thing you speak of?
March 20th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
I’ve been doing a load a day. then my daughter folds it and puts our piles on our beds. Sometimes she gets behind on that but then she doesn’t get her allowance and catches right up.
I love the idea of taking it in and letting someone else do it. If only I had tons and tons of money.
churlita’s last blog post..I Got a Baby’s Brain and an Old Man’s Heart
March 20th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
There is always laundry going on at my house…I mean, like constantly! Someone throws a load in, when someone is ready to throw another load in, the first gets moved to the dryer. Eventually the dryer is emptied, and the clothes are folded and placed in their little piles. Sometimes they are brought in right away, and sometimes people’s piles get a bit toppley…then I bring them in and dump them in the perpetrator’s room.
I completely love that you found a reasonable solution when your laundry situation got out of hand! In those rare instances when I can really make a problem disappear by a simple outlay of cash, I find it totally worthwhile
laura b.’s last blog post..The First Step is Admitting You Need Help
March 20th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
I’ve become addicted to the fluff and fold here in Portland. Every two weeks I drop off my one large basket and pick it up at the end of the day. My daughter is seventeen, she gets a roll of quarters to do her laundry. When she gets a job, she can get fluff and fold; I’ll even drive it for her.
chantel’s last blog post..Identity Crisis Interrupted
March 21st, 2008 at 8:47 pm
Okay. I’m obviously failing as a parent because I need to make my peeps do more of the housework, including the never ending laundry. With five of us, it’s always going, but the someone who puts it in, transfers it, folds it and puts it away is me.
time for a change! Or They can wear dirty clothes.
DCup’s last blog post..Note to Self: The Robe Is In The Closet