Laundry Tips

When my daughter and grandchildren were living with me a few years ago--and I was still teaching--the weekends were the only time to do the mountain of laundry that accumulated through the week. In those days, the children were going to visit their father in Muncie every weekend.  Megan was taking college courses and using the weekends to do her work.  I did laundry.  This was my choice.  It gave me a sense of control because I would know what was clean for everyone because I was the only laundress in the house that would sort loads and follow through with hanging, folding, and putting away.  It was a LOT of work, but it also helped me to feel that I had accomplished something, no matter how exhausted I was!

Then, too, I consider myself the Stain Queen of the Universe.  I know all of the tricks and have all of the products that do the job...with effort.  (The only stains that have vexed me to this day are the ones in my tablecloths, one of which is a crocheted piece that took me a year to make.  I've done everything known to man to get rid of the stains, to no avail.  Ugh!)

But, sadly, the daughter and grandchildren moved on.  The only benefit of that was that my laundry burden went from 10 loads per week to three.  And now, much less.  What are my secrets?

1.  Use towels more than once.  Never washcloths.  If you don't have enough washcloths to last a week, buy more!

2.  Have enough underwear and socks on hand to last two weeks.  I bleach mine in hot water, which means that I have graduated to white cotton "granny pants" from the sexier nylon ones that fall apart after too many bleachings.  TMI.

3.  Wear clothing more than once before washing.  Yeah, yeah...I know that sounds gross...but unless you are a construction worker or exposed to germs or body fluids on the job, how dirty do your clothes get?  How dirty are you when you put yourself into them each day?  When I was a kid, we had school clothes, play clothes, and church clothes.  I was not allowed to play in school clothes. Those got taken off and hung up at the end of the school day to be worn another time before washed. We have become so nasty clean that we are raising a generation of children with allergies and phobias, not to mention housewives who are fatigued in spite of the fact that we have better laundry facilities now than at any other time in America's history.

4.  Hide out!  If no one sees you, you don't have to be spiffed up!  Well...I shouldn't go there.

I'm doing laundry today.  Could you guess that??