Laundry

Things that went Right Today:

1) Master bathroom remodel underway. Long overdue
2) My Shakeology stuff came from beach body. It really DOES taste good. Yeah!
3) Carpets cleaned. Not so scary to walk in the basement now.

OK I know that one of my New Year's resolutions was to refrain from whining. I may have to break that just for a tiny second here though, because I'm not sure how to discuss the dreaded laundry topic without something of a whine coming through.
Over the years I have been blessed with 9 beautiful, wonderful, fabulous bundles of joy! They are the greatest delights of my life aside from the bundles of laundry that accompany them.  Let's say two loads of personal laundry a week each times 11 people. That is 22 loads. Add in 4 loads of sheets and towels and maybe a random load of extra stuff and it's averaging about 27 loads a week at our house. Except wait...you have to add in the clean clothes that get rewashed because they ended up dumped on the floor while a child is deciding what to wear and then get trampled over. And the 25 pairs of underwear that the potty training child went through...today! And the 15 towels required to clean up the major flood caused when the toilet overflowed...again!   I won't even mention the puppy generated laundry. That would definitely be a whine if I did that. And the hand towels in the kitchen that everyone insists on using once and then tossing into the hamper. Even though the paper towels are sitting right there on the counter. And the teenagers who wear three outfits in a day sometimes. And the football gear...unmentionable as well. EEWW! And in the interest of full disclosure I must admit the extra loads that happen because I started a load and then forgot about it until it reeked and had to be run again. And my all time personal top pet laundry peeve...the piles of folded clothes that I gave to a child to put away and rather than do that they stuffed them on the closet floor until they melded in with the laundry also being stashed there. Pulling folded clothes out of a dirty laundry bin makes me go wild. It's not pretty. Believe me. You get the picture. Laundry is a huge force to be reckoned with at our house. A constant steady drain on my time and energy.
I have tried to fight it with creativity. In our laundry room rather than just one set of washer/dryers, we installed two stacked high capacity sets side by side. So we have a veritable laundry mat up there. This is wonderful in terms of getting the clothes washed and dried in a more timely fashion. Trouble is though that they still need to be folded and put away, and when I am washing two huge loads at a time I can get behind pretty quickly if I'm not pretty diligent. Then I end up with gigantic mountains of clean clothes in the laundry room that serve to pile guilt upon me every time I walk by and see them and know that I have a half hour of work sitting there that I really should get to...and then an hour, and then...well...depends how long I wait. But at least the family can rummage through the stack for something to wear if they get desperate right? I also gave up sock matching years ago. It was becoming the bane of my existence trying to match up so many different sizes and styles.  I could watch a whole episode of daytime TV while trying to match the socks of the week. But the thing is I don't really like TV so...the solution became two big laundry baskets under my folding table. One for dark socks and one for light socks. If anyone needs socks they have to go on a hunt. And occasionally I will offer financial incentives to the kids to go on a folding binge. Not ideal, but it's saved me from a life of soaps! I also have offloaded some of the responsibility to other family members. My husband now does all of his own laundry. Partly because I needed the help, but partly because he got tired of his clothes getting lost in the laundry room chaos and then being "borrowed" and run off with by his sons never to be seen again. He figured to protect his stuff he better intervene. And knew me well enough to know that presenting me with the issue in complaint form was unlikely to go over well. Good decision!  When our children turn twelve years old I teach them to do their own wash. Which in theory should release me from a lot of the workload. Um...NOT! See they have tricks that they figure out right away. If they leave the laundry wet in the washer and then leave for school, then in order for me to run a load ...you guessed it...I have to finish the load that is sitting there. And if they just simply elect not to do laundry for extended periods of time than the massive explosion out of the hamper and closet to the floor is likely to get on mom's nerves which occasionally results in her 'helping out". They are smart.  So really at age twelve they begin to be taught. I don't think they really fully integrate the lesson until they move out of the house. I hope they do at least and are actually washing 7 pairs of underwear a week? I just try not to think about it. I do also have the children help with putting their clothes away. Even the little ones. But this can often backfire and I find clothes thrown in a corner halfway to their ultimate destination. Or put in the wrong person's dresser. Sigh. We'll keep at it.
Over the holidays the situation became a tad out of hand. We played and had fun, but yesterday the day of reckoning came at last. I HAD to tackle the mound that had been building to epic proportions. It took all day, but I'm proud to say it was accomplished and my laundry room (and conscience) are now clear.  I played some music and danced a little. Had kids wander through and chat and even help some when the atmosphere was jovial. Funny how that works isn't it?  And as I worked I actually found joy in the task. There can be an odd comfort in repetitive mundane work at times. A rhythm and order to it. The laundry room is peaceful and warm, and there is satisfaction in tasks that can be finished and measured. Additionally there is a sense of happiness that comes from serving the people I love in this simple way. Am I ever going to love doing laundry? Probably not. It's kind of a necessary evil. But I can stop fighting it so hard and realize that whining about it does no good. Keep striving for solutions to streamline the process perhaps. Laundry may be boring, but it is not meaningless. It's a very important job. The clothes themselves have little importance to me, but the people inside them are my whole world. I am thankful today that we are blessed to have plenty of clothes to keep our family warm and dry. So many people in the world do not.  That huge pile of laundry that makes me whine is actually a great privilege indeed. And it reminds me how many fantastic people I get to share my life with as well. When the little ones all grow up and move away I will have far less laundry to do. But I suspect I will long for the crazy laundry days and wish I could have it all back to hear my young ones laughing down the hall again. I'm going to enjoy this while it lasts!!!