Perhaps it is because I am a new homeowner who is still basking in the glow of new-to-us washer and dryer, but I love doing laundry. Wait. I just re-read that sentence. It's definitely because I am a new homeowner. I hate doing laundry, but bear with me here.
I hated doing laundry when we had to haul it down many rickety porch steps into the basement and use goofy tiny tokens that we had to purchase from a neighbor on the other side of the building who had Cujo for a pet. I hated doing laundry when we had to bundle it all up and drag it over to the laundromat that had no chairs and was perpetually moist and mildewy and Spanish talk shows (a la Jerry Springer) blaring on televisions in every corner. I even hated it when we had to heave the bundles over to the same laundromat to drop them off and have the nice ladies there wash, dry, and fold our underwear for us.
But now? Now I have no fewer than four different laundry receptacles waiting to hold our dirty linens -- and three of them even look nice. Now I can take laundry into the basement any time I want and not worry about waiting for a washer, or if the washer will work, or what is in the washer before my bathroom towels, or if I'll be able to get back before someone removes my belongings…. Essentially, I now have stress-free laundry.
What I really love about laundry, though, is that it gets clean. I can take massive piles of too-gross-to-smell, wrinkled, and inside-out laundry and turn it into orderly piles of sniffable, warm, fresh, ready-to-use goodness. There is nothing better than a tall stack of clean (and folded and organized by hue) underwear. Nothing.
Don't you feel like you can handle anything when you know you have clean clothes in your drawers and closet? Isn't it nice when there is no stress surrounding what to wear because it is all clean and waiting for you to make your choice?
I feel even more happiness with the ability to select clean t-shirts to wear now that I have a spit-up monster (albeit an adorable one) marking all of my shirts (and some of my bras, pants, and shoes) as his property with his regurgitation. Wearing the same shirt two days in a row (come on, I'm not the only one) is a much riskier prospect with an infant in the house.
What I really wish I could do is launder the piles of paper that I have littering many flat spaces in the house -- or, worse yet, jumbled into boxes so that I don't lose anything. (Ha. Now that's hilarious. I dump piles of potentially imperative papers into boxes so that I can find them when I need them. My ability to self-delude is impressive.)
A little detergent (with the measuring cup that can be thrown in with the wash so that it too comes out clean!), a jumbo-sized load with extra rinse for two boxes of bill statements, atm receipts, to do lists, manuals for new baby stuff, and other paper detritus…and voila! I could have organized piles of clean paper sorted by type just like my bathroom towels!
After I get the paper laundry done, I'd like to drop off my lawn at the salon for a color, cut, and style makeover.
