The Continuous Saga Of Laundry

There are few things that are constant in life, and laundry is the pinnacle which resides over everything else.

There are other things that are continually a part of my existence, such as, filling my car with petrol, buying toilet paper, mowing the lawns, and the list goes on. Laundry is a constant companion to me. There is always laundry to be done.

Whenever I have completed all the laundry — finish washing, drying and folding every piece of clothing, it is only a matter of time before it all starts again. It’s nonstop! There are only rare times when the laundry room is empty and I feel a sense of accomplishment. Before I know it, the laundry is piling up and calling me hither.

There are only four of us living in the house, but it seems like there is a dozen of us with the way that the laundry pile builds up at an astonishing rate! Holy cow! I should only be doing the laundry once a week! My son goes through his clothes at light speed. I’m amazed that he can wear his clothing as fast as he can.

By the end of the week I’ve gone through my five day supply of undies, socks and t-shirts, as well as my work clothes. That’s one wash and done for me. Then my sons take up two and a half loads, followed by my daughter and wife’s clothing. That’s maybe two more loads. So all together is amounts to about six loads. Then on top of this there are towels, bed sheets, kitchen towels and wash-clothes, and other sorted things to wash. So that adds up to a least a dozen loads of laundry all together.

At one time I was doing the laundry almost every day. That’s a lot of powder! I usually hang dry the clothes outside and then only run an ‘airing’ in the dryer to soften them up afterwards. Then all the folding, separating, and taking them to their owners. I gave up putting their clothes away for them long ago, now I just lay them on their beds and have them sort that out.

I wonder how many loads of laundry I have completed in my lifetime? It’s got to be a big number by now. I would guess it to be around ten thousand. Maybe I’m exaggerating, I don’t know. All I know is that it is a lot.

My Mom had the same washing machine that I grew up with when I moved out of the house. They built those machines to last a lifetime. I think my wife and I are on our third or fourth machine.

Whenever the machine has broken down I have to gather up the laundry and take it to a laundromat. I hate those places. Well not ‘hate’ but rather I have a dislike for them. I never leave the place when I am there because I know that people steal clothes if left unattended. The cost of each wash is quite expensive too. I took my kids there last year when our machine gave out, I was trying to prepare them for when they are living on their own. They couldn’t wait to leave. I think it was torture to them; I quite enjoyed it.

Yeah, laundry can be a pain at times. I have taught my kids how to do this chore, though they haven’t really made much of an effort. I’ve taught them how to separate the dark’s from the whites, and which setting to use for different materials, how much powder to use and where to place it in the machine, and to always use a cold water cycle. I will handle anything that needs a hot water cycle, (which is very rare) or they would probably set fire to the clothes.

I’ve ask my kids to hang the laundry on the line and I am amazed at their technique. It makes no sense at all how they hang the laundry on the line. It’s almost as if they just throw the laundry over the line willy-nilly and attach a few clothes pins onto the clothes and their job is finished. I wrote an article a long time ago about The Art To Hanging Laundry (it’s still available to read here on Medium). It was one of the first articles I wrote.

I wonder if there will come a day where we will all wear clothing that we throw away at the end of the day? I mean, we do wear clothing that we eventually toss away in due time, but what if all clothing had an instant degradable element to them where we just threw them away at the end of each day and they would decompose in a matter of days. We would save a lot on washing liquids and powders, and it might be better for our environment, but we would have to be constantly buying clothes. So, nix that idea.

I still wear clothes from ten or more years ago. Yeah, they do look rather worn, but they are oooh so comfortable. I take great care when washing them, trying to get good mileage out of the fabric. My clothes are basic t-shirts, shorts and cotton undies. I’m a man of simple pleasures.

As I end this, I have to tell you about the time I had all the laundry completed and that I cleaned the laundry area to a sparkling finish. That lasted a day and a half before it was a mess again. Why bother? I don’t know! I have standards that I try to keep adhered too, though like life itself, change is inevitable and I must go with the flow. In saying this, tomorrow is another day of laundry waiting for me. Good day!