The Great Laundry Crisis of 2009
When I started this humble blog a little over a year ago, one of my first posts was titled, “The Great Laundry Crisis of 2008.” It was about how laundry had taken over my life. How it sat in piles around my tiny apartment. How it taunted me and shamed me.
I believe my exact words were that it was an act of God.
A lot has changed in the past year. I got my masters. I bought a house. I had a baby. I picked mushrooms. I broke up with Kenny Chesney. I defeated a family of squawking birds. I got my haircut. I mean, things have been busy. I’ve gone through more changes than Madonna.
But one thing has remained consistent. One thing has stayed true. Through thick and thin, rich and poor, for better or worse, in good times and in bad.
My laundry situation is still the same.
I still walk around my house amazed at the onslaught of clothing piled in massive mountains here, there, and everywhere in between. I will never understand it.
There are two and a half people in my house. We each wear one outfit a day. Where do all the clothes come from? Why is it that at the end of the week, it looks like Old Navy has projectile vomited all over my house? Its like someone breaks into my house every day, wears all my clothes, and then throws them all over the place. I will never understand it.
“Moooooom!” yelled Beanie. “Help me, Mom!”
“Beanie? Where are you?” I say.
“Help! Mom! This pile of clothes ate me!”
“Which pile, Beanie?” I say. “There are so many of them!”
“This one over here! Right here! I’m right here!” yelled Beanie.
“Oh!” I say. “There you are, Beanie!”
“It just ain’t right, Mom. It just ain’t right,” says Beanie.
“I know, Beanie,” I sigh. “It just ain’t right.”
27 Comments
Deb
LOL – I love that you are comfortable enough w/us to photograph your laundry piles – even a bra in the mix! You totally feel like one of my girl friends now!
Dana
I firmly believe that dirty clothes reproduce when they are all piled up together. We need to get all of our clothes “fixed!”
kay
fast forward 25 years….it will still be a crisis! i have never been able to solve my laundry crisis. some days it’s so big i can climb in like the bean, suck my thumb and hide!
the inadvertent farmer
Laundry will breed like rabbits if you don’t watch out…to bad it never seems to birth another sock for that darn pair (or 100 pairs) that is missing one! Kim
Emily
I think Dana is right, they do reproduce once they get together. 🙂 I am constantly doing laundry and I don’t even have kids…well, the dogs are my kids but they don’t really count.
Liz
Cute post! I love the photos with the bean in them!
I used to have this problem. Then I made a laundry schedule. Rory on Monday/Thursday. Bruce on Wednesday. Me and Dave on Tuesday/Friday. Towels on Saturday, sheets on Sunday. Having to wash, fold, and put away only one load per day is a lot more manageable than trying to do it all at once!!
andrea
i feel the same way. i try to keep on top of the laundry but it seems like everyday there is a massive pile somewhere in the house, that was hiding until the rest was done, so that it could pop out and lay right in the middle of the floor. if you listen very closely i swear the clothes are laughing.
and please let chris know that i saw cobwebs in the man cave, a month with no maintenance…tisk tisk 🙂
Casey
My laundry looks like that and I don’t even have children yet! I better get a system down before its too late!
Heather
LOL. I hear you. I hear you. There are four in my family and if I don’t do at LEAST one load a day, it’s a whole day of catch up… (or so it seems). Laundry, it’s a drag!
Smiles
H
Mindee@ourfrontdoor
I name my pile Mt. (insert last name here) and whenever I conquer it I honestly feel as triumphant as if I’ve scaled a high peak and planted a flag at the top.
Joanie
I know just how you feel. With four people in the house the laundry can REALLY pile up. The day before we moved I managed to do the last of what I’d been struggling with since we’d move into the LAST apartment…and there are already 3 loads downstairs waiting a week after the move. (sigh)
Kara
The only way I stay sane is that I do laundry every Wednesday and Sunday.That way I never put it off…those are laundry days. Also,my husband is allergic to the washer and dryer but he’s not allergic to the clothes (I know, because he wears them) so I make him help put them away. I think you should be proud of yourself. You added a baby to the mix and it hasn’t gotten worse. That’s an accomplishment!
Lisa
As a mother of six, I can completely relate. In fact, your mountains are mere molehills compared to what I used to deal with! LOL
If you don’t already have them, (and I can’t imagine you do or you wouldn’t have the back-up) – get yourself the largest capacity front-loading washer and dryer you can. You’ll have that laundry all cranked out in 2 or 3 loads, and the dryer actually dries the first load BEFORE the next one is ready to go. It’s amazing.
Another thing that helped me a great deal is the 3-basket organizer. My laundry is sorted the minute it reaches the laundry room, and as soon as one of the baskets is full, (white, dark, light) it goes straight into the washing machine.
I’ve saved a gazillion dollars on laundry soap. A gazillion, I tell you. Not to mention the energy saving benefits.
As someone who used to loathe laundry, now I actually think it’s FUN! Craziness, I tell you! Insanity.
As a first time commenter, I’d also like to congratulate you on your beautiful family. And as a mother of six I’d tell you to cherish every moment because they grow so fast, etc. etc., but I can tell that you already are:o) Great blog!
Alyssa
How did you get a picture of my laundry room?! haha
Miss M!
So it’s NOT just my husband that buries the baby in the laundry for shits and giggles!!!
Michelle Uhlfelder
How timely- today is my laundry day (AND I HATE IT!!!). Why is it so hard to put the clothes up? I have no issue actualy washing them. BUT actually placing them in drawers…well, it’s on my hit list. I do laundry every Monday and Friday. Somehow it helps to have days I do it. I think I read it somewhere to do it on certain days and it makes it a little more managable. (note: took labor day off!)
Beanie's Nana
OMG, Kitten. Do you have to share every little dark sordid detail of your life……with the entire planet? Aunt Barbara, if you’re reading this, I swear I raised her to know better!
Katie
Of alllllll the things I’ve put on this blog, THIS is what you think I shouldn’t post?!?!?! You’re a funny lady, Mom! 🙂
TeamHaynes
It’s the great mystery in our house. Two people. Multiple piles of laundry. Where did they come from? What do they want from us?
On a side note, that rug under your bed is beautiful! I’m glad you embrace the beauty of having cute bras! 🙂 Hope that doesn’t embarrass you!
whitney
Girrrrrrrl, I feel ya. I always had this great fantasy (delusion) that when I stayed at home, my laundry would always be clean, fresh, and put away. HA! Funny.
Gemma
At least in America you don’t have to put the washing on the washing line to get it dry, you just chuck it in the dryer. In Australia, we have to lug each load outside, hang it all up, then later that same day we have to take it all off and then sort it and put it away. I hate my washing!!!!
Jayme
LOVE the pictures of him in the laundry!! So cute!!! Take as many cute pictures like this as you can, because once he is mobile, its over!!
Christina
You are not alone. Like so many others, I, too, have laundry issues. I vacillate-sometimes it’s the dirty laundry that threatens to take my lunch money; sometimes it’s the clean laundry that pushes my face in the snow. No, it’s mostly the clean. I always have clean laundry piled up everywhere. I have also taken pictures of it, because you have to see it to believe it. My mom told me once,”You have so much laundry that I don’t know if you’re really clean or really dirty.” Tryin’ to go the clean route. I’m tryin’.
Your bean is cute, even as dirty laundry.
Zoe
I feel your pain! Our laundry basket is our bath tub… ahem… and by the end of the week it’s practically to the brim! There’s only me and my man, and we only wear one outfit a day. And things like jeans and jackets don’t get washed every wear. So I don’t know what’s going on. It’s got to be coming from somewhere, though. Perhaps crawling up the drain pipe? I’ll never know.
naomi
we went on a retreat for two days. just two days.
two. days.
in my head that equals:
2 pairs of undies
4 pairs of socks
2 shirts
2 pairs of pants
2 towels
& two pairs of pj’s.
this SHOULD equal one large load of laundry. one.
we did TWO last night.
There is another load waiting in the washing machine now.
And a final load waiting on the floor in front of the washing machine.
Furthermore, there is a growing pile in the bedroom as each day passes.
Can’t we just burn em all and start all over again? now I understand why so many people end up leaving clothes behind at retreats and campsites…they just don’t want to do the laundry.
Debbie Mac
Been there, done that too! Then we moved into a house that had the washer and dryer on the second floor in it’s own closet, with a shelf above them. I put 3 baskets up there, one for whites, one for colors, one for darks. When the four chitlins got undressed for bath time, they played basket ball with their clothes and when the basket was full, the load got washed. Those were the easy days. Now there are two college agers still at the house finishing up degrees, machines on the second floor of this house also – only the baskets above them are for taking the clean clothes out of the dryer for folding.. Their baskets are in their closets and brought to the machines when they get full. The problem: they start a load, go to class/work/internships etc and are never here to put the load into the dryer or out of dryer. So I do that, then run out of laundry baskets for my loads. Because I can’t stand baskets of clothes all over the dresser in the hall by said wash/dry closet and lining the hallway & tripping me, I pitch in and do the seemingly impossible (for them) task of folding and leave it for them to put away – so I can have my baskets back! I shout to the rafters and make announcements at dinner on the rare occasions that everything gets: washed, dried, ironed, folded AND put away all in the space of one day. When my favorite husband (the only one) puts his dirty clothes in the basket that evening, I want to cry and say “You just couldn’t stand it could? Had to be the first to put something in the empty basket.” He hugs me and says “I noticed it was empty. It will be ok honey”.
No«lle
I feel so much better about myself! I’m not alone!! My friend from high school gave me this link after I posted my “laundry monster” pictures on facebook. Thank you for this :]