Friends, I just have to say it, “Laundry Sucks”!  To me, there is absolutely nothing fun or rewarding about doing laundry.  Now, for some reason, there was a short little time in my very young life, like around 8-10, where I loved to iron.  While now I don’t even consider ironing a part of laundry, back in the day, it was the most important part.   Yes, we even ironed sheets and pillowcases and that was my job.  There was something nice about the clean smell, the steam hissing and watching those wrinkles disappear.  But, like most people, life started getting busier for people and ironing just didn’t seem like a priority anymore.  I risk embarrassment by admitting that I can’t remember the last time I pulled my iron out of the cabinet.  Usually, a quick spray of water and a toss in the dryer does the trick as good as I feel it needs to be done!  Any wrinkles left, a friend of mine used to say when she got to work, could be attributed to “riding wrinkles”.

Unfortunately, the washing, drying, folding, putting up parts, are still pretty much a necessity. Even though it still sucks, I’m hoping these little tips that I’ve learned along the way will help you to at least make it a little easier to tolerate a very mundane chore!

• Borax is the bomb!  You know that sour smell that your towels have even after they come out of the wash?  Well, wash your towels and washcloths separate from your other laundry,  add detergent then add a couple small scoops of Borax.  You won’t believe the difference this makes in the freshness.  I mean, if you have to do this tedious chore, you certainly want your towels to come out smelling better than they did before you washed them.

• Lint removing may be an aggravating task, but it is totally, absolutely necessary after each load is removed from the dryer.  Now, I prefer not to use my hands because the lint sticks to my fingers and I always seem to leave some behind.  The most convenient way I have found to remove the lint is to grab the used dryer sheet from the load of clothes you just removed and use it to wipe the lint basket clean.  Double duty use of the dryer sheets.
• Detergent dispensing to avoid lifting the giant Costco container and also elimating that blue sticky drip!  I have two suggestions and they both work equally well. It’s just according to your laundry room situation.  My favorite way to dispense liquid laundry detergent is to pour the detergent into a glass beverage server, or you just use the container, and place it on a shelf or just inside a cabinet right above the washer.  Using the measuring cup provided, start filling with detergent and counting the seconds until it gets to the amount you normally use.  Which brings me to the second suggestion right in the middle of this one.  Lol. To prevent the blue sticky drip from the measuring container, just throw it in with the load of wash. It comes out nice and clean.  Note that if you use the first suggestion, you won’t even have to deal with the measuring cup again!  Now back to suggestion #1. With your container positioned right above, open the spout and let the detergent flow into the washer as you count the seconds you determined above.  Perfect measurement without the messy cup and heavy lifting!

• The Mystery of the Lost Sock!  This didn’t use to bother me too much.  I grew up with my grandfather owning a hosiery mill, then my dad, then eventually, my husband and I.  So, socks were always in abundance at our house. I’m sure we contributed a good many to the lost sock farm without hardly missing them. But eventually, times changed.  Production was lost to overseas manufacturers and we no longer had the sock mill to help keep our feet warm or keep food on the table, for that matter.  (I’ll save that story for another day).  We had two small children and I’ll tell you, when we had to start buying our own socks, we started paying alot more attention to keeping the pairs together!  Now, I will certainly not claim that I have figured out where all of these “onesie” socks are hiding out, but I have come up with a “sock buddy” system that has reduced the number of lost “soles” in my house.

IT’S ONE SIMPLE STEP!

Train your family that whenever or wherever they take off their socks, they ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS, roll them together, fold them together or stick one inside the other. Whatever it takes so that when they get to the hamper (ok, maybe the floor, car, cracks of the couch), but wherever they are removed, they are together.  I know you are thinking that your socks aren’t going to get clean all stuffed together and you would be correct. But, here’s the good and bad news. The bad news first. Who does the wash?  If you are reading this, I’m betting YOU do it and I would also bet that nobody else in your house ever does it except you.  Now the good news. This means the “sock buddy” system should easily work at your house because you are in control.  Just pull the socks apart, throw in the washing machine at the same time and know that they are together and safe.  A lot of people think washing machines and dryers are monsters that eat socks, but I’m pretty sure that’s not the case.  My theory is that both socks don’t make it into the washing machine at the same time because they get shuffled around in a bag or hamper and although everything is eventually washed and dried, since they didn’t start out together, they may not come out together and they miss the match up. After this, anything can happen to a lost sock in a laundry room.  Or you may be right and the sock monster fills his belly.

But just think…If you start “sock buddy” training from birth, your kids will be ready to train their kids and so on & so on.  It is quite possible that we could irradicate lost onesie socks all together in our lifetime!

• And last but not least. You are going to be tired after picking up clothes, reminding kids about the “sock buddy” system, washing, drying, folding, maybe ironing & putting up clothes.  So, my advice to you, as I’ve learned from starting on my chores with lots of energy and wearing down way too soon, is to wash your towels and washcloths last. (Don’t forget the Borax).  Saving these until last, leaves the easiest items to fold and put away. And, if by chance you don’t muster up the strength to fold and put them away until the next day, the wrinkles won’t give you away!

I believe that we need to start making things easier on ourselves so we can use that little bit of extra time and energy to do something we enjoy.  Life is short, my friends.  Don’t waste it away on mindless cleaning and chores when a few shortcuts won’t even be noticed!

If you have any laundry tips or shortcuts, I would love for you to share them with us in the comments below.

Happy Laundering!

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