Laundry has fallen to me in our family. For a while I waited until it was absolutely an emergency, then did like five million loads. (Remember, there's only Jonathan and me. But the laundry piles up like crazy.)
Now I am in the do-it-once-a-week mode, which is only three loads. Whites, colors, and the other stuff that I don't know what is.
At one point in my life, I had a person who did the laundry. It was heaven. I loved her. She ironed the sheets. She ironed my white t-shirts.
You'd think it wouldn't make a difference, but wow. It does. And then--
She moved to Florida.
When we were in Italy, I bought gorgeous gorgeous towels at Frette. I had them shipped home, then I washed them. They shrank into wizened twisty out of shape un-towel-like things. I called the Frette store in Boston, and explained my distress and dilemma.
Oh, the salesclerk told me. You have to IRON Frette towels.
Yeah. Like I'm gonna do that.
But I do love folding laundry, it's so soothing and so rewarding. You start out with a random basket of stuff, and then up with nice folded organized nice-smelling clothing. A big sense of accomplishment. Especially when I can fold a fitted sheet so it's not all puffy and weird. Which is--sometimes.
(There's a video about sheet-folding secrets, which I'll try to find.)
How do you all feel about laundry?
HALLIE EPHRON: What I feel about laundry is probably unprintable. I haven't got the patience to fold, though I do love the results.
Fortunately early on I had the good fortune to turn my husband's underwear pink. Then a black crayon found its way into the dryer and, well, another mess. So he does all the laundry except for mine which he lets me turn any color I like.
Iron towels? You gotta be kidding.
INGRID THOFT: I don’t have strong feelings about laundry, but my husband does, which is why I’m the laundress of the house. He doesn’t mind getting it in and out of the machine, but folding it is a skill he claims he can’t master. This, from a software engineer, but he gets a pass because he does plenty of other things around the house.
When I do laundry, I always think about my mom, sisters, and friends who do laundry for a household of more than two people. How do they have time for all the other chores of life? I feel like I spend too much time doing our everyday laundry, which is then doubled by our workout clothes. I can’t imagine keeping multiple people in clean clothes.
As for ironing, my mom visited a couple of years ago and asked to use my iron. When she was done, she said, “You haven’t ironed since you moved here?” I scoffed. Of course, I’ve ironed. “And you resealed the iron in the box with shrink wrap?” she wondered. Oh, that. Maybe I haven’t ironed in a while!
HANK: I love it, too. I just don't do it anymore.
JENN: I do sneak into the Hooligans' rooms and refold their laundry because they haven't quite mastered the folding yet and wrinkly clothes bug me. Shh, don't tell!
LUCY BURDETTE: I'm the laundress in our house too. It is a satisfying job, at least temporarily, until things get dirty again! Last fall I became disgusted with our yellowing whites, and Googled how to fix that without using chemicals. There was a complex recipe involving baking soda, Borax, and white vinegar (maybe some other things too.) I tried several loads and different recipes, but nothing worked. I think I'm going off to buy that stuff Hank suggested, chemicals be damned! Unless someone has the secret of those whiter whites??
PS: ironing piles up in our house until we absolutely have nothing to wear. Towels and sheets? Not in this lifetime!
RHYS BOWEN: A while ago I was doing a radio interview and the interviewer said," You seem to be a woman of many talents. What don't you do well?" And I said, "Ironing."
My mother ironed sheets. She ironed my father's underpants.
And me, I only iron when absolutely necessary, as in twice a year. When John and I were engaged, in the first flush of love I offered to wash and iron his white uniform shirts (Qantas)
I returned them to him and he said,"The laundry does them better."
AND I have never ironed a shirt since!
But I don't mind the laundry these days. We have a super high tech washing machine that gets clothes wonderfully clean and uses little water. Only downside...it is so deep that I almost stand on my head and risk falling in to rescue that last sock.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: My thoughts about folding laundry are surely as unprintable as Hallie's. Laundry is the bane of my existence! And there are only two of us! But I cannot keep up with it. Half the time the clean laundry is in a huge unfolded pile on the chair next to our dresser. I cannot fold anything to save my life, especially sheets. Rick is much better at it, if I can just get him to do it. He also irons much better than I do, from years of being a bachelor and having to iron his own work shirts. The funny thing is I actually like ironing. It's very relaxing. Maybe today I'll get to all those piled up pillow shams and tea towels that need a little pressing....
In my fantasy life, I would have ironed sheets. But I've never heard of ironing bath towels. I obviously do not move in the right circles!
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I do the laundry for four, with help from the Smithie (usually) and Youngest (occasionally.) We have an electrical outlet issue where the dryer would hook up, so I line dry everything. I have an extendable line that spools out across the timber crossbeams in my thirty-foot-long family room, two lines outside for summer time, and an old-fashioned "clothes horse" that often goes in front of one of the wood stoves. Sometimes I dream about just chucking things into the dryer, but I do get to feel unsufferably smug about being so green.
With the four of us, plus towels, tablecloths, sheets and napkins, I normally do a load a day five or six days a week. Ironing? Usually at the last minute and only if it's something that can't be hidden beneath a jacket. I've been known to tell the girls, "Those wrinkles will fall right out from the heat of your body." We'll often wait until there are two or three baskets and then one of the girls and I will fold them while watching something on Netflix. That, to my mind, is the great thing about laundry-related chores: it's so easy to do them while listening to an audiobook or podcast or while watching TV.
With the four of us, plus towels, tablecloths, sheets and napkins, I normally do a load a day five or six days a week. Ironing? Usually at the last minute and only if it's something that can't be hidden beneath a jacket. I've been known to tell the girls, "Those wrinkles will fall right out from the heat of your body." We'll often wait until there are two or three baskets and then one of the girls and I will fold them while watching something on Netflix. That, to my mind, is the great thing about laundry-related chores: it's so easy to do them while listening to an audiobook or podcast or while watching TV.
HANK: How about you, Reds readers? Any laundry secrets? Do tell! Do you care about having the whitest whites? Do you just throw everything in together? Are you a hot-hot or a cold-cold? Do you iron your sheets? Can you fold a fitted sheet so it is not a puffy disaster? Tell all!
(photo credits: Inge Neilse, Katarzina Bialewicz, rotten cards, kzenon)
