We Need to Talk
By Glinda
I’m not “That Mom.”
You know, the one with the immaculate house, no matter what hour of the day or time of the week. I knew a couple of those mothers from a former playgroup, but I never got up the courage to ask them if they had outside help, or if the spotless everything was all them.
I consider myself to be “casually dating” housework.
I tend to flake out if something better comes along, and we’re definitely not in a committed relationship.
But seriously, from the moment the Munchkin was born, I took those pregnancy books to heart that reminded you that infancy was special and time-consuming and that the dirty dishes in the sink could wait.
Uh, flash forward six years and I’m still doing it.
My house tends to be clean, since the Munchkin has dust allergies, but laundry is my Achilles heel. To say that I hate it would be a vast understatement. I’m ok with the washing and the drying part, it’s the folding that really gets to me. I would pretty much rather do anything than fold laundry, including just staring up at the ceiling. Which has happened an embarassingly large number of times.
Eventually it gets done, as it must, since one cannot live picking their way through mountains of unfolded laundry.
But if only I could just break up with laundry! If I could just sort of tell it that it’s all my fault, and that it just isn’t working for me anymore. Laundry didn’t do anything wrong, I just need a break.
And then ideally I would promptly delete laundry’s number from my speed dial and never talk to it again.
October 7th, 2008 at 9:14 am
If Munchkin is six, he can certainly help with the laundry.
My 5 yo fold towels and shirts, and matches socks. He can put them away as well. My older boys fold harder things, and put things on hangers.
Use those children! They’re “staff.”
October 7th, 2008 at 9:35 am
My husband stores all of his clothes in baskets by the washer and dryer. Every morning, he goes to the basement to get clean clothes for the day. Since he pretty much lives in knits and jeans (stay-at-home dad), the wrinkling is not apparent.
The occasional effort to relocate his clothes to his dresser just results in a slow but steady migration back to the basement. I’m not fan of the system, but I can’t summon the energy to care anymore. He’s got a limited number of dress shirts for the times we go out, and he knows how to iron (better than I do, in fact).
I can do “fold,” but I have a hard time with “put away.” My clothes tend to live in my clean laundry basket at the foot of my bed until the hamper is full. Then it’s a last-minute hang-and-stack to clear the basket so I can use it to take the contents of the hamper to the basement. I am not allowed to have two or more clean laundry baskets, or else I’m afraid I’d never empty them.
October 7th, 2008 at 11:35 am
I wish my housecleaning issues were only limited to laundry.
And the children. Oy. The three year old puts his animals to sleep in the laundry (folded or not) and throws a fit when I attempt to move it. The one year old delights in throwing the laundry off the window bench (again folded or not.) And you can just forget folding a bed sheet in my house. Apparently it’s just an invitation to play peek-a-boo.
October 7th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Laundry and I do not go so well either. My mother tends to facillitate my lack of enthusiasm for it because she is a little OCD in cleaning and laundry while I did not get the genetic trait at all. I have been known to leave things that need done undone until I know she will be coming to visit the monster in my house.
October 7th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
I haven’t slept in my bed in 2 months because of laundry needing to be put away on that is living on my bed. Everytime I do laundry the damned pile gets bigger! The couch is so comfy so what’s the problem! OK, I’m having guests this weekend. I’ll do it! But I’ll resent it!
October 7th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
(Sorry, I was channeling S. Palin on that first sentence!)
October 7th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
If you throw an afghan over the piles of laundry you can pass them off as beanbag chairs for a certain length of time. Uh, I read it somewhere.
October 8th, 2008 at 8:45 am
I second Hilary. When my kids turned 5 they were officially old enough to handle folding and hanging their own clothes. (My husband does his own, too, and he is actually quicker to put his stuff away than anyone else.) It’s just one of many little chores they must do if they are to share living space in our house–it’s a team effort, and all that.
October 8th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Confession: laundry and I have a very good relationship. I find the whole process soothing (the smell, the organization, I just love it for some reason). I do really hate ironing and I’m not on very good terms with my counter space. I am a serious stacker and you can barely see the kitchen table. I too am never going to be a spotless mom and I don’t intend to try. Go Glinda!
October 9th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
I loathe laundry more than any other household task. Fortunately, my fiance has no issue with being the sole clothes folder in our household.