Laundry is My Kryptonite

I hate doing laundry.

Really, I hate it with the utmost passion.

I know I should be grateful that we have clothes, that we have a means to keep them clean, and all that. There are people who would love to have the problem of having decent clothes to wash.

That little caveat aside....it is really is my least favorite job in the home.

I don't like bathroom cleaning, but love it when it's done. It's just nice.

Dishes really aren't that bad.

Vacuuming is actually very satisfying and easy.

But laundry...ugh...laundry.

It's a constant battle. First is the problem of the laundry room not being in my apartment. It's a little walk down the sidewalk to get to the laundry room, and I really don't enjoy doing it during the day. It's just easier to do it while the kids are in bed.

This involves dealing with laundry room politics, broken down machines, and people who just refuse to take their laundry out of the machines in a timely fashion putting the rest of us in an awkward position of waiting and waiting, or having to put their wet clothes on the table and usurp their position in line. Sometimes I'll wait it out. Sometimes, in my grumpier times, I will remove their laundry. I just don't have time to wait for them to finally get around to taking care of their clothes.

Then after it's washed, then dried, I have to bring it back to the apartment. Usually it is late at night, so I very frequently will just refuse to deal with it anymore. That often means that it can be days that I will work around my clean, unfolded laundry. Only after I see my poor husband rooting around in the laundry basket looking for socks in the morning that I finally get myself in gear to deal with it.

Occasionally, I have the discipline and fortitude to just finish it all at one time, but whenever I do that, it is SO exhausting. Sorting, folding, putting it away. Can we just track how many steps there are in the laundry process: 1) sorting dirty clothes 2) washing dirty clothes 3) drying clean clothes 4) retrieving clean clothes 5) sorting clean clothes 6) folding clean clothes 7) putting clean clothes away. And if there needs to be ironing done? Eight steps for one chore? How annoying.

It's no wonder I often have a Mt. Washmore in my room. I can hang with a chore that requires 3 steps (wash, rinse, dry) such as dishes, bathroom, etc. But 7-8 steps? Even if a recipe requires seven or eight steps, it better be a fancy meal!

But, those rare occasions when I get those 7 steps done at once, it does feel good. I often envision it like a video game when your stamina of your character goes down until you eat some power pellets and then you can run faster, jump higher, etc. Well, when the laundry is all clean, folded and put away, I feel like I am at full laundry stamina. The day does just go a little bit better and it certainly is nice not having to be bothered by the constant, hovering presence of unfolded laundry.

Right now, I am finished with step 6 of 7. I have the laundry in the baskets, folded and ready to be put away. But heaven help me...I just can't seem to get myself to finish that last step. Maybe tomorrow...

...or the next day...