Laundry Soup

Laundry….oh Laundry…how I loathe you!!  Not the having to wash you or dry you because frankly that is quite satisfying especially since we have machines that do the work.  Getting something clean that was once dirty is fan-freakin-tastic!  But it is the folding of you that I can’t stand.  Like I’d much rather clean the boys’ bathroom toilets then fold laundry.  And believe me, that’s saying something!

I don’t think it would be so bad if I had the time to do everything right away or if I was able to create a system that would work and I could stick to.  Put the dirty clothes in the washer, then the dryer, and then fold them as soon as they were finished to avoid all the billions of wrinkles that are created the moment you take them out of the dryer.  But I don’t have time to do that.  Most of the time, I’m in such a rush to get the 6 loads of laundry done in between running the kids to school and sports, running errands, going to appointments, play dates, blogging, and of course I must make my daily trip to Starbucks, that by the end of the day, the laundry is sitting in huge piles on my couches.  It literally looks like a big heaping, out of control bowl of laundry soup.  Sorting and folding this “soup” can take hours depending on how many loads of laundry went through a complete cycle that day (we won’t even get into the wet loads I’ve forgotten in the washer in the evening and had to re-wash them the next morning). 

All soups have different ingredients to them.  In the case of my perfected Laundry Soup the one ingredient that has a tendency to leave a bad taste in my mouth is socks.  I’ve seriously proposed to my husband that we move to a warmer climate where socks never have to be purchased, worn, and therefore never have to be washed, lost, or paired together (if you’re even lucky enough to find the matches).  With four boys we have socks coming out of our ears.  Crew socks, sports socks, shorty socks, school socks, dress socks, holiday socks (of all freaking things).  You could easily sit on the couch pairing socks for a solid hour with four boys in the house. 

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished to live in The Jetson’s home so that I could have a machine that will fold my laundry for me.  It can’t be that far fetched can it?  I mean they made a washer and a dryer, why couldn’t they take it a step further and make a folder??  It’s much more reasonable than asking for a laundry fairy!

Apparently Buggy doesn’t like the Laundry Soup either.  Whenever he sees a pile of laundry on the couch it is like a beacon calling to him to come over and pull every single piece of clean clothing off the couch and onto the floor.  In a matter of seconds he has it all down sitting around him.  He methodically takes each piece that is in front of him and throws it over his shoulder, one by one, only to turn around to the pile he just created behind him and start in again.  You can see his frustration mounting as he starts to realize that his efforts seem to be futile and finally he just gives up, crawls over the pile he made on the floor, turns around and gives it one last disgusted look and literally growls at it.  My feelings exactly Buggy and how I wish I could do exactly that and get away with it. 

All soups have one ingredient that makes them special, unique, like no other soup out there.  It’s an ingredient that makes you want more, and count the days until you get to have it again.  For me, that ingredient is Buggy.  I’ve actually found myself putting clothes on the floor just so I can see him work his magic on our little soup we’ve concocted.  As always my Buggy has a way of making the ordinary, boring, annoying tasks more fun and interesting and somehow a great memory is made out of it. 

What don’t you like about doing the laundry?  Is there something you do to help make it fun and less of a chore?