Laundry Monster

Stuff(ed)

Well, it hit me the other day that we are officially a household of SIX! Like when we fill out forms and they ask you 'How many live in household?', I now have to write SIX. You may be thinking, "So what? Big deal."  Well, it was really profound to me when I first realized it. On a random Friday we were five. By Monday, we were six. That's pretty huge. Especially since our house is not. We have been juggling things around haphazardly just to find space for everybody to sleep. But the biggest puzzle always is, where do we put all these CLOTHES!

 

I had just gotten things to the point that I could say that everything had a place. It wasn't always in it's place, and often I seemed the only one who ever knew where it's place was, but it at least had one. Suddenly, back at square one. Well, maybe three or four.

 

Vic and I and Kit are pretty much living out of suitcases and cardboard boxes since we want to give Grandpa as much privacy in our room as we can while he stays there. I have places in that room to put everything, I just can't put them there right now. So that means finding temporary housing for three peoples clothes.

The Monster

Laundry. An innocent little word for such a monstrous task! The bigger your family gets the more monstrous!

About a month ago, my washing machine died mid-cycle. It wasn't very old though, so, I think it might have committed suicide because of the heavy work load. Thus, while I was waiting for our new one to be delivered, I did what most people do. I went to our family dinner and brought detergent! I was commenting to my sister that what I had brought to wash, about four loads, was just the essentials! She laughed and said, "Well, yeah. When you're a family of five, there are a lot of essentials!" 

Ugh.

So needless to say, despite having an entire laundry day scheduled, I am still usually behind. And as I mentioned above, now we are six. That's a lot of essentials.

 

The Heroin   

In sweeps Nana! My mom, and the lifesaver of the week! Each of my large laundry baskets holds two bushels of laundry. (Who knew laundry was measured like produce?) She folded five of these basket loads! That's ten bushels of laundry! That doesn't include the sock box that she made it halfway through before almost going blind from trying to tell if sock A matches sock D, M, or Q. That also doesn't include the two  smaller loads that I finished after she went home to rest her weary arms, valiantly taking two of my children with her! Thank you, Mom! I LOVE YOU!

 

Every week I am in shock that our family produces that much laundry. Of course about three loads were leftover from last week that never got finished, but still, that seems to me a ridiculous amount of laundry. Especially since we really try to keep our wardrobes simple and small. I cull through the girls clothes at least every other month and pass on items that are too small or that simply are not being worn. Still, the piles of dirty clothes form and grow all week, staring at me, mocking me. "You will never be rid of us!" they taunt.

 

Ha! Well, today I won! There is something very satisfying about ending the day with all hampers and baskets empty. That is until we change clothes to go to bed and start a new pile. Perhaps someday I will miss this about having young children and a busy family, perhaps not though. I do love the look of an empty laundry basket.