Laundry Laws

I'm the laundry person. I have been doing the laundry for my family since a pre-teen kid (on gaps where we did not have a maid) and this is my refined process, which helps me work with order and more efficiently:

1. Soaking: separate dark and light colours. Bleach Mike's work shirts (for maximum efficiency, his work shirts get washed and ironed only once a week, so he has 5 shirts "running").
2. Washing in the machine (delicate clothings always go into the washing mesh) and then
3. (The Order) hanging the clothes: all the hangers face the same way; the clothes belonging to the same person hang side by side, preferably same kind together, i.e. shirts, pants, etc.

Why the fuss? Well, when you bring in the laundry, you already have the clothes in some kind of order (same kind, same owner), so when you are folding the clothes, you can begin to pile the clothes in neat stacks without having to look around and wonder where a piece goes. Very fast and efficient! Can do it on "auto drive" or "screen saver" mode!

As for the hangers facing the same way, in case of sudden rain, you can grab in as many as your two hands can hold a pull a whole bunch of clothes in with one clean lift!

It's funny how when I have had this running for so many years, I actually find a disruption in my home-world when my mum-in-law, in all her kindness, helps me with the laundry. I really appreciate her doing so, considering she is already cooking for the whole family, which includes doing the marketing in the morning before the rest of the house wakes up, and helping me with the kids through the day, i.e. watch them while I go to the bathroom, eat or do the laundry(!). She also does the gardening and cleans the fish tank. Many times out of guilt and a slight irritation I have said "Thank you" and " you are already so busy, it's OK to just let the laundry be and I will do it." Her reply: "It's ok, I just drop them into the machine. It does the washing" (but she does not use the washing mesh!). But she hangs the clothes not in my order.


Last Friday (which was what amused me and got me into writing this) I woke up at 5am after 2 babies stirred and cried in their sleep. I thought I'd get to the laundry, especially since we were going to go to playgroup that day. I had soaked the laundry the night before. When I got to the other bathroom where we do all the washing, I was shocked to see the buckets all empty! Just then my mum-in-law rushed up and told me the laundry is done. I said, I hear the machine still running. She said it's actually the "last" round. The Extra thing she does is to rewash the clothes one time round with the softener, which she says is to get rid of all the odour. Eerr.. that's what soaking is for, I thought, besides getting some stains off. Besides, not all the clothes need the softener. I find some clothes have an icky coating after a round in that stuff which also tickles my nose, depending on the materials.

At least I managed to get to the machine to put the laundry out in my Order this time round. I sneezed a little...but I am glad I did it.

There have been times she had raided my laundry basket and done my laundry without mentioning anything to me, and my father-in-law will be cross because my clothes have been sitting in the machine the whole morning and he needed to use it. Eh? I have clothes in the machine? Or if she had hung them out, they would be hanging there, not in Order, for days, literally, as I usually wait for a full load before I do anything (the kids clothes get done on separate occasions). Sometimes I will plan to do the laundry that day because it's time to change the towel or for some valid reason only to find my laundry basket empty! It can be so baffling. Then I will have to go hunt for some clothes or other towels to put into the wash at "water level: Low."

So when it comes to doing the laundry around here (and I have not mentioned anything about ironing cos she stays clear from there, phew!), to borrow Mary's term:
Zephyrgale: gentle breeze blowing savagely.