The other day as I was leaving an evening meeting, I remarked to someone that I needed to go home and do laundry so I'd have something to wear the next day. The other person laughed at my obvious exaggeration, little suspecting that it was no exaggeration at all.
When I was young and poor and used to have to periodically drag my laundry down the street to the laundromat in the back of a pickup truck, I got into the habit of waiting until everything I owned was dirty before I made the trip. More than a decade has passed since then, but I still can't seem to adopt the logical practice of washing clothes regularly. I do laundry for two now, so that means both hampers get stomped full and create Laundry Mountain in the basement baskets when they're brought down. It takes a week of evenings or a full weekend day to mow through it all. (Especially if you include re-washing at least one load each time that has been left too long in the washer.)
I'm always jealous of people who have their laundry rooms in their kitchens or near their bedrooms. Part of the reason that I don't approach wash day with gusto is that I have to haul the baskets down the world's steepest, narrowest stairs to the basement, hoping against hope that I don't step on or get tripped by a cat on the way down. But then, I doubt that more approachable appliances would have much effect on my general laziness in this area.
Signs you're a bad laundry procrastinator:
- You own 3 dozen pairs each of underwear and socks
- Football season ended two months ago and you still have a basket of team t-shirts and jerseys in your "red" pile
- You're forced to dry yourself with a hand towel after a shower because both sets of bath towels are dirty
- When you put away your clean clothes, it's as if you just returned from a giant shopping spree. Sometimes you find a recently-purchased item you had forgotten you owned.
We won't even talk about dry cleaning...
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By the way, I'm feeling much better today. Last night I dosed myself with some heavy-duty prescription cough medicine that I had left over from one of the other two times I've come down with this same set of symptoms since winter began. It's amazing what a good night's sleep will do for you!
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