As you may recall, today is my laundry day. What that means, in so many words, is that I try to get as much laundry done as I can on Mondays. That is not to say I don't do any the rest of the week, because I need to wash a load or two each day in order to keep the piles manageable.

Sometimes, maybe 4 times a year? I lose control.
The laundry monster grows so fast that one morning I wake to find myself in a sea of laundry...my bed floating on the waves of socks and plaid shirts with sawdust in them. The laundry monsters tentacles are reaching for my throat...and I sit up in bed with a start. If I happen to be pregnant or otherwise overwhelmed or ill I might lie down and cover my head and beg the Lord to have mercy on me.

Otherwise, I am a woman of action. As soon as Dear hubby drives out of the driveway with the typical chorus of children's 'goodbye daddy!' shouts, I close the door and start giving orders.
"You! Get the babies dressed! And you! Go find the rest of your clothes and get dressed ...we can't go anywhere with half clothes and half pajamas. And you! Go clean out the car! There's no way we can fit anything else in there with all that junk taking up the back. Meet me back here in 10 minutes for your next order!"

Everyone begins the noisy and chaotic process of finding clothes, shoes and socks and making the Suburban safe to ride in.
After 15-20 minutes of running, shouting and digging through toys to find the missing shoes, everyone converges at the front door for further orders. That's when they see that I have lined up 43 barrels of dirty clothes to be hauled to the Suburban and crammed in tight. Just barely room enough to close the doors.

Everyone pushes, pulls and shoves, plops little ones into seats and begins buckling. I haul out a purse big enough to carry a large crock pot in and a tote bag of bills and other 'reading material' and try to stuff those in ahead of me. My oldest always sighs and tries to lift up his feet so I'll have room for my traveling gear. I seat myself in the drivers seat and glance in the rear view mirror...
What I usually see is at least 3 heads who haven't had their hair brushed since the previous day. So I begin the process of looking for a brush. "Son, hand me back my purse." After tugging and pulling for 3 minutes we get it un-lodged.
Then I tell him to find the hairbrush.
"In there?" He asks, as he stares with disgust down into the black hole of my designer (ahem) bag?
"Yes!" I answer.

Thus it goes until about an hour and a half after hubby leaves and we are finally on our way to one of my saving institutions:
THE LAUNDRY MAT!
Of course, along the way I realize I'll need quarters...and detergent...and waters and snacks for the kids, so it still takes another 45 minutes to get there.

When we finally arrive, I set about the daunting task of unloading all the barrels and take over the entire building.
I can't use the little laundry place in my own town because it's too small...they don't have enough washers for my family.
So, I go to the large city nearby and use an entire row of machines, thus leaving a couple of rows for the other customers.
After 30 minutes of sorting and stuffing machines I can sit down and relax and have 30 minutes of pure bliss, knowing that ALL of my family's clothes are getting washed AT ONE TIME! How cool is that? I actually really enjoy the drying and folding process because that is the only place I've ever been where there is enough room to fold everything.

After we arrive home I make it mandatory that EVERY STITCH of clothing be put away...this is usually just in time for me to get supper ready.

By the end of the day I'm usually a bit tired... but- oh- so -very -happy!
When hubby asks what my day was like I just say "Oh... I just did some laundry..." and then I smile to myself.

I'll be able to stay on top of it for several months now until some other crisis happens...

and then I'll do it all again.

Labels: Another Day, Household Helps