Reprise: "Great Balls of Fire"

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In the midst of my ongoing writer's block, here is another repeat posting from May, 2010....maybe you've never seen it!   



I'm pretty sure that by now, you have all realized that I am NOT a domestic goddess! Don't like to cook. Vacuuming is a major pain. I hate all those repetitive chores. I don't do crafts. I'm not a seamstress. I despise grocery shopping. None of it! Not my thing. (You could, I guess, just say I'm lazy, but I'd rather be thought of as pursuing my bliss....and my bliss doesn't include dishpan hands!!)

I do realize that there are certain things that must be done....at least occasionally. In fact, I did all of those things.....fairly frequently over the course of the years, but I didn't like it! There is, however, one thing that absolutely MUST be done unless you are a hermit living in a cave. Laundry! There inevitably comes a day (generally several times a month) when you are completely out of clean underwear....and so is every other member of your household! You do the laundry.

I've done a lot of laundry in my lifetime. I remember helping mom hang wet clothes on the clothesline and then collecting same when dry as soon as I was tall enough! When I hit about 12, ironing became my chore. It was a big deal, we (well, I) ironed my mom's dresses, my school uniforms, my dad's shirts, and all flat work (handkerchiefs, sheets and pillowcases). I didn't mind ironing too much, at least I got to sit down while I was doing it! When permanent press was brought into the world, I rejoiced! By the time I was a senior in high school all the laundry was my job, while mom worked. I hated that because I had to go to the laundromat and people could see me fold my dad's underwear!!! EWW! How embarrassing!

After I got married, of course, all the laundry fell to me. Baby clothes, mommy clothes, and daddy clothes, several times a week. It seemed like I was always having to do laundry. Another milestone day in my life was the day we bought our very own washer and dryer!! No more laundromat!! I could do it from the privacy and comfort of my own home! Wow! We were finally livin' high!

But it was still laundry. Of course, once the baby stopped throwing up and pooping on everything in sight, things got somewhat better. Nevertheless, it was basically an un-ending chore. Now that its just the Big Guy and me and I'm not working, there's not nearly as much. This is good. Even better, is the fact that the Big Guy has begun doing a lot of his own laundry. There are several reasons for that, but the end result is that I have less laundry to do. Yay!

But I still have laundry to do. Darn stuff, just keeps on piling up. I can try to ignore it, but that's pointless. Sooner or later comes the day when I'm out of clean underwear! (Of course, I don't always wait until that time, but its funnier to say that I do!! -- LOL!)

The other day I was contemplating doing some laundry (no urgency, I still had clean stuff !) I don't know how or why it happened, but I started to think about how much time laundry takes and that it really eats up a lot of time. So I tried to add it up. How much time is taken up with laundry?

Well, I decided there was no way to count it up accurately, the best I could do was estimate. So I figured that ON AVERAGE, the time it takes to do the laundry (4 loads: gathering, sorting, washing, drying, folding, and putting away) is a bit less than 2 hours.

Here's what I came up with (again using averages):

Laundry: 3x/month @ 2 hours each = 72 hours/ year

Starting at age 14 to present day = 50 years

50 Years @ 72 hours/year = 3,600 hours

24 hours/day into 3,600 hours = 150 days

30 days = 1 month

150 days divided by 30 = 5 MONTHS!!  5 MONTHS??   5 MONTHS!!!

5 FRIGGIN' MONTHS OF MY LIFE WERE SPENT DOING LAUNDRY. 5 months!

"Goodness gracious, Great Balls of Fire!!"

No wonder I hated it! That's nearly half a year!! Gone. Used up. Wasted. Erased. Eradicated. Forever!! Unbelievable. And no end in sight! Well, Crap!


Oops, gotta go, the dryer just buzzed....