Laundry is the bane of my existence. There is always something to be machine-washed or hand-washed or spot-treated or something. I tend to view laundry as having 3 discrete steps: washing, folding and the dreaded putting away. I guess I could throw a 4th step in there: gathering the laundry – which can be a challenge here, since dirty clothes must spend the evening hours making their way onto floors, so they might creep under beds and sofas.
Especially the socks. You could walk into any room of my house right now, and be almost certain to find a stray sock. It drives me nuts. If I dislike laundry in general, I loathe washing underwear. For the obvious reason – hello, it’s underwear! Also because there are so many things to fold and sort and match up, and how can you get any closure when they don’t match up?!
I keep those irritating unmatched socks in their own little basket and when it’s overflowing I can’t stand it anymore, I match and purge. Today was Sockmageddon. It was a bright spot in a day spent making this:
Laundry Room: Before
look like this:
Laundry Room: After
That’s right – I kicked laundry’s ass today.
And it felt good.
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I buy alot of the same color socks for the boys so they always match!
That’s a great idea! In our house, each kid has their own brand of sock – fortunately they’re different sizes – but some always go missing! I think it might be the dogs!!
When we were first married my husband wanted us to use “sock locks” because his mother did!! Well, you know WE did not use them until about a year ago and I wished I had listened to my mother-in-law!! Sock locks are little plastic thingies that hold the pair of socks together. When used they save a TON of time matching and sorting.
Sock locks? Doesn’t that take just as much time as sorting??
I oddly enjoy doing the laundry, just for the control freak in me to have accomplished something immediately tangible. I can actually tell what clothing is missing before I even start the laundry because of my sorting process. I love those days where I can take back a room in the house and have it be all organized and labeled. (Yep, labeled. I’d like to say that it’s to help my preschoolers with letter and word recognition, but really, it’s just my OC behaviors.) Problem is, all the stuff I took out of one room is then spread out into the other rooms so I have to keep visiting the one clean room to give me the visual oasis that I need. 🙂
I love my labeller too! I have to admit – every time I walk past the laundry room, my heart skips a beat. Now if I can just get the dining room done, I’ll be all set!!
Thanks for reading and leaving your thoughts!
I’m a bad mom. I just throw all socks into the drawer and let whomever sort them out.
I like the way you think, Leah! You’re a smart mom!
The concept of sock locks is to use them when socks are taken off. Before they are thrown in the hamper (or in my kids case on the floor or under the bed)! The socks are washed, dried and returned with the locks in tacked!!! Poof! less sorting of socks!