Some feelings come naturally,
almost as if you stepped into this world holding on to those. Such is the case when
it comes to my sentiments about laundry. Truth be told, I have hated doing it
from the word go. It was during my hostel life that I first collided head-on with
the need to engage in this activity and the dislike came almost spontaneously. Up
until then laundry and I had been blissfully unaware of each other’s existence.
Mom, I miss having her around to
take care of everything. It’s selfish I know. Before leaving home for
university and later for chasing this elusive entity called career, I never
really had to bother about anything, let alone doing laundry. Yes,
I was blissfully unaware of the efforts involved in deciding which clothes need
to be washed, dried or ironed for that matter. The answer to all my
laundry woes, or any other despair for that matter, was my mom. She
still is, just in a different city with not much in her control now.
It was only when I started living
alone that I realized Mom couldn’t be present at all times to take care of my
petty issues. That’s when I well and truly grew up. Yes, that’s when
I purchased a washing machine to absolve myself of all laundry worries.
But little did I know then that it only solved a part of the problem, just a teeny tiny part
of it!
Did you know there is a very
elaborate process involved in doing your own laundry? It goes something like
this.
- Keep track of all the clothes that are getting dirty.
- Have a good detergent with you. Apparently, there are separate detergents for different types of clothes.
- Just because you have a washing machine you can’t dump all clothes in at once. If you do, your favorite white t-shirt could end up a very weird shade of red, with yellow streaks too at times.
- If you want to starch your cotton clothes it’s best to wash them separately and not with your woolens.
- It’s probably best not to wash your beach towels along with the other clothes in your machine unless you want sand in everything!
- Apparently, you can’t use the same setting for every kind of load.
- It’s probably not a good idea to wash all your expensive clothes with your pajamas. Yes, even if you have a washing machine!
- You need to hang the clothes to dry or place them in the dryer, the washing machine doesn’t do that for you automatically. You can only wish it did!
- It’s preferable you hang the clothes to dry on the same day that it has been washed.
- And no the washing machine doesn’t iron those washed & dried clothes.
So, you see how laundry is so much
more than just a word to me. Every time when I start the washing
machine, I’m haunted by the activities to follow; the hanging clothes to dry
part and then taking them down to iron and fold. Most of the time
I pretend to be busy doing something else to make S take care of that (Well,
the cat is out of the bag now but I guess he knew that already). He readily does it too because he knows how lazy I am. God bless him, I say!
With my reluctance to laundry well established, imagine my
delight, when this weekend I woke up to all my washing done and hanging in the
clothes line to dry. It had to be S for he does that for me most of the time.
But he was still napping, so who could it have been?
Mom, yes, who else? Turns out her vacation is actually mine. No
wonder moms never have off days. The lazy me though has shamelessly been
basking in all the attention and care. Oh the unabashed relief in not having to
deal with the washing (even if through washing machine) and drying is inexplicable.
In
fact, for two more weeks I don’t have to worry about the mundane
activities surrounding laundry anymore because, well, Mom’s here.
Tell me do you like doing laundry? Or, are you like me?
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