• Feb. 4, 2008
Never fear! Soaper-woman is here!!
So, I've kept you in suspense far too long! Two birthdays, out of town company, mid-year high school reviews, a baby with a rash, and a daughter with a bad back, plus regular daily life have just taken a priority over my blog. So sorry.
So, on Thursday, my sister-in-law, Lisa, decided that we were going to get ALL of my laundry done. "Where," she asked, "is the nearest laundromat?" She might as well have asked me, "How would you like to die today?" You have never seen me hem, haw, and hedge like I did when she asked me that question. You see, laundry is my greatest downfall, my most hated household chore. It is nothing short of being my mortal enemy. I have NEVER in my life been good at keeping up with laundry, even in the best of times. Go ahead, you can even ask my mother. (Once, she came over and was doing laundry at my house and actually found something like mushrooms growing in my dirty laundry!) Give me a month with a well that works when and if it feels like it and I am totally inundated with dirty clothes.
Lisa is much better at getting her laundry done than I am and she insisted and persisted until I made some calls and found out where my local laundromat was. Then she proceeded to grab a handful of garbage bags and started shoving dirty laundry into the bags. I sat in my laundry pile, trying hard to sort out clothes and trying even harder not to burst into tears at the sheer enormity of what my sister-in-law was "forcing" me to do. Not only were there children present, but there were children EVERYWHERE! I must not show my weakness. I must be strong! (Inside I was totally overwhelmed.) Lisa led the charge and began to get the bags of laundry to the living room where we were going to get the boys to put them in the back of my 15 passenger van. Very shortly, it looked as though the van might not be large enough to transport it all. Maybe we should rent a tractor-trailer to transport it all. By the time we had about 10 huge garbage bags totally stuffed full of laundry, I was becoming energized at the realization that I might really get all this laundry done and Lisa was becoming a bit overwhelmed at the enormity of the task at hand.
To my utter dismay and surprise, we decided to just do the 10 bags and 7 laundry baskets-full and leave the rest for another time. We got to the laundromat and it was pretty empty. We realized that there were 3 tremendously large, mega-industrial sized washers and about 6 medium industrial sized washers. Okay, this might not be too terrible after all. We got what seemed like about 400 pounds of quarters and started loading. And loading. And loading. And loading. And loading. And loading. And loading. Well, you get the point. However, what we discovered was that a mega-industrial sized washer would wash about 7 normal washer loads at once. OK!! Now, we're getting somewhere. This was actually getting really exciting.
Things got even more exciting when we realized that the mega-industrial washers completed the wash in only about 15 minutes. We had our shopping carts and it was like a race between us to get the wash from the washer into our little shopping buggies and over to the dryers. We were squealing like two little girls on Christmas morning. Anyone else in the laundromat must've thought we belonged in the local insane asylum. Once we got about 10 dryers going and another round of mega-and medium industrial washers going, we called my daughter Tara. I told her to grab her cousin David (Lisa's oldest son, who is only 3 weeks younger than my Tara) and get ALL the rest of the laundry that was ANYWHERE in the house and bring it (along with lunch for me and Lisa) to the laundromat. I was absolutely giddy with the overwhelming delight of the situation. All I remember was Tara asking me, "Mom, are you alright? Mom? Seriously."
More delighted squeals went up from both me and Lisa when the dryers completed drying in about 20 minutes. We were on such a roll. We started folding and folding. Then the other washers began to finish and it was another shopping cart race. We had to have had about 12 dryers going. We folded and folded some more. About the time that we got as much folding done as was dry, in walked Tara and David with about another 6 huge garbage bags of laundry. We started all over again, but this time we were able to spread the love and excitement of the size of the washers with the kids. They just didn't quite appreciate the efficiency of the situation. They looked at us out the corners of their eyes when we squealed in delight at the amount of laundry that we could stuff into just ONE mega-industrial sized washer. Then they looked at each other with that "knowing" look that could only say, "Yes, our mothers have really gone off the deep end this time."
It was wonderful to have Tara and David around when the dryers began to finish their cycles. They helped us fold and fold and fold and fold and fold and fold and fold and fold and fold and fold. Well, you get the picture. They were real troopers and didn't complain a bit, although they never did quite get into the extreme state of pure, unadulterated bliss that Lisa and I were in. After about 4 hours of washing, shopping cart races, drying and folding and folding and folding, along with loading everything back up in the van (and boy, was THAT a trick!), with our backs burning in searing pain, Lisa and I dragged ourselves into the seats of my van and got ourselves home. We calculated how many loads of laundry we probably got done and we think it must have been about 60. Really. Sixty. Truly. To which I say, "My family has WAY too much clothing."
I have determined that before spring, I will cut every person's wardrobe by at least half. I will NOT be doing this much laundry again!! EVER!! But, I must say that my sister-in-law is my hero. Without her dogged persistence, I would never have gotten all that laundry done and caught up. Without her to come to my rescue, I would have been buried under a true mountain of dirty laundry from which I may never have overcome. Her selfless devotion to my family's laundry needs went above and beyond the call of duty. She is truly a super-hero. I have seen her cape flapping in the breeze behind her. The kids may call her "Mom" or "Aunt Lisa" but I call her, "Soaper-woman"!!
Comments
• Feb. 4, 2008
Untitled Comment
Posted by Arby
ONLY YOU! Great story!
• Feb. 6, 2008
Too Funny
Posted by NCLighthouseKeeper
Your post made me laugh! I battle the laundry mountain every week. It is threatening to take over my boys' room right now ( 3 boys share a room - 2 are over 6' tall - clothes are everywhere) God bless your sister-in-law! I may need her phone number!
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Beth
www.nclighthousekeeper.blogspot.com
• Feb. 6, 2008
Just popping in to say Hi...
Posted by Sherena
...was browsing blogs and yours was the first one I visited.
thanks so much for sharing, I had a similar problem with laundry, which is now thankfully under control, (never got to 60 loads though!! I thought 8 large bags was alot.lol!)
Just passing on some support, and hope the rest of the week is just as elating!!
