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Laundry's Journey from Eww to Ahh

TV and social media have a way of making us feel like we’re not doing something right in our own life. I really didn’t need much help with that as I think I’m pretty good at not feeling confident but there it is anyway. We are bombarded with how we should do things through the pictures, videos and commercials surrounding our day anytime we use our phones or turn on the TV. Like if I’m not smiling as I deeply inhale fresh towels from my dryer am I even trying? I’ll free admit, in all the year’s I’ve done laundry in my life I have yet to act out the TV commercial of smiling with anticipation as I inhale fresh hot towels or clothes from the dryer.


Most of the time when I do laundry it is a rushed event. I am hurrying because something is wet, smelly, laying on the floor or someone needs something. My washer and dryer are in a closet next to our breakfast area in the kitchen. It would seem convenient but when you have a lot of laundry it tends to block the doorway into the living room effectively trapping you in the kitchen until laundry is done. I guess the builder of our home thought while you’re doing laundry you can also bake something delicious as you wait. I never thought much about this layout until we had our son and laundry became a much bigger situation. Now I sit trapped in my kitchen, doing laundry, sometimes baking cookies and sometimes writing blog posts as I wait.


I don’t think how laundry is done in my house is abnormal from other families. Since this isn’t something I typically see posted about on social media I have no idea but there really is no telling is there? I can safely promise you there is no sniffing happy face for laundry out of the dryer. More often than not I’m making a “ewww” face because I’ve found something in the dirty pile that is particularly gross and stinky. The dog seems particularly interested in wanting to roll in it too. I used to think she enjoyed just hanging out with me while I did laundry but have since learned she wants to lay in the dirty clothes and wait for me to drop a treat for her as I mix up something in the kitchen.


I decided it was time that laundry deserved a moment in the social media spotlight showing it’s journey from eww to ahh. Why should beautifully plated food get all the attention you know? We wear clothes every day so surely there is something to this whole laundry thing that people should be talking about. Laundry is one of those things we learn to do but no one ever really talks about it beyond how much they have and how it never ends. Yet it is in this very chore we all have to do that lies the core of so many other things in our life. We take it for granted until we can’t escape our kitchen area or we find our favorite jeans are in it.


What we use to wash our clothes also doesn’t really get much thought. We just reach for the green, blue or orange bottles of detergent and add a capful. If it smells good or what we think fresh meadows should smell like than it must be alright to use and will make our clothes smell nice in the process of cleaning them. The same goes for softeners, brighteners, whiteners and aromatic add-in products. We just go for what seems to work and what seems to take care of stains and odors. The whole point is to get clean clothes in the least amount of time and effort as possible right? This is what I used to tell myself too as I lugged heavy orange bottles of detergent off the shelf and into my shopping cart. What I used seemed to work and it was what everyone uses so why wouldn’t it work?


When I heard you could make your own detergent and softener I asked w