I have a confession to make:
I haven’t done laundry in nearly two months now. And I could care less.
Seriously. I haven’t touched a washer or dryer or folded clean clothes in two months.
Lest you think my entire family has joined a nudist colony, we are wearing clothes. And they actually are clean. Quite fresh smelling, in fact.
How do I manage this magical feat?
Hubby does the laundry. All of it, for five people. Just today he was demonstrating the effects of brand name fabric softener on bathtowels. I had to touch and smell a towel for like five minutes, going on about how soft and fluffy it was. (It was soft actually.)
What happened?
We moved into a house that did not have a washer and dryer. That meant we had to purchase one. Hubby’s shopping style runs to the high end while I put the ‘cheap and easy’ into ‘cheap and easy.’ I scoured online ads for used washing machines while Hubby priced out department stores. I quickly gave up after calculating transportation costs vs. any real savings. Not Hubby. Every spare moment he had was spent comparing features on household appliances, and oohing over spin cycles. Seriously, if I picked up his phone there’d be a picture of a washing machine on it.
He’d ask me, “How about this one?”
“Too many features. I want something basic. We’d never use half that stuff.”
“What about this one?” he’d ask.
“Too expensive. It’s over my limit.”
As chief of finance, I kept a frugal outlook over the whole proceeding. I also hate shopping, so I tried to avoid the whole process. Just give me the basic model, deliver it to my house and I’ll be happy. Hubby started to look for deals.
“Look, this one’s $300 off! That’s a great deal,” he’d point to a washing machine bookmarked on his phone.
I’d squint at the screen, “It’s still over a grand for a washer alone! We can’t afford that.”
He’d nod and keep looking online; days passed, filled with the technical specs on washing machines.
“Did you know this one has a 1.8 horsepower motor? It’s the fastest spin cycle on the market,” Hubby would wave his phone excitedly.
I didn’t care. Then he started to disappear – for hours.
“Where were you?”
“Just getting groceries.” He’d look down, carrying a bag of milk and some eggs.
“You were at the appliance store again, weren’t you?”
“N-n-n-o. There were long line-ups.”
“There’s only 16 000 people in this town. Even if they all lined up at once you wouldn’t be this long.”
“Do you want to go look at washers with me?”
“No, I hate that. Just pick out something that’s reasonably priced.”
Less than a week later a new washer and dryer arrived. Hubby excitedly connected hoses, read instruction manuals late into the night and discussed the merits of liquid fabric softener vs. dryer sheets. In his enthusiasm he took over all laundry chores – catching up on doing nearly a month’s worth of laundry, then moving on to washing stuff that was packed in storage ‘Just to freshen it up.’ The hum of the washer was the background music of our lives for nearly a week straight. Hubby’d leap up from whatever he was doing to check on spin cycles and adjust the balance of the load. Those appliances were his babies.
The other day we were buying groceries and he made me smell half a dozen gallon-sized jugs of fabric softener, trying to decide which one was ‘the best.’ I still don’t really care, just which ever one doesn’t make me sneeze.
Once at home the air was blue with fabric softener and I had to feel different towels washed in different laundry products to determine to softest, fluffiest towel possible.
Nearly two months later, I still haven’t touched the washer or dryer. Hubby has been doing laundry nearly 24/7, with delicates hanging dry indoors and t-shirts (don’t shrink!) hanging dry outdoors. He marches into the backyard wielding a bag of clothes pegs or folds dryer-fresh towels in his ‘laundry nook’ where he streams the radio on his phone and folds laundry.
Let him I say.
What household chores do you love? Or hate? How do you deal with division of labor in your home?
Hubby’s clothes line
