Ok guys. Any domestic goddesses out there need to help figure out laundry. I know it’s a simple thing, but I can’t seem to get a handle on it and it pisses Master off. I don’t really like feeling incompetent, and I don’t like feeling his anger and frustration, so help would be good. This is the one thing we have argued about the entire time I’ve been with Master. I’ve never gotten it right to his liking.
I do the bulk of my laundry on the weekends. Anything that is piled up to be done I gather up and I wash. However stuff does accumulate throughout the week as well. I try to plan laundry every day, to at least do a load and switch it, but it seems never to happen that way. For instance this week on Monday morning I did a load and switched it and started another load, but didn’t get it finished Monday evening. Then Tuesday was busy and we didn’t even get home until after 9:00 pm.
I did switch the laundry at that point, but that was all because I was exhausted and wanted to go veg out and go to bed. Last night was more of the same. We didn’t get home until after 8:30 at which point I cooked Master dinner, took some cough medicine (hydrocodone is serious stuff!) and went to bed. Master says I sat on my computer when I could have been doing laundry. I guess that’s true, although I wasn’t really thinking of it that way since I was drugged on cough syrup. Anyway…
This morning Master told me he is unhappy that all I have achieved with laundry is switching his clothes around. He said he’s been out of black socks all week and I should have taken care of that and basically have all the laundry done by today, I guess. I don’t really feel like I wasted the week, but he seems to feel otherwise.
I’m just at a loss. I feel exhausted most of the time, and I like to relax as much as the next person especially if we don’t have kids. I try to keep some balance in there too. Essentially this week has been an every other day thing – Sunday (and Monday morning), Tuesday, Thursday (as I will be completing a load this evening).
We have five people in our home. I am the only one that manages clothing. I don’t mind, but I don’t know how to keep Master happy either. Is there a simpler way to manage this that I am missing? Maybe this is just a vent. Maybe I need to give up my “sitting down” time like Master says and do more laundry. He says I shouldn’t say I don’t have time to do something if I use any time for myself.
I just don’t know. I have plenty of clean clothes though, and so does he (socks not withstanding), so I guess I’m having a hard time seeing where the frustration is coming from.
Help, Suggestions, Comments, Whatever. Go for it.
Are you able to do laundry while doing something else household related? Then if it’s just a matter of returning to said laundry, try setting a timer as reminder? Or is folding/putting away of said laundry the problem? I can’t help there. I keep track of what needs washed and the washing part, J. does the folding 99% of the time.
Comment by miss leya — August 27, 2009 @ 4:17 PM
I know a lot of families, especially those with children, do laundry every day, but I’ve never figured out how. Living alone, it takes me week to come up with a full load of each category (sorted into sheets/towels; whites; lights; and darks, all on permanent press cycle — if you wash items that require cold water, hot water, delicate cycle, etc., you could have a lot more categories to deal with). My frugality rebels against having to do a partial load merely because something in it needs to be washed by tomorrow.
So, my thought is, he needs more clothes, so he won’t run out so often, and you can do laundry less often, with full loads. My solution is, buy him socks.
As always, opinions differ; some people would rather do a little bit of something every day, others would rather make a big effort once a week and then not have to mess with it the other days. I’m the second kind, and it sounds like you are too, so you should try to adjust your schedule to accommodate how you work best. For a once-a-week effort to work, everyone needs a full week of clothes, plus a day or two to wear while the laundry’s being done.
And taking a medicine with an opioid in it is definitely an valid excuse for passing out, as far as I’m concerned.
Comment by Michael — August 27, 2009 @ 9:48 PM
oh yea. does he have 2 weeks worth of socks?
Comment by miss leya — August 27, 2009 @ 10:42 PM
Honey, socks are really cheap. Get him to buy more pairs.
I know you want to do the best you can, but maybe with the exhausting job and managing the household and all, you just can’t physically do any better than wait until the weekend to do the laundry.
If you don’t have time to relax, you’ll burn out, and a few pairs of socks are not worth it. Buy more.
Comment by Haron — August 28, 2009 @ 4:36 AM
You need sitting down time (because otherwise you will be useless and all broken) and two-three weeks worth of exactly the same black socks.
And five people is a lot to be washing for with no help. Could there be some help folding? Or could there be a system of baskets for people to use so that the colours all get sorted before you have to think about it?
Comment by Poppy — August 29, 2009 @ 4:01 AM
What everyone else said. Laundry during the week is a luxury. It takes at least 75 minutes to wash and dry a single full load, so unless you have time and energy at the end of that time period to fold it and put it away, don’t even start it.
(That being said, I often let the clean laundry sit around in baskets all day. But that causes wrinkling, as you know. And sometimes I do get to the end of folidng and Just. Can’t. Do. Anymore. and end up asking Chris to help. I usually feel bad about this because I consider it one of my most-hated chores, it just happens.
And, there are only three of us. And, I don’t have to commute to work. And I can move laundry around during the day when I walk out the home office. Still, rarely gets done.
And buy more socks.
Comment by sparkle — August 29, 2009 @ 7:42 AM
Buy more black socks. And then just check to make sure socks get thrown in with every color load you do manage to get done.
Comment by munchkin — September 1, 2009 @ 9:49 PM