Laundry Duty

If a poll were conducted to determine the ten household tasks people despise completing the most, I believe doing laundry would rank in the top 5 responses, perhaps because it feels as though it is a perpetual chore. Granted, with the availability of automatic washing machines and dryers I shouldn’t gripe. I do have it easier than the women before me or so my husband used to say, until he started doing some of his own.  Realistically though, do I?  Is my daily grind of dealing with laundry any easier than the wash day of the past? In earlier times families typically consisted of more children but those children didn’t have the wardrobe the majority of children have today and I highly doubt they threw their clothes into the hamper as frequently!

I am wondering if that is why my own mother is so precise with her laundry. Did her mother instill in her a sense of duty to strive for perfection when doing laundry because they had been blessed with such a modern invention?  Or do I just take my conveniences for granted as I procrastinate sorting, folding and putting away the mountain of clothes that seems to grow daily? I stand corrected, the shirts, towels and jeans seem to multiply while half of the socks seem to take up residence elsewhere.

Regardless of the reason, my mother retains her title as the ultimate queen of laundry and she always will.  I overheard my daughter mentioning she had a stain on one of her favorite shirts and my other daughter quickly responded, “Take it to Na-Na. She will get it out. She knows how to get any stain out.” I must admit she is right and my mother’s skills don’t end there.  Whenever there is an occasion that something complicated needs to be ironed or “pressed” as she terms it, it is brought to her.  She has an “ironing day” that is in stark contrast to my habit of throwing a towel on the table to quickly iron a shirt rather than yank the ironing board out of storage!