Laundry Day

Laundry. It never goes away. More matter how many loads you wash, dry, fold and put away, there is always more. One shower and you have another load.

As I was growing up, Monday was always laundry day. We washed load after load and hung them on the clothesline. When we remodeled the upstairs in 1972, Mama got a dryer! No more baskets of wet clothes.

Today, when I sort our laundry I sort the clothes into whites, darks and towels and that is the order that I wash them. Until recently, I didn't understand why.

Jerry was building a rail on my Mom and Dad's basement steps last week. As Jerry was working, we were talking about things in the basement during my childhood. I mentioned the old wringer washing machine and the rinsing tubs.

Dad just happened to mention that you used the water in the machine for EVERY load of your laundry. You just washed one load after another in the same water until you were finished.

Then it hit me! Using the same water over and over is the reason you wash the white clothes first. They are washed in the cleanest water, then the darks and then the towels. Who knew? Not me. I never got it until that moment!

Now on the day I do laundry (not just on Monday anymore), I know that I can wash the darks first if I want too and I don't even have to feel quilty about doing so!

Spring Cleaning

I have made it no secret that I was born the creative one in my family and my sister, Martye, was born with the "cleaning" gene.  Martye's house is always spotless, although she would argue that it isn't.  Her standard is higher than mine, apparently.  She can see dirt and grime when I see nothing.  It is a good thing that she is not judgmental, because if she was, she wouldn't come to my house.  She couldn't eat off of my floors, although, you can eat off of hers.  My house tends to be cluttered more than dirty.  Creative minds create clutter you know.

Yesterday was a strange day in the Bryan household.  Jerry is laid up with the reoccurring "goat" injury for a few days.  Since we had nowhere to be or nothing that had to be done, I decided I was going to do some cleaning in our bedroom.  The original goal was to change the sheets, vacuum the floors, dust and maybe, just maybe clean out my closet. 

It all started when I took the sheets off the bed.  I looked at the dust ruffle and noticed it was dirty.  Off it came, along with the blankets and the bedspread.  My laundry room floor looked like my linen closet had thrown up in it.   I decided that since the linens were all getting cleaned, that I would take the mattress and box springs off and vacuum under the bed.  While I had the bed out to vacuum under it, I noticed the windows were dirty and that led to taking the curtains down and washing them.  While all the laundry was being done, I took all the drawers out of my dresser, cleaned them out and rearranged them.  I moved the dresser and vacuumed the floor where it had been sitting.  I moved the night stand, etc. until every surface in the room had either been washed, vacuumed or dusted.

Jerry asked me if I was taking prednisone!  He thought I must be taking something because of the rate of speed that I was getting things done!

Last night, I laid my head down on a clean pillowcase in a clean bedroom.  Although everything was clean and fresh (except my closet), the best rewards that came out of my cleaning frenzy were all the things I found in the process.  I found Mother's day cards from my girls that were so sweet, I found pictures that had been hastily tucked away years ago that brought back wonderful memories and I found the mates to some of my socks that had been missing for a while.

Maybe Martye didn't get all the cleaning genes after all.  I still believe that she is creative, she just doesn't want to admit it!