Escape from Laundry Purgatory

I’m not a huge fan of laundry. I’ll do it, and I don’t mind it, but I’m not one of those “Yay! Laundry!” people. It gets done faster if I have a work area nearby, like if there’s a table big enough to sort through the clean laundry and to fold it on. If there isn’t an immediately convenient place, I have to move the laundry from the machines to wherever I plan to fold it and put it into piles so that it can then be put away in closets or shoved into drawers.


So at this point, the clean clothes enter Laundry Purgatory. They come out of the dryer and go into a basket, or bag, or whatever happens to be near the front of the machine. And then they stay there. It doesn’t matter if the box or bag stays right in front of the dryer or moves to an exotic location such as my bedroom floor.


The only way to shift it from this position is if there is enough dirty laundry on its way to be clean as to necessitate the use of the bag/basket, or if my two year old daughter happens to see the laundry sitting there on her way in to use the potty.


My daughter is one of those “Yay! Laundry!” people. There have been several occasions, while getting her ready to go to bed, when I have said something similar to, “Stop fussing and finish brushing your teeth, or you may not help me with the laundry,” which results in some fresh fussing at the idea of being excluded from such a treat.


She actually does help quite a bit. While I dump the clothes out onto my bed and sort them, she hops around the bed to the tune of “Hop Around the Hop” (music by Freedman & Myers, lyrics by me). Then, I fold little girl clothes while she plays her “match match” game with her father’s socks. I fold and put away towels in various places while she hauls her stuff into the other room to toss in her own personal drawer. She hands me shirts to hang up, and then, in her room, dresses and shirts to hang in her own closet.


She helps by motivating me to do the chore in the first place, then by making it a teaching and learning experience. The thing that helps most, though, is her attitude to the whole thing. Because she enjoys it so much, I do too. She distracts me from the fact that it is a chore by making me laugh at her antics and encourage her in her triumphs.


I wonder how old she’ll be when she decides stop rescuing the clothes in Laundry Purgatory.