Of Laundry and Brain Cells

William Wordsworth once defined poetry as "emotion recollected in tranquility." The same could be said of substantive blog posts--they require a measure of tranquility and time for reflection in order to percolate into something more than a simple online journal. Not to take anything away from journaling--I do some of that here. But from time to time I also aspire to something a bit more--something that might invite reading by an audience beyond just my immediate circle of family and friends.

This, dear readers, is not one of those posts. At the moment all I can do is manage my own little microcosm; thinking about the world at large, especially in consideration of its current trajectory, is beyond my processing abilities. So here, for anyone interested, is the latest on the home front:

After a week of hanging clothes inside to dry, I am finally drying with gas again! Not only that, but my wonderful (and very smart) husband gave the go ahead to replace our aging washer along with the dryer. Here's the new set:



The brand is Whirlpool--a traditional top-loading washer and front-loading dryer, but with larger capacity than my old set. The washing machine is 4 cubic feet with automatic load size sensing, water-saving technology (which I value not for environmental reasons but for economic ones), and a multiplicity of cycles/options. The dryer is 7 cubic feet and includes automatic and timed cycles and wrinkle guard. These machines may not look like anything special considering the fancy-schmancy technology that is now available, but they are a huge improvement over our previous machines and I couldn't be more pleased.

Here's my newly organized laundry room:



I highly identify with this room. I guess it's because I spend so much time in it. I have been known to go here for many other purposes than doing laundry: talking on the phone, doing paperwork, having a good cry . . . . Getting behind on the laundry makes me feel out of control; keeping on top of it allows me to turn my thoughts to other things. Now that my week-long personal laundry nightmare is over, maybe you can anticipate a few more thoughtful posts in the next few days.

(P.S. For those among you who are asking, "Why don't you get more help with the laundry from other people in the house?" I want to be clear that I have willing helpers and one of the things I know I need to do is train them more on how to do this task. There are some aspects of it that they take part in, particularly putting their things away. But I guess the reason I haven't taught them to do more is that I am very protective of the clothing. We don't have a lot of it, and I like to be careful with it--by pre-treating stains, washing and drying things so as to prevent shrinkage, and minimizing the need for ironing by hanging/folding as soon as things come out of the dryer. I enlist help with many other household tasks, but so far I have maintained a rather tight grip on the laundry. I know I need to loosen it, though, if I don't want adult children bringing their laundry home for me to do for them a few years down the road!)