I should have taken a before and after picture

Preface: As many of you know, it has been a life-long challenge for me to discover the zen in the art of homemaking. Sooooo…

Yesterday when they got to the part in Relief Society meeting in which the sisters shared good news I turned to my friend and admitted the following: “I can’t say this out loud, but my good news is I finally got all the laundry folded and put away.”

Trust me, the washing is the easy part

For those of you who have it together (that would probably mean all the rest of you), that may be a daily or weekly occurrence. But not chez moi. I’m really good at washing it, but then it just piles up waiting for attention. It had spilled out of the laundry room an into the family room in the form of a mountain of mostly folded towels sheets, odd socks and hand-me-downs gathering dust on our second-hand pool table. My goal for the weekend was to clean it off entirely, find a place for everything and put everything in its place, and match all the socks–with the added treat of tossing any that didn’t have mates in the trash.

One of the biggest challenges was the socks. I do believe the first thing out of my mouth when I get to the other side is, “Where are all the other socks?” I remember hearing my mother recounting a funny story about my dad when I was growing up. They went to the local appliance store to purchase a long-awaited new washer and dryer. (As there were six of us kids you can imagine she had even more laundry than I do.) The salesman asked my father what kind of washer and dryer he wanted–enumerating the virtues of many of the newest models. My dad simply said,

I want the one that doesn’t eat socks.”

Aside from the socks there were enough towels to mop up what’s left of Felix. I don’t know how we inherit towels, but between car washes, kids playing on our slip-n-slide, my propensity for saving things for rags as well my not being able to resist the brand spanking new perfectly white towels and washcloths my grandmother was giving away when she downsized into The Jamestown, I’m getting buried.

There are also an awful lots of items that are just sitting around waiting to go to D.I. and find a good home. These tend to hang around longer than they should because I can never seem to find a big enough bag or box in which to put them. Luckily I happened upon a roll of huge leaf bags and now there are two of them completely full of clothes (and even some of those extra towels) ready for D.I.

I’m happy to say the pool table is bare and ready for play. There is once again both floor and some counter space in my laundry room. And I now have a place to hopefully go to work on some too-long-put-off quilting projects.

I still have a couple of rooms (hint: ~j, you are not the only one) to tackle in my quest for some semblance of order. But there is some light at the end of the long dark tunnel. And that my friends, is indeed good news!