Laundry

I have a confession – I love to do laundry.  It’s one of the few household chores that I actually look forward to.  Unlike bed making, for example.  There is something very satisfying about taking a load of laundry out of the dryer, folding it and putting it away.  Part of it, I’m sure, is how aromatic it is.  The smell of laundry drying has to be one of those scents that is a permanent memory.  You can be walking down the street and get a whiff of someone who must be using the same laundry detergent your mother did and it takes you right back to your childhood.

I also like ironing linens – table runners, napkins, handkerchiefs, lacy pillow cases.  I found this lovely lavender linen spray that I’ve long since used but I like the bottle so much I buy another brand and transfer the contents into this bottle. 

Ironing was never my mother’s favorite chore.  Our ironing board was set up in the garage and next to it was a huge trunk that was full of my father’s laundered, crumpled dress shirts.  I think my mother kept buying him new ones so she wouldn’t have face that trunk full of ironing. 

Ironing is one of those things that I do right handed.  Growing up left handed there are several things that I just never learned to do with my proper hand – mainly because I learned by watching and because of how the ironing board was set up.  I was forever burning my poor useless left hand because it didn’t know what do to with itself and my right hand was a little out of control.  It never occurred to me that I could just stand on the other side of the ironing board.

Here’s a great book on general housekeeping tips.  I refer to it all the time.  Home Comforts:  The Art and Science of Keeping House by Cheryl Mendelson.

She covers just about every housekeeping topic imaginable and freely admits to being somewhat obsessive about house cleaning.  Her topics are thoroughly researched and written in a very engaging, entertaining way.  Her index is very easy to use so you can find an entry easily and quickly ~ like if you have just managed to spill melted red candle wax onto your pale carpet and need to get it up in a hurry before a certain someone gets home and has a heart attack.  Or perhaps there has been bloodshed on your parent’s very expensive Persian rug and rather than moving all the furniture out of the living room, moving the carpet in the opposite direction so said bloodstain will now be under the couch and not detected until one’s parents move five years later you could actually clean it.  Not like that would ever happen in real life or anything…but if it did this book could have saved a lot of explaining. 

It’s a great housewarming present along with some nice linen water.