Itchy Ears

Haha, not really, I'm just giving this blog an ear-ish connection because although it does say above 'this may or may not descend...', I have until now kept it to all things CI. But I have been birling my brains about 'the washing' all this morning (guilt, no doubt) and it got me wondering... am I the only one with the problem?

I actually know the answer right off as (naming no names) I know for sure that it's something others fight to ignore and struggle to keep ahead of. I know there are others around with huge piles of clean laundry not yet folded, or worse, ironed... and put away! But I just don't remember it always having been such a nightmare. I swear the stuff breeds and multiplies when I'm not looking!

I have a little picture hanging above my usually redundant ironing-board. It reads ''Sort - today. Wash - tomorrow. Fold - sometime. Iron - HAHA' I printed it out specially when I saw it online somewhere and it makes me smile every time I see it (which after all isn't so regularly, it being above the ironing-board).

I know folks (again, no names ;) ) that don't even have an ironing-board and just plain refuse to do it. It's not like they immediately fold and/or hang either! And yet they (not saying, so don't ask) still look smashing and not at all crumpled. I just don't get it. I do still need to iron, even if I don't do it all that often (where to hang the bloody stuff is a nightmare as it is) and tend to belong to the school of when-I'm-going-somewhere-and-need-that-top.

The washing part is of course a doddle... although after 45 years of doing my own washing I still manage to dye everything pink at regular intervals. First: separate, Caroline! And I do, but then something red that has been washed five times already all of a sudden leeches out and we're wearing pink pants for the duration. But ok, separate, but ach, not enough whites this time around, I'll just shove these lightly coloured ones in... wrong again... pink pants again!

I don't hang the wash out any more... the washing machine is two flights up and lugging it all up and down every time... nawnaw, feck that. So we've used the dryer except for woollies for a long time now and it's getting so I use it for the woolies too now and then... ach well.

When first married, we lived near the same steamie my mum had gone to. It was a bit out of favour by then but still got a fair crowd of washer wummin... so me too. I loved it! I remember having been put in the nursery upstairs while mum washed, but no more than once (mum must have found some other solution for me). Such a great solution though! It's such a shame the steamies closed. Big deep sinks and scrubbing boards, loads of hot water, a boiler for doing your whites, giant clothes-horses you drew out of the wall and hung your wash - sheets and towels, the lot - to dry in the hot air blown through them (none of your tumbling) and big roller presses to get the sheets and duvet covers done in a jiffy. Plus lots of chatty women to help you fold and show you the ropes if you were new.

We moved house after a wee while and I then went regularly to one in Leith together with a pal, but it was 'modernised' and they had tumbler dryers. Just not the same. And by then we had a twin-tub... I did love my twin-tub but you had to do the work too and couldn't just leave it like we do now.

About this pile of clean laundry then. The three or four loads of fluffy, tumble-dried detritus of our wardrobes and shelves. The giant pile that deters all-comers that may or may not be looking for that particular t-shirt. I suppose I'm lucky in that I at least have somewhere for it all that's not immediately 'in yer face'. But the other side of that coin is... I can very easily and conveniently, and regularly do, 'forget' about it. I'm great at that!

I just don't remember it being like this when the kids were small... maybe I kept ahead of things better then? Dirty washing is easily hidden, just cram that hamper (and keep the lid on!) and you're golden. Of course it eventually needs to be tackled (sorted, yeahyeah), and shifted, but at a pinch, your bedroom can still look neat enough even with a load needing done. But this clean laundry pile... what do folks do with it?

Well that's also a bit of a rhetorical question because I know the answer to that one too.  You're either just like me - lucky enough to have a hidey-hole/extra room for it - or you're just like the others I know (ahem) who have it in bags behind that cupboard or piled onto that bedroom chair or (also) scattered where they threw it on collecting it from the drier - usually the bedroom floor.

I've actually spoken with people who like folding and love ironing and cannot get my head around that at all. I personally find it mind-numbing and soul destroying. It should be banned. I propose an all-out EU-wide ban. You folding and ironing lovers out there need to be protected, it's for your own good. I might just start an on-line petition, see how many sigs it gets eh?

So anyway, enough blethers for today, I'm away to do my washing.