Hemming and Hawing

I was folding laundry today when I saw myself on TV.  Except with a nicer yard, and I looked like I had showered that day. (I think I liked that 4 days without showering when we went camping a little too much.  Now with Big Daddy out of town...did I mention he would be gone for 5 days???  That's just about perfect.)  Anyway, I'll share with you what I saw, but please excuse the low-tech, did-she-just-record-the-actual-tv? type of video it is.  It is a miracle I can even blog.  I'm waiting for J-Girl to become just a little more proficient with her iPod before I can justify having one of my own for her to maintain for me as part of her duties for earning a weekly allowance.

I always get hit with a big laundry boulder like that.  So today I was quite proud of myself for doing 3 loads.  But as I was folding, I noticed a trend.  And not a good one.  I don't know that this is a fashion trend, a wardrobe malfunction, a sign of today's lack of quality, or some weird hereditary clothing abuse gene that is dominantly expressing itself in the hems of our shirts.  Look at this:

                                         

That's seven hems on seven different makes and models of shirts, affecting every member of this house.  Ok, 2 of the shirts are mine, and from Old Navy, but when they were being sold 2-for-1, I thought that was for price, not for the equivalent of one complete hem between two garments.  Sheesh!  I don't even think they are worth fixing.  Maybe J-Girl can practice her sewing machine skills on them...

I always save folding socks for last.  They are like a separate project with the right-side-outing and the matching.  Now I'm just loosing confidence that I should even be doing this laundry myself.  My whites are really not that white.  Especially the males' socks.  I have long called Big Daddy a "dirtologist" because he is forever assessing the attributes of the soil in various locales for the purpose of building dirt jumps for his bicycle.  "Mmm.  That there is some good dirt.  Packable.  Not too dry.  Mmm hmm.  Stomp, stomp.  This could be perfect.  Reminds me of Virginia..."  He comes home with filthy socks that I don't wash with the whites.  They go in with the "browns" where the dinginess won't plague the load.  And J-Boy, well, he just takes off his shoes sometimes and walks around school or whatever in socks only.  Choose your battles, right?  Today I had an "a-ha" moment.  Why do some socks come with gray bottoms?  Oh!  So they look like they're supposed to have gray bottoms when they get gray bottoms.  But how do you stop them from getting gray bottoms without sending a bunch of Clorox into the environment?  Ugh.  Look at what I tried to match up today.  Disgusting!

                                          

Maybe I'll try some OxyClean.  I'm really not worried about bringing these things back to their original splendor.  But when they are holey and ready for replacement, I'd be willing to try something new on the new.  I feel it's kind of a rhetorical issue, but if you have any hints, tips, secrets of the trade, I'm all ears. 

Comments

[Nonnie]

Nonnie got so excited by the last 3 or 4 blog entries that she actually tried to type comments right into the blog text! Alas, that didn't work. This way isn't going to have the immediacy of her response, but here goes anyway...
The laundry ball--Wow! The woman does look like you! Loved the video. I wonder if they owe a debt to the artist who made the Bra Ball a few years ago? Did I send you a postcard picture of that? One of your and several of mine were sent to contribut to that project, along with hundreds of others from women all over the U.S.
Other laundry comments: When I first saw your stack of open hems, I thought perhaps someone had inherited the family habit of chewing on the edges of clothes. I'm not going to name who it was--I'd have to go through too much self-analysis on whether or not it was my fault... But, I don't see any harm if J-girl wants to practice her sewing skills on those hems. As for the socks, just buy them with grey bottoms from now on; it's not worth the time or effort to try to make them white. When they're inside the shoes, it won't show, and when someone's walking around in them without shoes, they won't be white anyway.

[Alisa]

Wow. I don't think I ever think that hard about laundry. I like to line dry my clothes. Does that count as thinking??
Those hems are harsh.
Um? 6 months worth of dirty laundry?
I always tell John if I ever disappear, just look for me in the laundry pile. That and I'm probably going to die while doing laundry.
I have heard Oxy-Clean is great. It seems cheaper too? Maybe not though.
Good luck, I'm one of those freak moms that love to do laundry. But I bleach. I do bleach. John's feet demand I bleach our socks.