Mar 26, 2019 3 min read

There is a decorative sign that hangs in my laundry room that reads: “Laundry today or naked tomorrow.”

It’s probably one of the truest things I have ever had hanging in my home. Laundry has long been something I despise doing. To be fair, I don’t mind washing it. Generally, I remember to throw it in the dryer right away, although there are numerous occasions on which I have had to rewash a load because it sat too long.

I certainly do not enjoy folding it, and I will find as many excuses as possible to avoid putting it away. I’m not sure why that is, there’s just something I don’t care for in the process. Neatnicks beware, we often live out of laundry baskets or stacks of folded laundry piled on the laundry room counter. I’ve been working on this issue for quite some time, and throughout the winter I was much better about the task.

Recently, though, the weather has improved, and my desire to be outside has increased. Simultaneously, my ability to complete the laundry has seemingly dwindled to next to nothing. I basically ask my family in the mornings if everyone has enough laundry clean to wear the following day. If the answer is yes, laundry can be put off for another 24 hours. As my kids do their own laundry, their answer is almost always yes. My husband and I are usually the ones lacking.

Still, it was a beautiful weekend, and our family worked together to split and stack firewood in the barn for this coming winter. As wood is our primary heat source, this is a lengthy endeavor. The better part of Saturday and several hours on Sunday were spent to this end, and we are still nowhere near finished. Sunday evening, my daughter and I worked on laundry, but I usually ease into it by starting with towels. And Monday morning when I awoke, I discovered I had no clean socks.

I asked my daughter if I could borrow a pair – as I was throwing that load of clothes in the washing machine, mind you – and she obliged. Interesting to note, the pair of socks that she brought to me were actually mine. When questioned about this, she pretended not to know where the pair of socks had come from. We were all running late, so I did not push the issue.

But now I know I need to be more diligent this spring and really step up my laundry game. In the meantime, I will plan to check in her closet when I run short. Although, had I known there were clean socks of mine in there, I probably would’ve postponed laundry day once again.

What can I say? I’m still a work in progress. A work in progress that is always wearing clean clothes that just happen to occasionally belong to someone else.

Laura Zoeller can be reached at zoeller5@verizon.net.