Fold Your Laundry

The dryer is done. 3/30/25 dwm

 It's national fold your laundry day. A cosmic reminder that it's not enough to do your laundry, if you don't finish the job by folding and putting it away.

 

 The folks behind nationaltoday.com consulted experts who say it takes a person 20 minutes to fold their laundry. That seems like a long time to me, I'd estimate half that but putting it away on hangers or in a dresser is only a few more minutes.

 

 I don't recall doing laundry until I went to college. The trick while living in the residence halls was knowing when to do laundry. Sunday nights were a busy time around the communal washers and dryers, so I found different times, like mornings on the weekend.

 

 My fondest laundry memory was when we lived in Pierre, South Dakota. We took turns doing laundry, I'd take the baskets and a bag or two to the laundromat where I'd load the dirty clothes into two or three washing machines.

 

When the wash cycles finished, two large dryers finished the clothes within the hour, then it's time to fold and put away for the trip home.

 

Yesterday's first load of laundry. dwm

After the kids came along and we were living in north Wisconsin, we had a washer and dryer in the basement which made it easier to wash clothes. On football Saturdays, I discovered that once the first load in the washer was done, every cycle in the dryer took 90-minutes, which coincidentally was long it takes to play a half of football. 

 

There was a lot of laundry to with two boys in the house back then, on some days I started laundry in the morning and finished after 10 at night. 

There's less laundry these days. It feels good to get it done and have clean clothes for the week ahead. 

 

I've heard keynote speakers talk about the importance of making your bed first thing in the morning, so you can start by successfully finishing a job. I get that seem feeling of satisfaction when the basket is empty after clothes are put away, and ready to receive the next batch of dirty clothes.