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DIRTY LITTLE SECRETS
The “laundry room” in our house was in the unfinished part of our basement. It was more like the laundry “area” and as a kid, I was kind of afraid to go down there.
It was dark, cold and in my mind crawling with spiders, making the task of doing laundry even harder than it had to be.
My mother taught us to be independent but for some reason, she always took it upon herself to wash all our clothes. Maybe it was her way of learning her children’s deepest secrets since most of us left clues of our day stuffed in our pockets or stained on our shirts.
While I’m sure it wasn’t because she wanted to hide anything from my mom, when my oldest sister got to high school, she started doing her own laundry.
My guess is she wanted to be sure none of her clothes ended up in her younger sisters’ stacks, giving us an excuse to “borrow” one of her favorite blouses or a pair of her bell-bottomed jeans.
Regardless of her motivation, other than my mom, she was the only one willing to tackle the laundry area and give my mom a break from the dreaded chore.
When we went off to college, we learned how to do our own laundry, but that didn’t stop us from bringing a bag or two home on breaks for my mom to wash. She acted as if she didn’t mind, and maybe she didn’t?
Maybe she missed discovering things about us while we were gone, but I don't think doing the laundry was what she disliked. I think not having a decent laundry room to do it in was what she hated.
When my folks moved out of our big house and into their small condo, she finally got a proper laundry room, but still, it was nothing like the swanky ones you see on Houzz today.
She never got her dream laundry room, but I can’t help thinking a smiling strawberry, a happy apple and a dancing avocado might have brought a little sunshine into that dark, dreary corner of our basement.
Honestly, I'd bet any of our felted, wool dryer balls would have made all those loads a little lighter.
Make laundry less of a dreaded chore. Pick up your favorite, fun dryer balls here.
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