Behind every successful woman... is a basket of dirty laundry- Sally Forth

This is one of the many reasons that I don't like laundry:
A nice fresh load of whites, fresh out of the dryer and in the two seconds it took me to get a cup of coffee.... Dog all over them.
I understand, Blackjack I love the smell and the warmth of fresh laundry as much as the next guy... but do you have to roll in it?
Another reason that laundry is a pain in my side is the location of my washer and dryer. If you did a study to find the longest path in the entire house, it would be from the main bathroom or my bedroom to the washer and dryer. In addition, my laundry room, also serves as my workbench/tool room, our holiday storage room, food storage, camping equipment storage just about everything storage room. And the laundry is as far into that room as you can go. This makes it quite a task.
Reason number three. Anyone who has teenage daughters can attest to the fact that they each create laundry times three! I am never caught up. And when I begin to relax and have the audacity to THINK I am caught up, they bring in another huge basket of laundry. Who knows where it comes from, maybe I have been doing the neighborhood laundry service all these years?
Oh yeah, I make them do their own.... between school, work (theirs and mine), social obligations, and a list of so many other distractions, this equates to piles and piles of sorted but unwashed laundry.
Either they get it sorted and then it sits in neat little piles of Whites, colors, and darks for weeks, out of site (in the depths of the laundry room forgotten) out of mind. Or the worst! They get as far as putting a load into the washer.. which sits way too long until it begins to smell... (my son was good at this one) thank god for baking soda.
Or if it actually makes it through both the wash and the dry cycle.. then sits in a laundry basket in any crook or cranny in the house, until some morning when a naked teen comes hunting for that shirt or pair of pants...the cant seem to find 1/2 hour before they should be heading out to school. The same item that I, as the mother just MUST know the location of. Because I'm the mom that's why.
Don't get me wrong, Laundry can be relaxing for me too. I love to take out freshly dried laundry, fold it, roll in it like the dog.. er not really- but doesn't that sound heavenly? However, Laundry is one of those things, where you may really like to do it, but then, it becomes so daunting and overwhelming that it loses its luster?!

OK OK- This is the real reason that I hate laundry: About 3 months ago, my washer began to go out on me. It did not altogether quit, but the laundry wasn't coming out clean, there was soap residue on the clothes and some of the clothes had white bleached-out spots on them....rendering them no longer wearable. costly.

We made a trip to the laundromat, what a daunting task, with laundry for a family of four, that had fallen behind due to fear of ruining the clothes. We were there an entire Sunday, and came home about $70 lighter in the purse. ugh! Didn't have to lift weights at the gym either...

Because of some financial strains this past year, I was not able to run out and purchase a new set. This set we bought the year I was married- it has served me well for 20 years.
I have really hard water where I live, after some Google research, I discovered that the cause of the white spots was hard water calcium deposits. I went to work, opened up the washer, took out the agitator, and using a little elbow grease and some CLR went to town on all the buildup that I had no idea existed until that moment.
I was so excited to be free of the problem...!!! Wahoo!. However, it was a short-lived party. The soap residue remained. And honestly, the clothes did not seem quite as clean as they should be. Problem not solved...
Further investigation of the washer revealed that the agitator was not ... well, ... agitating to its full potential. When the cycle would begin, the agitator would barely rotate and almost 'float' up off the stem. When I pressed hard down on it while it was in the cycle, it would fiercely chug as it should, (without a human hand pressing it down.)
After a little MacGyver style Jimmie-rigging... it is now functional. But barely. I now use liquid soap or else fill the washer with water and then add the soap before the clothes. Once in a while, still have to run the rinse cycle a second time in order to rinse them completely.
Mama needs a brand new.... washer.
This will be my first big purchase of the New Year. Have you SEEN the prices of new Washers these days? yikes!
If only I could have kept my credit score in check.. not an easy task when your income warrants borrowing from Peter to pay Paul in order to make ends meet... But that was 2008.
2009 is going to be GREAT!