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The Laundry Dance
February 20, 2008 3:09 pm | by

Several years ago, a friend showed me an article in Welcome Home magazine about laundry. The article was entitled, “The Laundry Dance” by Barb Warner and talked about how she worked so hard to get her laundry done.

She would pile it up on the couch to fold it but would get pulled to do some other thing and the pile would sit unfolded. After a day or two she would fold the clothes and move them to the bed so she would HAVE to put them away before she could get in bed at night.

But, inevitably, the kids would have a rough evening or there would be extra cleaning to do (or let’s be honest here, a good show on TV) and she would find herself, exhausted, wanting to crawl into bed all too late anyway. So the laundry would move to the basket on the floor of her bedroom. From there, clothes would be scavenged over the next few days until everything had been either worn or unfolded again. Then she would toss in back in the pile of newly washed clothes waiting to be folded on the couch and the dance began anew.

For a few days last week, I found myself having to resort to disposables. Was I behind on my diaper laundry? Not a bit. I confess I have more diapers than could ever fit in my diaper pail, so I always wind up with some clean ones. But over the course of several days – more than a week (I wash diapers about every 3-4 days), I had washed *three loads* of diapers and had not put them away. It wasn’t until I had washed the second load that I had folded any of them. Then I washed my husband’s work clothes, and those were nicely folded on top of my nicely folded diapers. (That was my big mistake!) And there they sat. They moved up on my bed a couple times only to be relegated back to the basket again as another day passed. The Laundry Dance was alive and well at my house.

It happens with diapers, it happens with socks and my husband’s work clothes. Having the extra loads of cloth diapers doesn’t make my laundry overwhelming – although it is impressive the amount that a family of nine can produce. Sometimes there are just more important things to do.

And so the Dance goes on…

Reprints of the article can be found HERE, scroll to the bottom of that page for information.

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Comments

4 Comments

  • Carrie said...
    April 17, 2008 at 9:01 pm

    And I thought I was the only one =) I am the MASTER of the laundry dance. The only thing that ever gets put away are the cloth diapers. I had to laugh hard while reading this is is exactly how my house works.

  • Tina said...
    April 4, 2008 at 11:13 pm

    I’m so glad that I’m not the only one doing this little dance. It’s alive and well in my home as well. I hope when my baby is born and I have to wash the CDs that I can stay on top of it. But after reading this, I’m realizing it’s probably just wishful thinking. LOL But there are more important things…

  • Makeda said...
    March 31, 2008 at 9:12 pm

    i just switched to cloth too, all bumgeniu all in one pockets for now n i wash them everyday to prevent the stink, plus i have a very small washer (portable Haier) that can really only fit 6 pockets and 12 microfibers anyway. this has certainly helped me be a bit more on top of the laundry situation, though the ‘laundry dance’ is still alive and wel in my home.

  • Jenny said...
    March 3, 2008 at 10:13 am

    I’ve recently switched to cloth (mostly bumgenius), and I wash them almost every day so they don’t get too stinky. It helps me keep up with the rest of my laundry, which had been piling up way too high before, because I have to wash diapers anyway! These cloth diapers are wonderful.