Dirty Little Secret

Last week I went out to dinner with some girlfriends to celebrate one of them turning 31. We had a fun, relaxing time, and it was so good to catch up and reconnect with my sweet friends.

Sometime during our evening, I confessed a dirty little secret: during my first trimester of fatigue and sickness, I had let laundry get WAY out of control - and it had stayed that way, even when I started feeling better. When I mean out of control, I mean not just a load or two behind. I mean that the entire guest bedroom off the laundry room had become FILLED with clean, unfolded laundry! The entire queen-sized bed was no longer visible due to the giant mounds of laundry, and there were overflowing baskets on the floor. The top of my dryer was full, too, along with every bit of hanging space I had available. The problem became embarrassingly, overwhelmingly huge. Everything was clean, we just didn't know where any of it was! We wasted so much time digging through "the pile" to find matching socks or a pair of underwear, and almost every dresser drawer in our house was completely empty. The girls got used to me saying, "I don't know where your nightie is, go dig through 'the pile' and find something!"

In all of my years of laundry-doing, it had NEVER gotten this bad. Occasionally Ray or I, and sometimes even the girls, would try to get in there and get some of it folded when we had the chance. But then the folded stuff would just get re-buried into "the pile" when another pair of socks had to be found. "The pile" had become a beast that I seemed incapable of taming!

I shared this with my friends, feeling like I was getting a deep, dark secret off my chest. They were not shocked by my secret. They remained calm. I felt no disdain from any of them. It seemed, in fact, that perhaps my little secret was not so completely abnormal. They simply suggested that I find a day when I could have "fold laundry" be the ONLY thing I put on my to-do list for that day, then go to it.

So this past Friday was "the day". As soon as Ally was off to school, I prayed that God would bless my efforts as I went to work, folding and sorting like a mad woman. It took me most of the morning. I discovered clothes I had forgotten we had. I found a couple of Ray's sweaters, and even some of the girls' winter tights (yes, I know it's mid-May!). I lugged full laundry baskets up the stairs SIX times. I put every last sock in its proper drawer. I cleaned off the top of the dryer and made sure every hanging item was hung in its appropriate closet. It was exhilarating!

When all was said and done, I took a moment to drink in the view of our beautiful, clean guest bed and my empty laundry room. The girls and I celebrated this monumental achievement by dragging out the inflatable pool and enjoying the gorgeous afternoon outside, complete with a picnic dinner. It didn't matter to me that the rest of my house was still in disarray. I had defeated the pile! I had tamed the beast!!

Since then, I have developed some new laundry policies for myself. I try to do a load almost every day (another suggestion from one of my friends) instead of having marathon laundry days, and I make sure that each load is folded and put away before I go to bed. So simple, but it has made a huge, burden-lifting difference.

Next I will work on taming some of the other "beasts" that have taken up residence in my home of late (any ideas for cluttered counter tops?). But for now, I will take some time to enjoy this one small victory!