Re your comment about the folding, hanging etc, - that's how I feel about cooking. I don't mind cooking but there's the menu planning, the dishes to be washed and put away, leftovers to deal with, and a kitchen to clean up. Let's go out!
I never minded the folding and hanging. It was the putting away that I hated. Arm full after arm full trip after trip carried up the stairs and down the long hall was not fun. At all. I don't even mind that in this home since our walk in closet is just kitty corner across the hall from the laundry room. Ofcourse maybe that's why I was thinner back then. Ya think? 8^}
Ellen, I'm learning to like to cook, though it's more fun when my hubby helps. After 32 years
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of marriage you'd think I'd be able to get everything done at the same time, but I have no concept of time so that's not going to happen. Ever. Oh well, my family enjoys my cooking so I guess that's a good thing.
Sweet pea, my sentiments exactly. I was renting a house that had a wringer washer in it, the lady said, I could use it, she said clothes never come out as clean as they do in the wringer washer. I tried it, with diapers...... Bull puckey!
I am wierd because laundy is my favorite household chore...keep in mind that I am not fond of any chores...ha! The secret to laundry is baskets...one for every member of the family. I kept baskets in what we call the back foyer area and whatever was left in the common area went into everyone's basket. When it was full, it had to be taken up or I thinned it out. I never made trips up the stairs with laundry or anything else as soon as the kids got big enough to carry theirs!
A local living history farm had a wash day recently for kids - they learned how to wash clothes using rub boards (or scrub boards).
Growing up, we had an automatic washer but I went to college not knowing how to do laundry. For many years, my mom didn't use the washer the way it was designed; she ran the wash cycle, stopped it, transferred the soapy clothes to containers, carried them to the bathroom where she rinsed them
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in the bathtub and hung them on hangers on a rod above the tub to drip dry. Then she added more clothes to the soapy water in the washer and went thru the "cycle" again. Maybe this was just for dress clothes (she hated ironing); I know sheets and towels went to the clothesline outdoors. Anyway it was very complicated. I hadn't thought about this in years. There are many many reasons I wish my mom was still with us - an explanation for this odd ritual is just a minor one.
Wow Ellen, sounds like she was stuck in the past and unsure of how the new things worked! What a lot of work! @Jeannette, I taught all my kids at 10 years of age how to do their own laundry, clothing and laundry got a lot more respect after that. And took a load off of me. and if they didnt have enough to fill the washer , there were always towels to put in there. Kids are so much more capable than we give them credit for.
Jeannette, I went a step further and taught our two children how to do their own laundry (they had double hampers in their bedrooms to sort light and dark) when they hit fifth grade.
Ellen, I'd like to know the reasoning behind your Mom's ritual myself. My first thought was saving water, but rinsing in the tub could have used more than in the washer. Maybe to save on soap? I'm with you on wishing our Mom's were still with us. I have a portrait of my folks just above my
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desk and talk to them often. Sometimes I get answers, but only because I know what they'd do. Never answers to something like this.
Bernice, sounds like we have the same idea about children and chores. From the time our children were walking I was teaching them to help pick up. Later we had a file card system with each of us having our own color card with daily chores written on it. When the kids got home from school they knew they could get a snack to eat while doing their homework then it was time to check their daily chore card and do their chores before they could go out and play. It worked wonderfully.
Bernice, Becky - I know Mother hated to iron and drip-dried clothing didn't need so much and we were on well water at the house where I remember her doing this. She may have been unsure of the well - it turned out to be a really good one with great-tasting water and it never ran dry.
I remember being so surprised that laundry was so easy at the laundromat near my college campus.
We have a well with reverse osmosis drinking water. Oh so good! I have had a few folks worry about our watering so much during the drought saying our well would run dry, but there's not worries about that here. And I was only watering newly planted trees and bushes. Not the lawn. I timed everything too.
Yep, after that debacle with the wringer washer and DIAPERS as the last load, I never minded piling up several baskets of laundry and 2 kids in a METROPOLITAN piece of car!
Ellen, I'm learning to like to cook, though it's more fun when my hubby helps. After 32 years ...»
Growing up, we had an automatic washer but I went to college not knowing how to do laundry. For many years, my mom didn't use the washer the way it was designed; she ran the wash cycle, stopped it, transferred the soapy clothes to containers, carried them to the bathroom where she rinsed them ...»
Ellen, I'd like to know the reasoning behind your Mom's ritual myself. My first thought was saving water, but rinsing in the tub could have used more than in the washer. Maybe to save on soap? I'm with you on wishing our Mom's were still with us. I have a portrait of my folks just above my ...»
Bernice, sounds like we have the same idea about children and chores. From the time our children were walking I was teaching them to help pick up. Later we had a file card system with each of us having our own color card with daily chores written on it. When the kids got home from school they knew they could get a snack to eat while doing their homework then it was time to check their daily chore card and do their chores before they could go out and play. It worked wonderfully.
I remember being so surprised that laundry was so easy at the laundromat near my college campus.
Yep, after that debacle with the wringer washer and DIAPERS as the last load, I never minded piling up several baskets of laundry and 2 kids in a METROPOLITAN piece of car!