Your Shirts go THIS way Honey!

Laundry Day.  I love it. I hate it.  It's a love and hate it kind of thing.

I love the smell of clean clothes - when I use it enough soap or fabric softener to make them smell good.    I especially like it when I find that grass stains have come out of Evan's jeans or the paint is no longer visible on Ciena's white skirt that she has only worn a few times.  I like folding and rolling everyone's shirts, pants and undergarments to perfection - a trade I am still working on.  I am the orchestrator and these are my subjects and will bend to my every will.

But do you know what I really REALLY like about laundry day?  I get to sit on the floor and sort laundry, fold pants and shirts,  roll underwear and match socks while watching my favorite shows on Hulu (which for the past few years has been Grey's Anatomy).  And do you know how long I get to do this?  Hours.  Hours!  So when Jon comes home and I'm watching Grey's Anatomy on the couch out of exhaustion I can tell him I spent HOURS upon HOURS sorting his dirty socks and folding his jeans.  Therefore, "please make us dinner honey.  I'm just so tired!"

There is one aspect I do not like about laundry day, however.  This one aspect actually has three different branches of annoyance attached to it.  First of all, I hate how long it takes to hang up my shirts AND Jon's shirts.  So I do my shirts first and everything is faced and in it's correct space.  Then I turn to Jon's side of the closet and his shirts are faced every which way, some buttoned up, some not, long sleeves mixed with short sleeves, dress shirts mixed with ugly work shirts.  When I'm feeling up to it I take the extra time and fix his clothes.  But lately, more often than not, I fight that strong urge that says, "Fix it! Fix it!  It's crazy! Fix it!!!"  I work as fast as I can and don't return for another two weeks.

Then, there is Ciena and her clothes.  She is not nearly as bad as her father and I equate that (right or wrong) to her down syndrome which causes her to be fairly compliant when it comes to keeping her room in order.  However, she is still a child and this just isn't always the case.  After spending laborious hours folding her jeans, matching her socks and smoothing out her undies, here is what I may find about an hour later:  Undies in a jumble, socks are usually okay, jeans rolled into a ball as are anything else belonging in a drawer and her shirts may be barely hanging onto the hangers - backwards.  Unlike my husband, I do not fight the urge to fix all, most some of these problems messes.  So I get to breathe a sigh of relief and know that Ciena's closet and dresser will soon be fixed.

Lastly, I have to deal with entering Evan's room.  Typically, he is not home when I do laundry so it's a great time to refold all his clothes and button up his nice shirts which hang up in the closet.  Then Saturday rolls around....and I just have  to steer clear of his clothes.  I've tried to keep it organized while he is home - to no avail.  I can't figure out if this is because he's a boy (equalling messy) or he can't figure out what to wear each day (equalling [the word for a guy that likes to dress really nice]).  To his credit, Evan does a nice job with his button up shirts.  But his drawers...every single item seems to be sloshed back and forth every time he has to get dressed.  So I stay away as best I can because it really is out of my control.

So yes, Laundry Day and I have a definite love-hate relationship.  It really is an all day event if I play my cards right.  I could make it quicker - but where is the fun in that?

What do you love/hate about your laundry day?