My dryer is broken. It has been for several weeks.The one appliance repairman here (who came out of retirement because no one else is around) has been here. He managed to get the dryer running again, but hasn't figured out how to keep it running. He'll be back when he has answers.
Anyway, it has been a good thing for me, now that it's spring and getting warm and windy out. It's actually kept me a little more organized that usual. One or two loads a day keeps us on top of things. There is only so much room on the line outside. But it does make me wonder how we can always have one or two loads a day. I used to spend all day on the weekends doing laundry load after load because we let it all pile up during the week. Now I'm keeping it up to date by doing it daily (or almost daily) but as soon as I get all the baskets empty, someone inevitably throws something in there again.
My oldest is doing his own laundry now. It's helpful. My youngest three haven't quite started yet, but it's in the works. My husband will do a load if it's desparate, but his level of tolerance for wearing smelly clothes is way higher than mine, so I inevitably just do his clothes myself.
I tried doing the math yesterday. The answer to the problem is six, I suppose.
Six pairs of underwear a day.
6 pairs of socks a day.
6 napkins a day.
6 placemats (though I bought a set of vinyl ones that can be washed when the table is wiped... why'd I take so long to figure that out? Now we can give the sadly wearing out cloth ones a break)
At least 6 towels a week (more because I myself use two per shower) and more than that if they find their way into the bedrooms and don't get hung up for reuse.
Several face cloths a week.
5 sets of sheets every week or two
Blankets that seem to always smell like the dog.
And then all the pants and shirts that sometimes can be worn more than once, sometimes not...
So, that equals, at a conservative estimate, 6,000 pieces of laundry per week. I have almost 200 clothespins, and sometimes that isn't always enough for the day.
Conclusion:
I don't have too much laundry, I have too much family.
