When you saw the title to this post, you may have hastily clicked on it hoping to find out what sordid details of my past or present life I was going to reveal.

So you may be disappointed to find that I wasn’t speaking metaphorically, as in “airing my dirty laundry.”

No figures of speech intended here. I am talking about my actual dirty laundry, my endless pile of dirty clothing!

And, I guess I don’t exactly want to talk about it. It’s more like I want to complain about it!

I mentioned in a previous post that when I became a single (grand)parent, I quickly learned that there is a steady stream of dirty clothing, sheets, and towels coming at you that never seems to end!

And with toddlers you don’t get to do some loads of laundry on Saturday and say, “Okay, I’ve finished the laundry for this week.”

It’s a daily routine!

You don’t dare let a couple of days go by without doing the laundry or you might never see the bottom of the dirty clothes hamper this side of the apocalypse!

Is there any end to doing the dirty laundry?

With toddlers you never seem to get caught up on the laundry!

They somehow get their clothes filthy after one wearing. So around here their clothes come off and go right into the dirty clothes hamper.

And even when you have finished washing and drying the laundry, you’re not really finished doing the laundry!

After the washing and drying, the sorting and folding of clean clothes and sheets and towels begin. And then they must be hung up or put away in the proper drawer, shelf, or rack.

And why is everything turned inside out when I get it out of the dryer? Does the washing machine do it or does the dryer do it?

Can somebody explain that to me because I find it quite annoying and it just prolongs the process of sorting and folding clothes?

Now, for all you laundry purists and traditionalists, you may find this next statement startling, maybe even shocking, offensive, heretical, apostate.

Who made the rule that you have to wash whites and colors separately? I just open up the dirty clothes hamper and grab whatever is in there and throw it all in the washer together! (Who would have ever thought that I would become a dirty laundry iconoclast!)

And it works….

Most of the time.

Admittedly, you can’t bleach colored fabrics (and some of Baby Girl’s outfits must be washed in cold water). But who uses bleach anyway except as a bathroom or kitchen cleanser?

I recently tried bleaching some white clothing and it does make your whites whiter, but it leaves the fabric smelling like bleach. Am I doing something wrong here?

(Since you have taken the time to read this post though disappointed that I’m not revealing any lurid details of my life, I will disclose one tawdry bit of information: It was, indeed, my underwear that I bleached because they were starting to look dingy. Yes, I know I should just buy some new sets of underwear, but I find them much more comfortable when they are well worn!)

And what’s the deal with that lint filter on the dryer? Wouldn’t you think that all the lint would be worked out of the fabric after a few washings and dryings?

But I have to keep scraping lint off the filter. And it doesn’t seem to want to come off very easily! It’s like it’s glued on there or something.

So scraping the lint off the dryer filter is just another aggravating task to prolong the process of doing the laundry!

And all those washing and drying cycles, who needs them? What do I care how fast or how long it spins? Just wash until clean and dry until dry.

Now if there was a cycle for sorting and folding, I could go for that!

Well, I guess I need to stop my complaining and bring this post to a close. After all, I need to do a load or two of dirty laundry before the day is done!

There’s so much dirty laundry the toddlers have to wear their winter clothes in the summer or just go around in their underwear!