My Love/Hate Relationship with Laundry

I've had a long standing bad relationship with laundry. It's not particularly my favorite thing do do in the first place, but there are a few things that can enhance the experience.

I highly recommend Apple Mango Tango Gain. It seriously is like the Gain commercial where everyone follows the guy and sniffs his shirt all day. At least for me. I have actually uttered the words, "Hey! You've *got* to come smell my sock. It's amaaaaaazzzzing." THAT's how good it smells. It comes in both detergent and liquid fabric softener.

Now a little on my history with laundry. Used to be, I had piles and piLES and PILES of laundry. Then I started getting rid of unnecessary clothing. I'm telling you, unless you are incredibly anal and you have birthed and raised incredibly anal children, have "nice" clothes and "play" clothes is a pipe dream. And unless you have a special place for all those shirts you think they *should* wear but they just end up on the floor and subsequently into the laundry, I say just get rid of them. I did. It's freeing.

Next, I have to tell you about my incredibly bad luck with appliances of the garment lavation persuasion. I've had 4 washing machines and 2 dryers in the past 10 years. Of that time, these appliances have probably run... eight and a half of those years? That's a lot of time taking laundry for six to the laundromat as the sets have waived in and out of various stages of disrepair.

Then.... I decided to bite the bullet and buy a brand new set. It cost me an entire season of an outhouse account to buy, but I did it. And oh did my brand-newbie front load set look so pretty stacked up in their corner of the bathroom! I was on top of the world. They are extra jumbo hugeungous capacity, have a gazillion different settings and combinations to scrub the clothes, the washer and dryer both have allergy and steam settings...Yes, that's right, my dryer has a water line and a steam setting. It came with a rack that stops the spinning so you can steam clean and sanitize pillows, stuffed animals, etc-in the dryer! Pure Awesomeness.

On to the hater portion-
Front loads are notorious for building a mildew smell over time. My washer actually asks me if I want to wash my washer after 30 or so loads. Yes, you have to wash your washing machine. And leave the door open when not in use. I do not like open doors.
Another thing I did not realize until talking with my friend yesterday, is front loads swirl your jeans around when they wash and dry them, leaving deep creases in funny places. I just thought everyone in the family mangled there jeans while they took them off. I super hate looking down at my jeans and seeing a diagonal crease from the hem to the knee of one pant leg. I have to bend down and attempt to smooth out the crease. It's the laundry's fault!

Just because I feel like a big Debbie Downer bitching about my laundry so much, another positive is they make really cute laundry decorations if are lucky enough to have a laundry room
;)

My Love/Hate Relationship with Jeans

Jeans. We all own them, wear them, dig through our dressers for the ones we actually like...
And how is this? How can we own an average of seven pairs (Surely my research cannot be accurate.. Only seven pairs per American on average? My family must own enough jeans to account for all of Pleasant Grove's population.)  Thinking of all these jeans,  how many pairs do you own that you love?
 Me? None. I only love my trailer park pants. Definition- What my husband so lovingly calls my vast collection of yoga pants. I have a few pairs of jeans I kinda love. My Long and Lean style Gap jeans are nice. They're well constructed, they taper nicely so my longer than average legs look even longer and well, leaner. Best of all, according to the wonderful people at Gap, I wear a size 6! I will happily play into that delusion when I put on my favorite jeans. These are the pair I dig through my drawers to find, kindly pushing aside the one with "issues."
Let's talk about jeans with "issues." I can't account for all issues because different body types have different denim needs. These are my three big hangups-
Length- As I mentioned, my legs are longer than average though I'm only 5'6" Average or regular length make me feel like an awkward big bird figure whose pants just never quite rest on that sweet spot on my shoes rather just suspend in midair waiting to drape on something.
Rise- There is so much wrong with super low rise jeans. So much. Even if one is beautifully toned and tanned through the midsection (which I am not), the presence of crack is inevitable. If I can't bend, squat or sit down in a chair without the light of day bestowing upon my bum, I'm not wearing them. Okay... Maybe on laundry day when trailer park pants are not an option and I'm feeling a bit confident and I'm not planning any fast moves or strenuous activity, I'll wear the crack jeans. Then I wonder all that day why I still own them because I hate them. Then they get washed, folded and put back in my dresser. And the vicious cycle starts again. Maybe I keep them to feel as if I'm doing my part in keeping the national average afloat....Not really, I'm just lazy.
Color/Rinse-I prefer dark jeans. I just do. While all my darker blue jeans have options of distressing and rinse, my children's donotsomuch.... Kids jeans have nice options. It's so stinkin' cute when there is a teeny tiny pair that look like they've been worn in all the right places, but I won't pay forty bucks for teeny tiny pants. I just won't. So pretty much my kids look like they wear the same jeans over and over because in keeping with the cheapness that is me, the jeans I buy them come in light and dark. No fancy distressing and whisping. They're okay with that. Color is a whole other thing. Being a child from the eighties, I just can't bring myself to warp back to colored jeans. Also, I'm not that trendy. And again, I'm cheap. If I can't wear those jeans three years from now, I'm not buying them. Not to mention..my husband would make fun of me, so much fun of me, if I wore purple jeans.
Well, I have decided I've grown bored with this subject and truthfully, Sarah Jr (aka Ella) is having quite the little (HUGE) meltdown in the living room right now in which my role as "Mother," I must go investigate......*sigh*