Things That Make Me Go Hmmmm : Laundry Edition

A couple of months ago, I was reading Real Simple magazine, and I stumbled over a statistic that totally floored me. Apparently, when couples stay in "traditional gender roles", the master bedroom sees more action than when couples split domestic duties!! Shocking, I know... 

[As a side note, I have my own theories on why this may be the case... Maybe I'll get into that in another blog post.]

In retrospect, one of my biggest mistakes in 33 years was sharing this tidbit with my hubby. He now very happily points out "traditional gender duties" that I should take on. Like the laundry. 

And I hate the laundry. The only certainty in doing the laundry is that I will want to wallow in the warm clothes as they come out of the dryer. The rest of the process - sorting, washing, drying, sorting, folding - is a crapshoot. 

1) After all these years, the whole "light" versus "dark" concept is really hard to nail each and every time. Take grey for example. Is that light or dark? Because grey is a mixture of black and white. Is the decision based on how grey something is? It's a sliding scale to me, and the decision is just too difficult at times. If the shirt belongs to the hubby, I just febreeze and rehang it. 

2) If lights are supposed to be washed in hot water and darks are supposed to be washed in cold water, why is there a "warm" setting? This only supports my theory that there clearly are not cut and dry categories in the laundry sorting world. Or I haven't read the manual thoroughly. 

3) Where do the socks go??!! Seriously?! I know this is cliche, but I swear I lose some poor child's sock each and every time I wash clothes. It's causing division among our family members and we are starting to suspect each other of thievery. 

4) How does the amount of clothes in the dirty clothes basket go from "I can wait another day before washing clothes" to "Every article of clothing we own is dirty" in 24 hours? When I see the massive piles of clothes, I shrink inwardly. The procrastination begins. And before I know what's happening, I am shaking out a plastic garbage bag so I can just throw them all away. 

5) Why do I run out of laundry detergent when I finally get the time and energy to wash load after load of clothes? In a mind-boggled state, I begin to question whether body wash or dish washing detergent would be a better choice? Or will hot water do the trick if I use three or four dryer sheets?

So many things in life are ambiguous. Laundry should not be one of them...