Laundry woes.....

My son, like so many others, got laid off and was in a mess. He’s a single dad, raising his 3 year-old daughter, so I told him he could move it for a while until he got on his feet. It was a huge adjustment for me since I’ve lived alone for so many years. Not to mention the stress level for my dog.

He was actually pretty good while he was here. He remembered to put the toilet seat down every time and I didn’t have problems with him hogging the remote because he had his own TV set up in the downstairs family room. He took it upon himself to get my yard in better shape and actually got on the roof and cleaned out the eaves. My yard hadn’t looked this good in a long, long time. He washed down my house and cleaned out the garage. He even cooked some meals and had them ready when I got home from work. It was kind of nice….until he took it upon himself to do MY laundry.

Oh merciful heavens! What that boy did to my laundry I will never know. HE doesn’t even know. He does know enough to separate whites from darks and he did that, but along the line something went terribly wrong. My whites are not too bad, although not as white as I’d like them. My daughter has since re-washed them all and brightened them back up. Its my lightly colored clothes that have suffered the most. They are dingy. Just no other way to put it….dingy. And I won’t wear them like that. I think maybe a three-year-old sized pair of blue jeans may have found their way into that load of my light colored. They could be easily missed and would do their dirty work just as well as a big sized pair. But what happened with the rest of the loads is only speculation.

My daughter is coming over while I’m at work and is trying to rectify his error. There are about 4 or 5 loads of clothes involved. It remains to be seen if she can accomplish this or not. I certainly hope so as there are some nice clothes affected, not to mention a majority of my bath towels and even a set of sheets. The white ones are light gray. Ughhhhh! I do have some Oxy-clean….so we will certainly put it to the test. Any suggestions??

I also had to throw away a navy blue sweater I’d only worn one time because it looks like bleach was spilled on it. No matter what, it was totally ruined. The spots were too big to even use the magic marker trick. I had to tell him that I appreciated his gesture, but to stop washing MY clothes.

So, even though men are great for doing all that nasty outside work, they are like bulls in china shops in the laundry room. I appreciate what he tried to do, but am a little miffed at MYSELF for not teaching him better…..or else…did he just decide on his own to take some short cuts? He would never admit it to me if he did.

However I am proud that he is raising his daughter; he has found out that its not easy being a single parent. I will give him another talk on how to sort laundry before he leaves. He is now in the process of moving out so he can be all settled before winter sets in. I’m glad I could help him out when he needed it but I’m also glad to have my privacy back so I can once again leap merrily from room to room adorned only in my birthday suit……..yeah, right. LOL