When I’m not making cupcakes I am swearing at appliances
Here is an illustration which sums up my weekend. We had a mountain of dirty laundry — a huge stinky mountain that threatened our physical beings any time we went near it for fear it may topple and smother us (what a way to go!). So Saturday was the day to get it done. I want to confess that even though I have what could loosely be categorised as a crafty/domestic-life blog and Martha Stewart does get a bit of air time here, and I do put up the occasional recipe or talk about cushions and quilts… I really, really dislike housework. I would much rather be reading blogs about other people avoiding housework by having interesting lives, so it only gets done under great sufferance. Things were getting pretty desperate by the weekend. Clothing items were coming out of my wardrobe which haven’t seen the light of day since 2001. I tried to kid myself that I was looking kind of cool and retro… hm. The washing machine ran for a solid eight hours on Saturday. Because our backyard is still a work in progress, we only have a tiny little line so most of the washing went straight into our evil, energy sapping dryer. It’s an old dryer which we inherited from Paul and Lara some time ago, and I think it may have seen better days. I shouted so many bad words at that dryer over the weekend. I kept appearing from the laundry red faced with a new tale of dryer-terror. Torn shirts, twisted towels – still wet after ninety minutes. Etc. Anyway, that was my weekend. Laundry and anger.
We *so* had the same weekend! Ugh — it’s the pits.
Here’s hoping for some good appliance karma soon!
I swear it worked when we gave it to you. Good as new, it was. Perfect nick, only used by a little old lady who used it to dry her church clothes every Sunday.
Nice blog you have, I really love your illustrations!! :)I totally understand what you mean about housework and mountains of dirty laundry. There’s one just right behind me…
Being a guy who would rather spend time readnig others’ blogs like yours, makes for a poor but real excuse! LOL
You have my sympathy, empathy, all of that. I have a washer/dryer that sometimes stops for a rest and doesn’t spin out the water. I never know what I’m going to find when I open the door. Its one of those intermittant faults, it doesn’t matter how many times its repaired, it makes no difference. I have been so desperate that I have been seen hanging the soaking wet washing out on the line and hosing it down to get rid of the soap!
That’s the part of moving out of home and into my new house (yay!) that I am NOT looking forward to.
If it wasn’t for the fact that I wear a uniform, I would wear everything I own before getting round to washing (unless someone miracuously (sp?) does it for me).
oh yeah oh yeah. hate housework, love to blog and ignore housework.
i notice on your side bar you listen to safran – love his stuff.
A little quote that I haev always tried to remember in these types of situations that you describe; “A clean house is the sign of a mis-spent life”. Just a thought. I LOVE the artistic rendition of the relationship you have with the dryer from h*ll, what a laugh.
I thought that wet weather and not being able to dry laundry was a particular problem in the UK. Obviously not!
When Gramma and Gramapa married in the late 30’s the only form of dryer was the clothesline. Diapers and (gulp) homemade pads were all washed by hand….daily. Indoor plumbing wasn’t introduced till the middle 50’s. even with all those inconveniences she was an immaculate housekeeper. The German in her. This is a gene I did NOT inherit. Amazingly with all the appliances out there I still don’t have time to have the perfect kept house. How can that be? Now that I feel as guilty as I do….I need to go dust. P.S. As long as you can see the floor and can find a place to sit without moving piles, your all doing just fine. :o)
I do sympathize!Myself, I have a funny relationship with laundry. I don’t mind sorting and washing, but when they come out of the dryer in a big tangled heap I kind of give up on it. I lose every trace of motivation in my body. I am one of those unfortunate souls who is likely to live out of two laundry baskets: one filled with clean, the other filled with dirty.
True story. My friend Liz gave away a dryer because it didn’t dry properly. The recipient said it worked perfectly after removing the years and years of lint that she had never remembered to do.
NOT that you do that, it just reminded me of that funny story.
That’s sucky and frustrating. But what a fabulous illustration that came out of the experience!
I enjoyed your illustration. Sounds like the kind of weekend I had. Same thing. Machine wouldn’t cooperate!
I have been away for a long time & when I got home to check out my favourites (of which your’s is one) I couldn’t find Penelope anymore. What’s happened?
Hi yes washing is a boor, and cleaning worse, but I want to tell you about the wonder of a washing line that has been hung with an eye to the art of washing. All the shirts upside down and trosers and skirts hung from the wast band. When the wind blows and the clothes and the wind dance together its lovely. I think that befor feminision it hanging out the washing may have been an moment when women could express creativity. sorry I cant spell. Tina x
.. and then once the clothes are washed there is the putting away of the clothes to look forward to! Most of the time our clean clothes stay draped over a sofa until I have a hissy fit and demand everyone grabs their clothes and puts them away. ‘Aint no-one happy when Mum’s unhappy.
Oh, what I wouldn’t give for a washing machine and dryer to swear at… I’m terrified that we still won’t have one when our baby arrives and that we’ll still be traipsing off to the laundry mat. The horror!
I’m one of those weird people thats loves cleaning but even I hate washing clothes. My washing machine is constantly on the go, Danny is two and wears fifteen billion shirts in a day 🙂 I try to avoid the dryer whenever possible but living in the north of England we only get about 2 dry days a week ! So like you most of my laudry days are spent shouting at the appliances and wondering how the dryer can get so hot and yet not actually dry the clothes:(
Our washing machine used to playt up like your dryer. We always found making a phone call to Retravision and getting a quote for a new washing machine within earshot of the non-working machine always did the trick! I really do believe now that household appliances are living, breathing things.