Yesterday, while basking in the glow of sending in my final edits for Totally Twisted, I decided to finally tackle the near insurmountable pile of laundry that needed folding. I wonder if that is what most "authors" do? Do they the instantly jump to folding laundry when completing a project or is that only the stay-at-home Mom/authors? Hmmm... food for thought.
Anyway... something happened while I was folding the laundry. Well, several things actually. First, I realized I really should be folding laundry as it comes out of the dryer because Hello? no one wants to sit in the living room folding 6 loads at once. It is boring. Second, I was thinking to myself, "self, we haven't had a mindless funny blog post in ages, why is that? we need a good mindless funny blog post. wonder what we could write about?" Then it hit me...
OH.MY.STARS.I.NEED.HELP.
And no, not because I talk to myself, but I realized I need help from other Moms. LOL. Specifically, I need help from Moms with a skinny husband and a pre-teen son. Are you out there? Do you fit that description? Does your sister or sister-in-law? I may have you call her and ask her this question. Moms? How do you keep the underwear sorted in your house?
Yes, I just went there. I am asking about underwear identification.
Here is the thing... Ron wears underwear size "Mens Large" and Jacob wears "Boys Large". And that is all well and good when you are in the store buying said unders because the package tells you that's what you'll find inside the package. HOWEVER, when you get home and days or weeks go by since buying the unders and now it is time to sort and fold those unders, there is a problem. Read the tag and they both say "large"... that is it. The "Mens" and the "Boys" labels aren't there anymore!!
Apparently, three pairs of unders that were in Ron's drawer last week were actually Jacob's. And there is some issue boys have about having their boys in an area where other boys boys were located. If you catch my meaning. "Kerry, just hold them up side by side.", you say. To which I respond, "whatever... I fold the laundry, underwear is random in the pile, I am not hunting down pairs to compare to. I just fold and put it in a pile." And besides, they really don't look all that different in size if you ask me.
I thought I solved this problem by telling Ron he is wearing boxers, and Jacob is wearing boxer briefs, and Andrew is in tighty whities (only they aren't all white, he has lots of different colored ones). But unfortunately, Ron has a bunch of everything and it really only works to keep Andrew's sorted because, obviously, his "Boys Small" tighty whities are way smaller than Ron's. That and Ron doesn't where stripes.
So, what is a Mom to do?!? How do I keep them separate? I can't write names on the tags, because "OMG Mom, if someone saw that in gym, I would get mocked". Please, Moms, you must have ideas?!? And while you are at it... tell me where the hell all my socks are going, because by the end of all the folding I did yesterday, there were 11 single, unique, white, ankle socks AND 11 single, unique, white, tube socks, AND 3 single, unique, black, tube socks. That is TWENTY FIVE socks without a match!! How does that happen? Do you understand what that means?!? Not only does it mean that I am missing 25 matching socks, but it also means that some where in the house there is at something like 125 pairs of socks. Those packs of socks don't come as singles, there is usually at least 6 pairs in a pack. Who has that many socks in the house? At least half were "Hanes" yet, still, no matches. Honestly, where does Hanes come up with all these variations? Do they really sell 15 different types of white tube socks? Why do they do that to laundry washers around the world? Why can't all the socks be the same?
WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO?!?
On a completely random note... this necklace is called "Daintily" and was inspired by a necklace called "Delicate Donut" by Denise Peck in Jane Dickerson's Chain Style (which I have three designs in, oh yeah!). If you haven't gotten your copy yet, GET ONE TODAY!! It is a must have.
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15 comments:
Kerry,
thanks for the laugh! The socks disappear in our house mysteriously until I look under the beds for the lost pairs - amazing what is hidden under there and how far back they go. I use a sharpie to put a dot on the label which makes great for sorting the same size (or almost the same size)
Marcia
Mmm I've given the underwear problems some thought - how about a pick your own underwear session whereby the boys sit around a pile of pants and stake their claim over which ones are theirs....?
LOL. I just found your blog and I had to comment. I have two girls and when they were little, I went with different Disney character undies -- little mermaid for one and Belle for the other. This quickly evolved into different brands. One girl is all Hanes and the other girl is KMart's Joe Boxer brand. They are 14 and 17 now, and it's the only way I can sort the laundry. As to the socks ... I keep a Single Sock Bin right by the dryer. Everytime I fold, I have about 5-10 lonely socks. And sure enough on the next laundry day, the missing socks come through.So anytime I don't have a match, I throw it in the bin and then at the end of the month I re-sort the bin and reunite all those singles.
I moved from Fairport New York to Wisconsin about 7 years ago, but I still miss upstate New York. Hopefully we can share some jewelry news in the future, but laundry talk was fun, too. (I'm a part-time work, part-time at home mom, and part time book author, too).
Karin
Ok, I'll jump in the laundry debate. I have 3 boys close in age and size and it was getting impossible to keep socks and underwear straight. And right now they all prefer whities. So... they each have their own brand to wear. DS #1 gets fruit of the loom, DS #2 gets Hanes, DS #3 gets whatever is left (Target? Old Navy? whatever I can find that is not Hanes or FOL, poor child). Give it a whirl!
I have to confess with my son and husband in the end I put my foot down and said unless they were willing to do their own luandry - haha -then they had to pick seperate colours and stick with them for socks and pants. One got black the other got grey which worked pretty well for years. Oh and I hit 34 single odd socks once of those 23 belonged to my daughter!
VERY funny ... i am at the same task... and i can relate... i end up with piles of orphan socks... and then i save them hoping that my next batch will create reunions - but it almost never happens! i know that we are bare feet people... so that when you come in the house (if you aren't still wearing flip flops even though it is cold out)they just get kicked off - for some like they are going for a field goal... ah, the undies dilemma... on the same page there too - i have to admit, the grown up wash gets done separately... makes it easier... and when i pull out the large load, because the clothes are larger, it folds up so quickly! small pleasures... excited to see the book...
This IS an issue! We do what Meredith does--different brands for different boys. But my favorite is to just leave all the boxers and socks in the laundry pile. They eventually run out, so eventually have to make their way to the pile and do their own sorting...
Kerry thank you for the giggle......I totally needed that today :-)
Oh, yeah...totally loving that book! It is so cool to see work by people I "know" (okay, at least I like to think I might somehow know you!)
Sorting 6 piles of laundry...LOL! I used to do that...and then one day my hubby said that he wanted to take over the laundry duties because he hated those piles...and the subsequent wrinkly undies that went along with it...and I washed my hands of that little duty forever! (Note: this was B.K... before kids! But he still does it faithfully every Sunday, and I still don't have anything to do with it! My point being...if you screw up the underwear sorting duties long enough perhaps the underwearing boys and men will take on the duty of at least sorting and folding their own! Worth a thought...) Enjoy the day! Erin
Fold a pile and LET THEM COME TO COLLECT THEIR OWN UNDERWEAR!! Or better yet, make each person in the family responsible for folding one basket of laundry. We did that in our house starting last month and it's working wonderfully. Except me - I don't have to fold because I DO THE LAUNDRY. Come on, Kerry. They have to learn!
PS. I'm not being judgemental, and sorry if it sounds like I am. Love your blog - and your jewelry.
LOL. Fun post Kerry. I have a similar problem. My daughter is growing older and now our clothes are similar sizes. My husband does the laundry so I am finding my daughter's clothes in my drawers and my stuff in hers. I think my husband has about given up and now tends to leave them for me to sort. Of course if he read the labels he would realize that I'm not a size 14 and she's not a size Small. The best was when I found a pair of my cargo pants in my son's drawer. My husband didn't even try on that one.
ROFL! Thanks for the laugh. I have a laundry monster growing in my laundry room and I am afraid to go in there and tackle it. I just have the one boy in the house so underwear matching is not an issue for me. Also, I made my husband do his OWN laundry...which may be why I no longer HAVE a husband, but I was NOT dealing with skid marks. No way. Oh, and if you find out where the socks are going, let me know because I have like elventy-billion singletons that need their mates back!
Kerry, this was one funny post...oh, the things you'll talk about - who would have ever thought, UNDERWEAR! I thought I could relate as a stay at home Mom, but well, Randy's underwear could never be mistaken for the boy's! :-) You really had me laughing at this post...has Ron read it yet? I wonder if his cheeks turned pink! I can totally relate to the 6 loads all piled up...I probably have more. And the socks...I was just sorting them tonight - tons of extra black and whites...it's a mystery and a universal problem.
Oh. My. Gosh. Thanks for the laugh! I can relate, not with underwear--but with socks. They all look the same for us girls--the white ones at least.
Can you buy different brands of undies for the guys--Hanes, Fruit of the Loom, etc, or just put a tiny colored dot on the inside of each pair--one color for each person.
I always have my kids crawl under their beds, look between the sheets etc. for their socks. Even then we never find them all.
On another note (though similar) I once sewed the corners of each persons underware together loosly, so on the morning of April Fools Day they all came out of the drawer together. Hubby took it the hardest since he gets up at 5:00 AM. Maybe not the best trick for that early in the morning, but I got a good laugh!
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