Laundry in Stuff

I made an executive family decision all on my own for very selfish reasons. We have a distinct division of labor at home. Everyone has their chores, including me. My big task each week is laundry, and the truth is that I kept this one for myself mostly because I didn’t trust the kids not to ruin my clothes when they were younger.

There’s been a recent change to the laundry, which really isn’t a big change by itself, but it was enough to push me over the edge and decide I’m done with it. The change is what I’ve already written about: Mercer’s new choice of underwear.

The most annoying part of laundry has always been separating it between each of us when I’m done. I don’t like to leave tasks half-finished, so I always fold and hang all the clean clothes and deliver it all to each of the kids’ rooms. When they were younger it was always simple to know which clothes belonged to whom.

Then with age things got more complicated. Jeans all look the same. T-shirts all look the same. Bras all look similar, and the fact that Olsen wears the same bra size as me complicated things even further. All of the sudden I am checking tags and labels on everything, and spending way too much time each week just figuring out what goes to which room.

And the kids are unforgiving. “Mooooommmm! Where’s my purple tank top!?”

“I don’t know. It was in the laundry. I remember folding it.”

And then it turns up three weeks later in the bottom of the drawer of the wrong kid. Sorry. I thought it was hers. Why do you both have similar tank tops? Why is all this pressure on me?

So yesterday I was folding laundry and realizing one more part of the task is complicated. Mercer’s underwear no longer stands out from everyone else’s. One more case of having to check tags and sizes to determine who owns what. And I’m done.

Over dinner last night I told everyone I had an important announcement. I played it up like it was a super big deal because I figured they’d all see the humor in it. But I’m also a careful planner and organizer, so I had this all sorted out before I even began the conversation. I made it official I’m no longer doing the laundry. I’ve decided to assign that task to Mercer from now on. He’s the most obsessive about details and I think he’d actually be good at it.

There was a shuffling of other chores. If Mercer is taking on this new task, he won’t have to do other things that he’s currently doing. Those chores get split between Olsen and Harry. Olsen thinks she doesn’t need to do chores anymore because she’s in college but I remind her that she’s still living here (something she clearly resents) and part of the family.

Harry complains that she’d like to be the one doing the laundry. I say no, if that happened everyone’s clothes would be destroyed within weeks. We all laugh. No one is really angry or upset. Just typical family negotiations. I have some great kids and not sure how exactly I got so lucky.